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Glenn Seaborg: Transuranium Pioneer
| Article
# : |
19273 |
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Section : |
NATURAL SCIENCE
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| Issue
Date : |
7 / 1991 |
3,370 Words |
| Author
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George B. Kauffman
George B. Kauffman is professor of chemistry at California
State University, Fresno. A Guggenheim Fellow, he is a
contributing editor to four journals and the author of
fifteen
books and more than 950 articles on chemistry, the history of
science and technology, and chemical education. |
When the first transuranium elements (those heavier than uranium) were discovered half a century ago, their place in the table was uncertain and problematic. Then, in 1944, a 32-year-old University of California, Berkeley, chemistry professor, Glenn T. Seaborg, proposed a bold new format for the periodic table.
This revolutionary idea, known as the actinide concept (see sidebar), provided a rationale for these new radioactive building blocks of the universe, many of which he and his colleagues were to predict and discover. In a recent interview at his home in Lafayette, California, a suburb northeast of Berkeley, Seaborg said, "I showed my new table to the two leading inorganic chemists in the world before publishing it. The idea went over like a lead balloon. 'Don't you do it, Glenn,' they warned me, 'It would ruin your scientific reputation.' It was just so hard to conceive that the periodic table had been this wrong. I didn't have any scientific reputation, so I published it anyway."
This modest statement is typical of the internationally known but unassuming scientist who in 1951 shared the Nobel Prize in chemistry with physicist Edwin M. McMillan "for their discoveries in the chemistry of the transuranium elements," an award that, like his numerous other honors, he wears lightly. A tall (6'3"), lanky figure with an angular, kind face, Seaborg possesses a phenomenal memory for details and speaks haltingly but knowingly about his life and work; his strong voice has a vivacity that belies his 79 years. An unpretentious man with a prominent nose and forehead and a twinkle in his eye, his only concession to vanity is the manner in which he sweeps his thinning, gray hair across his head to cover his balding crown.
Endowed with a lively and infectious sense of humor, Seaborg laughs readily and peppers his animated conversation with jokes and anecdotes, frequently at his own expense. He goes out of his way to make clear that, contrary to popular belief, science does not advance in a straight line, and, avoiding any appearance of omniscience, he does not hesitate to point out his temporary failures as well as his permanent successes. For example, in relating how he first thought that the transition series begins with uranium rather than actinium, he matter-of-factly states, "We were wrong again; we were slow learners."
Seaborg's Swedish heritage
The life and illustrious career of Glenn Theodore Seaborg read like a prototypical
...
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