On beyond uranium

the long version

In the early nineteenth century chemists knew of the existence of ninety-two chemical elements, from Hydrogen, the lightest, to Uranium, the heaviest. For nearly forty years scientists thought they knew what our planet and all of its contents was made of...then things started to change. In the late 1930s the world of chemical science began to discover elements beyond Uranium - the 'transuranics'. These new, super heavy elements are probably not found in Nature at all, but they can be detected, even if only for a few fractions of a second, in precisely designed experiments using powerful nuclear tools. This book is full of exciting new concepts and tells the story of the author's quest to discover elements never before known to man.