Article ID: CBB001212074

Superheavy Elements and the Upper Limit of the Periodic Table: Early Speculations (2013)

unapi

Artificially produced chemical elements heavier than uranium have been known for more than seventy years and the number of superheavy elements continues to grow. Presently 26 transuranic elements are known. This paper examines the earliest scientific interest in the very heavy elements and the related question of an upper limit of the periodic system. In the period from the 1880s to the early 1930s, three kinds of questions appealed to a minority of physicists, chemists and astronomers: (1) Why is uranium the heaviest known element? (2) Do there exist transuranic or superheavy elements elsewhere in the universe, such as in stellar interiors? (3) Is there a maximum number of elements, corresponding to a theoretical limit for the periodic system? The early attempts to answer or clarify these questions lacked a foundation in nuclear physics, not to mention the total lack of experimental evidence, which explains why most of them were of a speculative nature. Although the speculations led no nothing, they are interesting in their own right and deserve a place in the history of the physical sciences.

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Authors & Contributors
Kragh, Helge S.
Scerri, Eric R.
Campbell, Christopher
Mets, Ave
Aitken, R. Alan
Pulkkinen, Karoliina
Journals
Centaurus: International Magazine of the History of Mathematics, Science, and Technology
Foundations of Chemistry
Substantia: An International Journal of the History of Chemistry
The Chemical Educator
Studies in History and Philosophy of Science
Slagmark
Publishers
University of Chicago Press
HYLE Publications
Hoepli
University of Toronto
Concepts
Chemistry
Periodic system of the elements; periodic table
Philosophy of science
Physical chemistry
Chemical elements
Physics
People
Mendeleev, Dmitri Ivanovich
Ostwald, Friedrich Wilhelm
Meyer, Julius Lothar
Purdie, Thomas
Thomsen, Hans Peter Jörgen Julius
Woody, Andrea I.
Time Periods
19th century
20th century, early
20th century
18th century
Places
Scotland
Russia
Prague (Czechia)
Italy
Europe
Institutions
University of Chicago
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