Neutrons nuclear chemistry component

How would you know if you have made a new element Neutron irradiation of a small sample of uranium could be expected to produce only an extremely tiny amount of element 93, perhaps a thousand atoms or so. Because they are radioactive, such atoms should be easy to spot with a Geiger counter. But first you need to separate them from the uranium, which is radioactive too. This is why the nuclear physicists needed the help of chemists. From its beginning with the work of the Curies, nuclear chemistry or radiochemistry has had to work with incredibly tiny samples of rare elements, and has required a skill at analysis - separating substances into their elemental components - that Antoine Lavoisier could never have dreamed of. 

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