Quiz Kids

Usually the discovery of a new element is announced in a scientific paper or at a scientific meeting. The actinide elements curium and americium were announced to the world in a 1945 childrens radio show called Quiz Kids. The show s guest scientist on November 11 that year was a young scientist named Glenn Seaborg. One of the children on the show asked Seaborg if any new elements had been discovered lately. Seaborg happily shared the news that his lab had in fact created two new elements with atomic numbers 95 and 96. 

Figure 6.3 The elements curium and americium were introduced by way of a popular 1940s radio show called "Quiz Kids." The scientist Glenn Seaborg (left) appeared on the November 11,1945, episode.

The first public announcement of elements 95 and 96 did not occur, as scheduled, on November 16, 1945, at the National Meeting of the American Chemical Society but five days earlier on the popular radio program Quiz Kids. The famous Dr. Seaborg made a guest appearance on November 11 and one of the precocious contestants asked him if any... 

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