Transuranium Elements McMillan and Seaborg

In 1951, two American scientists shared the Prize for their discoveries in the chemistry of the transuranium elements. They literally created atoms of new elements, cind then worked to understand the chemical properties of these elements. The elements they created in the lab are elements with atomic numbers greater than 92 (the atomic number of uranium) and are unstable — they radioactively decay to different elements. Very few of these elements are present in nature, but McMillan and Seaborg were able to create them in a laboratory. See Chapter 4 and 14 for more information. 

Linus Pauling is the only person to have been awarded two undivided Nobel Prizes. His first prize was for chemistry in 1954 for his research into the nature of the chemical bond and its application to the elucidation of the structure of complex substances. He developed the idea of the Pauling Electronegativity, which helps quantify chemical bonding between atoms. He was later honored for his work regarding arms control and disarmament he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1962. 

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Between 1944 and 1958, Seaborg and his coworfcers also identified various products of nuclear reactions as being the elements having atomic numbers 95 through 102. aD these elements are radioactive and are not found in nature they can be synthesized only via nuclear reactions. For their efforts in identifying the elements beyond uranium (the transuranium elements), McMillan and Seaborg shared the 1951 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. 

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