Transmutation is the conversion of one object into another. It is most commonly used in reference to extremely basic objects, for example turning lead to gold or gold to pure energy, but can be used to refer to more complex objects as well, as in transmogrification. General Name, Symbol, Number lead, Pb, 82 Chemical series poor metals Group, Period, Block 14, 6, p Appearance bluish white Atomic mass 207. ... General Name, Symbol, Number gold, Au, 79 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 11, 6, d Appearance metallic yellow Atomic mass 196. ... Shapeshifting, transformation or transmogrification refers to a change in the form or shape of a person. ...

Nuclear

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Transmutation of chemical elements occurs through nuclear reactions. This is called nuclear transmutation. Natural transmutation is when radioactive elements spontaneously decay over a long period of time and transform into other more stable elements, while artificial transmutation is when atoms are bombarded with a stream of particles in a particle accelerator, or are otherwise coerced by high-energy means (such as in a tokamak reactor), to induce transmutation. Image File history File links Please see the file description page for further information. ... Nuclear Physics In nuclear physics elements are said to transmute when they turn into another element or isotope. ... A chemical element, often called simply element, is a chemical substance that cannot be divided or changed into other chemical substances by any ordinary chemical technique. ... In nuclear physics, a nuclear reaction is a process in which two nuclei or nuclear particles collide, to produce different products than the initial products. ... Radioactive decay is the set of various processes by which unstable atomic nuclei (nuclides) emit subatomic particles. ... A chemical element, often called simply element, is a substance that cannot be divided or changed into different substances by ordinary chemical methods. ... A 1960s single stage 2MeV linear Van de Graaff accelerator, here opened for maintenance A particle accelerator is a device that uses electric and/or magnetic fields to propel electrically charged particles to high speeds. ... A split image of the largest tokamak in the world, the JET, showing hot plasma in the right image during a shot. ...

Origin

The term dates back to the search for the philosopher's stone. It was applied consciously to modern physics first by Frederick Soddy when he, along with Ernest Rutherford, discovered that radioactive thorium was converting itself into radium in 1901. At the moment of realization, Soddy later recalled, he shouted out: "Rutherford, this is transmutation!" Rutherford snapped back, "For Christ's sake, Soddy, don't call it transmutation. They'll have our heads off as alchemists." The philosophers stone, in Latin lapis philosophorum, is a mythical substance that supposedly could turn inexpensive metals into gold and/or create an elixir that would make humans younger, thus delaying death. ... Frederick Soddy in 1922. ... Ernest Rutherford Ernest Rutherford, 1st Baron Rutherford of Nelson, OM, PC, FRS (August 30, 1871 – October 19, 1937), was a New Zealand nuclear physicist. ... General Name, Symbol, Number thorium, Th, 90 Chemical series Actinides Group, Period, Block n/a, 7, f Appearance silvery white Atomic mass 232. ... General Name, Symbol, Number radium, Ra, 88 Chemical series alkaline earth metals Group, Period, Block 2, 7, s Appearance silvery white metallic Atomic mass (226) g/mol Electron configuration [Rn] 7s2 Electrons per shell 2, 8, 18, 32, 18, 8, 2 Physical properties Phase solid Density (near r. ... 1901 (MCMI) was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Wednesday of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ...

Actinides on earth

The actinide series encompasses the 14 chemical elements that lie between actinium and nobelium on the periodic table with atomic numbers 89 - 102 inclusive. ...

Overview

Transmutation of transuranium elements such as the isotopes of plutonium, neptunium, americium, and curium has the potential to help solve the problems posed by the management of radioactive waste, by reducing the proportion of long-lived isotopes it contains. When irradiated with neutrons in a nuclear reactor, these isotopes can be made to undergo nuclear fission, destroying the original actinide isotope and producing a spectrum of radioactive and nonradioactive fission products. In chemistry, transuranium elements (also known as transuranic elements) are the chemical elements with atomic numbers greater than 92, the atomic number of Uranium. ... Isotopes are forms of an element whose nuclei have the same atomic number - the number of protons in the nucleus - but different mass numbers because they contain different numbers of neutrons. ... General Name, Symbol, Number plutonium, Pu, 94 Chemical series actinides Group, Period, Block n/a, 7, f Appearance silvery white Atomic mass (244) g/mol Electron configuration [Rn] 5f6 7s2 Electrons per shell 2, 8, 18, 32, 24, 8, 2 Physical properties Phase solid Density (near r. ... General Name, Symbol, Number neptunium, Np, 93 Chemical series actinides Group, Period, Block n/a, 7, f Appearance silvery metallic Atomic mass (237) g/mol Electron configuration [Rn] 5f4 6d1 7s2 Electrons per shell 2, 8, 18, 32, 22, 9, 2 Physical properties Phase solid Density (near r. ... General Name, Symbol, Number americium, Am, 95 Chemical series actinides Group, Period, Block ?, 7, f Appearance silvery white Atomic mass (243) g/mol Electron configuration [Rn] 5f7 7s2 Electrons per shell 2, 8, 18, 32, 25, 8, 2 Physical properties Phase solid Density (near r. ... General Name, Symbol, Number curium, Cm, 96 Chemical series actinides Group, Period, Block ?, 7, f Appearance silvery Atomic mass (247) g/mol Electron configuration [Rn] 5f7 6d1 7s2 Electrons per shell 2, 8, 18, 32, 25, 9, 2 Physical properties Phase solid Density (near r. ... Radioactive waste is waste material containing radioactive chemical elements that does not have a practical purpose. ... Properties In physics, the neutron is a subatomic particle with no net electric charge and a mass of 940 MeV/c² (1. ... Core of a small nuclear reactor used for research. ... An induced nuclear fission event. ... The actinide series encompasses the 15 chemical elements that lie between actinium and lawrencium on the periodic table with atomic numbers 89 - 103. ... Fission products are the residues of fission processes. ...

Reactor types

For instance, plutonium can be reprocessed into MOX fuels and transmuted in standard reactors. The heavier elements could be transmuted in fast reactors, but probably more effectively in a subcritical reactor[1] which is sometimes known as an energy amplifier and which was devised by Carlo Rubbia. The Mox are a alien race that inhabit Planet X, they are divided into clans which seem to be forever at war. ... A fast neutron reactor or simply a fast reactor is a category of nuclear reactor in which the fission chain reaction is sustained by fast neutrons. ... A subcritical reactor is a nuclear fission reactor that produces fission without achieving criticality. ... In nuclear physics, an energy amplifier is a novel type of nuclear power reactor, a subcritical reactor, in which an energetic particle beam is used to stimulate a reaction, which in turn releases enough energy to power the particle accelerator and leave an energy profit for power generation. ... Carlo Rubbia (born March 31, 1934) is an Italian physicist. ...

Reasoning behind transmutation

Isotopes of plutonium and other actinides tend to be long-lived with half-lives of many thousands of years, whereas radioactive fission products tend to be shorter-lived (most with half-lives of 30 years or less). From a waste management viewpoint, transmutation of actinides eliminates a very long-term radioactive hazard and replaces it with a much shorter-term one. Half-Life For a quantity subject to exponential decay, the half-life is the time required for the quantity to fall to half of its initial value. ...

It is important to understand that the threat posed by a radioisotope is influenced by many factors including the chemical and biological properties of the element. For instance cesium has a relatively short biological halflife (1 to 4 months) while strontium and radium has a very long biological half-life. As a result strontium-90 and radium are much more able to cause harm then cesium-137 when a given activity is ingested. A chemical substance is any material substance used in or obtained by a process in chemistry: A chemical compound is a substance consisting of two or more chemical elements that are chemically combined in fixed proportions. ... Biology studies the variety of life (clockwise from top-left) E. coli, tree fern, gazelle, Goliath beetle Biology is the science of life (from the Greek words bios = life and logos = word). ... General Name, Symbol, Number Caesium, Cs, 55 Series Alkali metals Group, Period, Block 1(IA), 6, s Density, Hardness 1879 kg/m3, 0. ... The biological half life of a substance is the time required for half of that substance to be removed from an organism by either a physcial or a chemical process. ... General Name, Symbol, Number strontium, Sr, 38 Chemical series alkaline earth metals Group, Period, Block 2, 5, s Appearance silvery white metallic Atomic mass 87. ... General Name, Symbol, Number radium, Ra, 88 Chemical series alkaline earth metals Group, Period, Block 2, 7, s Appearance silvery white metallic Atomic mass (226) g/mol Electron configuration [Rn] 7s2 Electrons per shell 2, 8, 18, 32, 18, 8, 2 Physical properties Phase solid Density (near r. ...

Many of the actinides are very radiotoxic because they have long biological half-lives and are alpha emitters. In transmutation the intention is to convert the actinides into fission products. The fission products are very radioactive, but the majority of the activity will decay away within a short time. The most worrying shortlived fission products are isotopes such as iodine-131, but it is hoped that by good design of the nuclear fuel and transmutation plant that this fission product can be isolated from man and his environment and allowed to decay. In the medium term the most important fission products are strontium-90 and cesium-137; both have a half life of about 30 years. The cesium-137 is responsible for the majority of the external gamma dose experienced by workers in nuclear reprocessing plants and at this time (2005) to workers at the Chernobyl site. When these medium lived isotopes have decayed the remaining isotopes will pose a much smaller threat. Alpha may refer to: The Greek letter alpha Alpha (letter), a letter in the Greek alphabet. ... Fission products are the residues of fission processes. ... Isotopes are forms of an element whose nuclei have the same atomic number - the number of protons in the nucleus - but different mass numbers because they contain different numbers of neutrons. ... General Name, Symbol, Number iodine, I, 53 Chemical series halogens Group, Period, Block 17, 5, p Appearance violet-dark gray, lustrous Atomic mass 126. ... Nuclear fuel is any material that can be consumed to derive nuclear energy, by analogy to chemical fuel that is burned to derive energy. ... Gamma (upper case Γ, lower case γ) is the third letter of the Greek alphabet. ... Nuclear reprocessing separates any usable elements (e. ... Chernobyl area. ...

In stars

Gold is actually created by supernovae, which however transmute a lot of it into lead - a much easier process. Gold is valuable, precisely because it is a rather rare product. The alchemical belief in transmutation was based on a thoroughly wrong understanding of the underlying processes. Lavoisier first identified the chemical elements and Dalton restored the Greek notion of atoms to explain chemical processes. The disintegration of atoms is a distinct process involving much greater energies. Multiwavelength X-ray image of the remnant of Keplers Supernova, SN 1604. ... Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier (August 26, 1743 - May 8, 1794) was a French nobleman prominent in the histories of chemistry, finance, biology, and economics. ... DALTON (named after John Dalton) is a quantum chemistry program. ... Properties For alternative meanings see atom (disambiguation). ...

Genuine scientific transmutation is nicely described in Ken Croswell's book The Alchemy of the Heavens. He summarised the process as: Ken Croswell is an astronomer and author living in Berkeley, California. ... The Alchemy of the Heavens is a book by Ken Croswell. ...

Burbidge, Burbidge, Fowler, Hoyle

Took the stars and made them toil:

Carbon, copper, gold, and lead

Formed in stars, is what they said

This summarises Synthesis of the Elements in Stars (Reviews of Modern Physics, vol. 29, Issue 4, pp. 547–650), by William Alfred Fowler. E. Margaret Burbidge, Geoffrey Burbidge, and Fred Hoyle, which was published in 1957. The paper explained how the abundances of essentially all but the lightest chemical elements could be explained by the process of nucleosynthesis in stars. Hoyle correctly predicted a previously unknown energy level for carbon on this basis. There is another William Fowler who was a Scottish poet and uncle of William Drummond of Hawthornden William Alfred Willy Fowler (August 9, 1911 – March 14, 1995) was an American astrophysicist. ... Margaret Burbidge (nee Eleanor Margaret Peachey) (born August 12, 1919) is an British astrophysicist, noted for original research and holding many administrative posts, including director of the Royal Greenwich Observatory. ... Geoffrey Ronald Burbidge (born September 24, 1925) is a British-American physics professor in the University of California, San Diego. ... Sir Fred Hoyle Sir Fred Hoyle (June 24, 1915 in Bingley, Yorkshire – August 20, 2001 in Bournemouth, England) was a British astronomer, notable for a number of his theories that run counter to current astronomical opinion, and a writer of science fiction, including a number of books co-authored by...

Cold fusion

Cold fusion is a process in which various researchers claim elements can be transmuted at or near room temperature in metallic catalysts. It is generally rejected as pathological science (for example due to calling of press conferences before results could be duplicated), but research is ongoing. The main experiment at the core of the cold fusion story was electrochemical (electrolytic cell), but some workers (Yasuhiro Iwamura) reported transmutation in other systems such as during the transport of deuterium gas through a palladium wall into a vacuum. Charles Bennett examines three cold fusion test cells at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, USA Unsolved problems in physics: What is the explanation for the apparent production of excess heat and helium in palladium metal when it is saturated with deuterium? Cold fusion is a nuclear fusion reaction that takes... Pathological science is a neologism to pejoratively describe the pursuit of pseudoscientific claims as being irrational to the point where they like a pathology or disease. ... Electrolytic cells are composed of an electrolyte (usually water or another solvent capable of dissolving various ions of interest), a cathode and an anode. ... Look up Vacuum in Wiktionary, the free dictionary For other uses, see vacuum (disambiguation) A vacuum is a volume of space that is empty of matter, including air, so that gaseous pressure is much less than standard atmospheric pressure. ...

Alchemy

In alchemy, it is believed that such transformations can be accomplished in table-top experiments, but this is not accepted science. Some researchers say they have found evidence of transmutation of elements in biological processes (see Kervran). For other uses, see Alchemy (disambiguation). ... Corentin Louis Kervran (1901 - 1983) was a French scientist. ...

Modern nuclear experiments have successfully transmuted lead into gold. The great expense of the procedure, however, far exceeds any financial gain[2]. In many ways it would be easier to convert gold into lead by nuclear means. By leaving gold in a high flux nuclear reactor for a long time then some lead could be generated.

¹⁹⁷Au + n --> ¹⁹⁸Au (half life 2.7 days) --> ¹⁹⁸Hg + n --> ¹⁹⁹Hg + n --> ²⁰⁰Hg --> + n --> ²⁰¹Hg --> + n --> ²⁰²Hg + n --> + n --> ²⁰³Hg (half life 47 days) --> ²⁰³Tl + n --> + n --> ²⁰⁴Tl (half life 3.8 years) --> ²⁰⁴Pb (half life 1.4 x 10¹⁷ years)