The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table

The University of California at Berkeley was for decades a hotbed of scientific breakthroughs, especially during the reign of Glenn Seaborg at the university’s Lawrence Radiation Lab between 1946 and 1961 and again in the 1970s; more than a dozen new elements were discovered there. 

Berkeley’s Cold War counterpart, the Dubna lab in Russia was founded by Gyorgy Flyorov in the 1950s, Dubna’s atomic research lab discovered a number of new atoms. This pitted it in a contest with Berkeley’s American researchers. 

Electrons, very light compared to protons and neutrons, whirl about atoms, attracted to the protons in the nucleus. The outer shell of electrons in an atom determines much about the atom’s characteristics, especially how and when it will form chemical bonds with other atoms. In such bonds, outer electrons move rapidly back and forth between the atoms, binding them together. 

The fine structure constant, 1/137, helps define the binding energy of electrons to their atoms. This constant is very precise: a small deviation, and the universe would be completely different, and life as we know it would never have formed. A question for scientists and philosophers is: How is it that the universe just so happens to have the exactly right parameters, such as the fine structure constant, to permit life?

Some atoms are very unstable and tend to decay into other atoms, releasing radioactive particles. The amount of time it takes for half of a group of atoms of a particular element to decay is called the half-life of the atom. Half-lives range from fractions of a second to eons, but the most famous elemental materials take days or weeks to decay by half, and their radioactivity can prove harmful or useful. 

Just to the left of the noble gas column at the right edge of the periodic table reside the halogens. They have seven electrons out of a proper eight in their outer electron shells, and they combine strongly with other atoms, especially the alkali metals, whose single outer electrons can complete the halogens’ outer shells. Chlorine and fluorine are among the halogens. 

A neutron is similar to a proton except that it’s electrically neutral (hence the name) and helps stabilize the protons in the atom's nucleus. Some atoms with the same number of protons can have different numbers of neutrons; these are called isotopes. Now and then, to stabilize an atom with an awkward number of neutrons, a neutron will emit an electron and convert into a proton, which changes the atomic number of the atom, shifting it to the next-higher element on the periodic table. 

At the far right of the periodic table lie the noble gases, whose outer electron shells have eight electrons, rendering the gases chemically neutral. They are called “noble” because they behave as if they are too regal to interact with other atoms. Noble gases include helium, neon, argon, krypton, xenon, and radon. 

Much heavier than an electron, a proton has a positive electric charge, making it attractive to an electron. Protons reside in the nuclei of atoms, usually alongside neutrons. The number of protons in an atom determines its atomic number and much about the atom’s behavior.

When an unstable atom decays, it releases a small part of its nucleus. A nucleus may emit an entire helium atom, called an alpha particle; an electron, or beta particle; or simply a high-energy photon, called a gamma particle. Particles released during radioactive decay can be used to power atomic weapons, generate electricity, bombard cancer cells, manage smoke detectors, and more. Radioactive decay of uranium inside the Earth adds heat to the planet.