Robert McNees
Chemist Glenn Theodore Seaborg was born #OTD in 1912.
Seaborg discovered or co-discovered ten (10!) transuranium elements: plutonium (Pu), americium (Am), curium (Cm), berkelium (Bk), californium (Cf), einsteinium (Es), fermium (Fm), mendelevium (Md), nobelium (No), and seaborgium (Sg). He shared the 1951 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
Photo: Argonne National Lab
Robert McNees
The joke is that you could address a letter to him, using just the names of elements he discovered or co-discovered:
seaborgium (Glenn Seaborg)
lawrencium (Lawrence Berkeley Lab)
berkelium (Berkeley)
californium (California)
americium (USA)
Robert McNees
I have a cute little story that is sort of connected to Seaborg. It happened a few years ago.
There's this book that Seaborg edited, a collection of research papers, titled "The Transuranium Elements." The copy shown here belonged to my grandfather, who was also a chemist. I think maybe he knew Seaborg. I don't recall for sure.
Anyway, the book sits on my shelf with some other books that I inherited from my grandpa.
Let the Right Hon In
@mcnees New domain name hierarchy system just dropped!
Robert McNees
Anyway, a few years ago I pulled it from the shelf to thumb through, and some pieces of faded notebook paper fell out.
They were pages where my uncle – probably when he was about six years old – had been learning to write his name and numbers.
Robert McNees
I tucked the pages inside the cover and put the book back up on the shelf.
Last year I took them out again, to look at after my uncle passed away. He was a mess as an adult, but he was smart and curious and always encouraged my interest in science.
I had a lot of resentment toward him for the way he took advantage of people. But he also explained to a young me how a laser works, and bought me my first (cheap, but still) telescope. It was complicated.
Robert McNees
When I found those pages my daughter was around the same age that my uncle must have been, about six. I only ever knew my uncle as that complicated adult, so seeing these pages where he practiced letters and numbers – something I was doing with my daughter at the time – was a lovely surprise.
Robert McNees
I don't have a story about Seaborg here. This thread isn't really about him.
It's just a little anecdote about an unexpected connection with my uncle, who I never knew especially well but who always encouraged my curiosity when I was a kid. He swooped in one Christmas with that cheap little Tasco reflecto. I cherished it.
Robert McNees
It’s also about the pleasant realization that my grandfather, a young chemist at the time, took the pages where his six year old practiced letters and numbers and, instead of tossing them in the trash, tucked them away inside a book.
I do the same thing with all the ephemera my kid produces. My books and drawers and folders are full of that stuff. It’s like a library hidden inside of a library.
Robert McNees
My grandfather was my first scientific role model, and I love that we have this thing in common.
Portrait of the scientist as a young man, with the grandfather.
Greg Pak
@mcnees That's a lovely story. Thanks so much for sharing it.
Robert McNees
@gregpak thanks, I appreciate it!
boxofrain
@mcnees
Great photograph
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