[ RadSafe ] 60-Year-Old Film Surfaces, Depicting Discovery of Mendelevium < Today at Berkeley Lab

[Cary Renquist]

60-Year-Old Film Surfaces, Depicting Discovery of Mendelevium
http://j.mp/HJCOkD

A reel of black & white film shot nearly 60 years ago has surfaced at
Berkeley Lab, depicting the discovery of Mendelevium - or Element 101 -
as reenacted by some of the legendary scientists who did the actual work
at that time. Since the 1940s, Berkeley Lab scientists were locked in a
race to synthesize new elements, and more often than not, they came out
winners. Sixteen elements, most of them in the actinide series at the
bottom of the periodic table, were discovered and synthesized by its
researchers.

Retired Berkeley Lab physicist Claude Lyneis found the reel in a box of
dusty and deteriorating films slated for disposal. Using digital editing
skills he acquired to make videos of his son's lacrosse team, Lyneis has
produced and narrated an excerpt of this nearly-lost footage. It is an
entertaining and informative look at the pioneering physics performed at
UC Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's hillside campus,
known then as the UC Rad Lab.


--
Cary Renquist
Cary.renquist at ezag.com