Hafnium, Danium, Celtium

What's in a name - Hafnium, Danium, and Celtium were all at some point names for atomic number 72.

Niels Bohr had developed a theory of atomic structure and did not believe the 1911 claim from George Urbain that Celtium was element 72 nor was Celtium a rare earth metal. Bohr hired Dirk Coster and and George de Hevesy who were trained in X-ray spectroscopy. These two were to look for an element in Zircon.

On Saturday, December 8, 1922, Coster and Hevesy determined that their x-ray analysis was without fault showing a unique element in their Zircon sample. They rushed the news to Bohr who was about to give a Nobel Prize speech in Stockholm after being awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics.

"Ladies and Gentlemen. Today, as a consequence of the great honour the Swedish Academy of Sciences has done me in awarding me this year’s Nobel Prize for Physics for my work on the structure of the atom, it is my duty to give an account of the results of this work..."

At the end of his Nobel Prize address, Bohr made a public announcement of the findings of Coster and Hevesy. The discovery that would alter the Periodic Table of Elements at space 72 was published in 1923.

The controversy between Georges Urbain's Celtium and the atomic scientists was slowly put to rest.

Bohr thought Danium was a proper name for element 72 and his choice was accepted initiallly. Hevesy agreed with Bohr on the name but had been accustomed to calling his research a task of isolating hafnium which is how Coster wanted the potential discovery to be named. Hevesy had even prepared a publication on the topic of his discovery with Hafnium naming the newly discovered element. He rushed to change Hafnium to Danium but missed the printer's deadline. The release of the publication confused the readers and those interested in the periodic table and atomic science. Was this new element Celtium, Danium, or Hafnium?

After long debates Hafnium replaced both Danium and Celtium as the name of choice for atomic number 72. 

Hafnium is a derivative of the word Hafnia which is a Latin word for Copenhagen. Urbain's Celtium name reflects the Celt origins. Celt comes from Keltoi and from way back when Herodotus used this term to describe the people to the North of the Alps. Urbain was from France. Bohr meanwhile was from Copenhagen, Denmark, De Hevesy was born in Hungary. Coster was a Dutchman.  Danium is a more liberal name in that it encompasses all of Denmark but the final choice for 72 Hf remains and will always be Hafnium.


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Resource - A Philatelic Ramble through Chemistry -

Georges Urbain

Who is Georges Urbain ?

How does Georges Urbain fit in with the number 72 ?

He was born in 1872 in Paris and became a top notch chemist and a Professor. Urbain had a passion for the arts and loved to paint, sculpt, and play music.

As a professional chemist he understood the existing atomic elements of the periodic table introduced by Mendeleev back in the 1800's. Georges Urbain and Baron Carl Auer von Welsbach are credited with co-discovering the element lutelium. Charles James is also associated to the isolation of this rare earth element.

Lutelium is a pure metal and belongs in space 71 of the periodic table of elements. It is also 71Lu.

Georges Urbain was the one who seperated lutetium from ytterbia ( yttterbium oxide ) in 1907.

Georges Urbain thought he had found element 72 also in 1907 and reported it to the scientific community as a rare earth metal. In his report in 2011 he called atomic number 72 Celtium. The scientific community tested out his claim and found that the spectra and chemical behaviour the Celtium did not match the true characteristics of an element that should fill in the 72 space. Hafnium discovered in 1923 fit that character. The scientists of this era were shifting from old school mineral analysis models to state of the art instruments like those used by Moseley when he was using X-ray spectroscopy to measure wavelengths. Not all scientists of this era trusted the new technology and the controversy over Celtium being element 72 dragged on for several years.

Georges Urbain taught thermodynamics at Sorbonne University in Paris.

One hundred and twenty years ago Georges Urbain was born, in Paris, on 12th

April. He was educated in Paris and graduated, as top student, in 1894. He obtained a DSc

iri 1898 with a thesis on the RE elements and from the same year to 1904 worked in

industry. He then followed his true vocation as a teacher, finally becoming professor of

chemistry at the Sorbonne, in 1908. His main research interests were in the field of RE

chemistry and he is best known for his discovery of lutecium and for his unsuccessful

attempts at isolating another RE metal which he hoped to call celtium. It was during these

researches that, in 1912 (three years before Honda’s landmark publication on

thermogravimetry) he converted an analytical balance into a thermobalance in order to

study materials which decomposed at a perceptible rate, with the evolution of a gas. He

established a law governing the efflorescence of hydrates in a dry atmosphere, carried out a few experiments on EGA but soon lost interest in thermogravimetry. - tmg newsletter

More....

Bohr and others who play a role in the isolation of element 72.
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Resource - Hafnium

Moseley predicts atomic number 72

This - Moseley predicts atomic number 72 - might be more interestesting if it were about James Moseley, the son of US Army Major General George van Horne Moseley, who was a ufologist and co-founder of Saucer News. However it isn't about that Moseley.

Henry Moseley predicts atonic number 72

Moseley Predicts Atomic Number 72 is about the physicist Henry Moseley who lived but 27 years between 1887 and 1915. Henry Gwyn Jeffrys Moseley was born in the United Kingdom. Henry Moseley gets his education through the Oxford system and graduates in 1910. From Oxford he goes to University of Manchester where he does graduate research under the wings of Sir Ernest Rutherford who is today recognized as the father of nuclear physics.

Henry Moseley measured chemical elements through X-Ray spectroscopy. Through his understanding of Bragg's difraction law and the pioneering technology of x-ray spectroscopy he discovers a pattern between wavelengths of X-rays and the atomic number of metals Moseley's law is the result of this discovery.

Back in the 1800's the Russian Mendeleev had invented the periodic table of elements and had predicted that certain elements would eventually be found and added to his chart. Moseley reworked the placement of a few existing elements on the Mendeleev chart. He also suggested that there were gaps or spaces in the periodic table that should identify yet unknown elements at 43, 61, 72 and 75. All of these spaces are now filled with  the discoveries of technetium, promethium, hafnium, and rhenium.

Hafnium was periodic table element 72 or 72HF and discovered in 1923.

While Mendeleev had lived to an average age of 72 years, Moseley unfortunately found his death while engaged in a war conflict in Turkey. He had discontinued his physics research and joined up with the Royal Engineers of the British Army. World War I had begun and he was an acting technical officer in communications. During the Battle of Galipoli, Henry Moseley was sending out a military order over the telephone when a sniper bullet planted itself in his head and wounded him fatally.

Moseley predicted atomic number 72 and most people agree that had he lived a longer life he would have won the Nobel Prize and many other awards. In his legacy the British Government enacted a policy of  never recruiting into action their prodigy subjects.

Mendeleev predicts the existence of an element that is heavier than titanium and zirconium.

Dmitri Mendeleev predicted the discovery of atomic number 72. Ironically enough he dies at the age of 72 several years before Hafnium is discovered and added to the periodic table of elements as 72HF.

Dmitri Mendeleev

Dmitri Mendeleev was born in Siberia in 1834. His widowed mother ran a glass factory and the young Dmitri hung out with the factory chemist.

Mendeleev's philosophy of life as a youth can likely be summed up by this Mendeleev quote.

" We could live at the present day without a Plato, but a double number of Newton's is required to discover the secrets of nature, and to bring life into harmony with the laws of nature. "

He moves to Moscow with his mother Maria some time after the glass factory burns to the ground.  When he failed to enter the University in Moscow he moved on the St. Petersburg where he began to study to become a science teacher. Maria died shortly thereafter and Dmitri develops a serious illness that keeps him bedridden for a year or so. But he keeps to his studies from home and graduates first in his class. His masters thesis was called " Research and Theories of Substances due to the Heat. ".

He teaches science for a few years and pursues his studies of the periodic table and chemical technology. Another passion of his is the workings of  Russia's industries. In 1859 he is contracted by the Minister of Public Instruction to go on a sabbattical journey abroad and to return with greater knowledge of how others are doing in the fields of science and technology. In Paris, Mendeleev studies gases with Renault. In Germany he studies spectroscopy with Kirchoff.

Back in St. Petersburg he becomes Professor of Chemistry at the Technological Institute and later he held the same title at the University. He earns a Doctorate degree after writing " On the Combinations of Water and Alcohol ". All the while Dr. Dmitri Mendeleev is contemplating the merits of the periodic charts.

His scientist and educator life was full of scholarly accomplishments yet is family life seemed to suffer a bit from his passions.

In 1869 he was ready to present his observations and descriptions of 60 elements to the Russian Chemical Society. The paper he'd prepared for this day was called " The Dependence between the Properties of the Atomic Weights and the Atomic Elements.". It was in this paper that he expressed, " We must expect the discovery of many yet unknown elements - for example - elements analogous to aluminium and silicon - whose atomic weight would be betwen 65 and 75. ".

A few years later Mendeleev's prediction begin to came to pass and add substanstially to his professional credential.

In 1923 Hafnium - atomic element 72 is discovered.

Dmitri Mendeleev stayed in St. Petersburg after retiring from the University of St. Petersburg.

He passed away at the age of 72 in 1907.     

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72 seems like a very average age to die.
The average heartbeat of an adult at rest is 72 beats per minute.
The amount of water in the body is 72 parts per 100.
A generation in ancient Egypt was 72 years.
......72 strange things ???????????????????????

72HF's sibling goes to DARPA

72HF's sibling goes to DARPA is a follow up to The Players which was a look at a controversy brewing over the potentials of the isomer 178m2HF.

How can ancient beach sand become an isomeric bomb ? Well it can't since Zircon which contains 72HF ( Hafnium -  atomic number 72 ) is a humble mineral used mostly in the making of ceramic tiles, insulators and other such stuff that is good for the economy and good for humans.

178m2HF is the little understood sibling of 72HF and while research may prove this sibling to be a very good brother or sister, there is the potential that this sibling could be a sociopsychopath killer.

72HF's sibling goes to DARPA for assessment much as any genial prodigy ends up in the research lab of some scientist who looks to understand them and classify them as good or evil.

178m2HF goes to DARPA.

DARPA is the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency and it is customarily the place where the American Department of Defense sends their prodigy's to be assessed. The DoD is headquartered in the Pentagon ( a pentagon is a five sided building with each angle set at 72 degrees ). The Pentagon is a virtual city within a city with a community of military and civilian people where the security of the USA is planned and executed.

The DARPA webpage opens up to a very surreal message.

CREATING and PREVENTING Strategic Surprise

Creating surprise is the scary part of that message. DARPA is responsible for messing with 178m2HF which could very well end up being a Jack in the Box type surprise released at an exawatt level.

DARPA was founded in 1958 to deal with the scientific investigation of prodigy's of biology, medicine, computer science, chemistry, physics, and basically any natural or metaphysical phenom that comes through the infinite influential pipe of time. Who knows....that pipe of time may just some day be discovered to be an interdimensional time travel gate such has one of the most revered prodigy, namely Albert Einstein, once suggested was possible. The controversial Philadelphia Experiment which showcased the morphing of the ship and crew of the USS Eldridge in 1943 was and remains a conspiracy theory which proposes that Einstein was experimenting with time travel.

The DARPA SIER program was a proposal put to Congress in 2004 during the Bush administration. SIER is Stimulated Isomer Energy Release. This was the response.

"Stimulated isomer energy release
"The budget request contained $339.2 million in PE 62702E for tactical technology applied research, including $4.0 million for stimulated isomer energy release.
"The committee is aware that the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) is funding research to investigate the feasibility of stimulating the release of energy stored in nuclear isomers. The committee understands that the DARPA-sponsored research is investigating two of the most difficult technical challenges in this program and that the research is being conducted in the national laboratories, the Department of Energy, the military service laboratories, and other facilities. Given the significant policy issues associated with any eventual use of an isomer weapon and given the inability of distinguished scientists to replicate the reported successful triggering experiment of 1998, the committee believes that the Department of Defense should not be engaged in this research. The proper agency to investigate the feasibility of this technology is the National Nuclear Security Administration and its national laboratory complex. The committee questions the utility of this research in any circumstances and is particularly skeptical of research into nuclear isomer production before triggering is shown to be possible.
"Accordingly, the committee directs the Secretary of Defense to terminate this program, and recommends no funding for the stimulated isomer energy release in PE 62702E, a reduction of $4.0 million." American Institure of Physics

This article from the DangerRoom called Russia's Isomer Bomb, Funded by Your Taxes looks into the potential of other countries experimenting with isomer energy.

The DangerRoom also carries an article that states that maybe DTRA - Defense Threat Research Agency - a branch of the Pentagon might have taken up the investigation of 178m2HF where DARPA left off.

It seems unlikely that the Pentagon would let go so easily of a product that has the potential of changing the way things are done in the future.

We leave at that with this strange things about the number 72 event.

Collaborators in the sibling of 72 HF controversy

Collarborators in the sibling of 72 HF controversy is a follow up to Controversy over uses of 178m2HF.

We were asking who was at the center of this controversy about the develpment of laser technology that could have the potential of releasing exawatt level energy into the atmosphere. It all started out with a look at 72HF or Hafnium which is a sibling of 178m2HF.

Who or what is Texas Collaboration ?

A group with their primary base at the University of Texas in Dallas. In 1999 they release publications with opinions about observations of the isomer 178m2HF and the potential of "triggered" high energy releases.

such a highly efficient method for triggering the isomeric deexcitation immediately suggested applications utilizing the explosive or the controlled gradual energy release from a very compact source....The 178m2HF controversy

The argument from the other side of the controversy comes from a group called " APS collaboration ".

Resolution of the controversy over 178m2HF between APS and Texas collaboration is important for two reasons states the source above.

1. The US Government could be flipping the bill for the production of the isomer
2. Can the integrity of the scientific process be trusted

I believe Texas Collaboration is warning of the potential of an isomeric 178m2HF Rapid Energy Release bomb while APS is denying that claim. Correct me if I am wrong.

When weaponry is the topic the Pentagon is certainly going to be a player.

The Pentagon is touting prospects, based on hotly disputed experiments, for a novel class of weapons intermediate between chemical high explosives and fission weapons. physicstoday

DARPA is Defense Advanced Research Project Agency. DARPA is a major player in the Texas Collaboration and APS Collaboration controversy over the effecient development and use of 178m2HF.

DARPA and other seekers of the truth of the sibling of 72 HF......read on

Controversy over uses of 178m2HF

178m2HF is an isomer of Hafnium or atomic number 72 on the periodic table of elements.

Hafnium is smelted from ancient beach sands that have undergone volcanic metamorphism. (link)

While 72HF is an element 178m2Hf is just a humble isomer

An isomer in chemistry is a chemical that has the same molecular formula as another, but it has a different arrangement of atoms. A similar relationship is that of brother or sister... you can only be a brother or sister to someone else.

The sibling of 72HF is 178m2HF and that sibling may not be humble at all.

Gamma Ray Emissions and Rapid energy releases are a few terms used in the description of a controversy over uses of 178m2HF.

72HF does have some radioactive isotopes but their half life decay window is relatively short compared to the half life of 31 years of 178m2HF isomer. 72HF's sibling has more energy potential in it than any other known isomer with long life. If this energy were released it would be in the form of gamma rays and photons of X-ray. It is believed that any energy explosion from 178m2HF would be a Rapid Energy Release measured in exawatts which operates on an exponential scale with a factor of 10^18.

A terawatt is one trillion watts. A petawatt is a thousand terawatts. Exawatts are 1000 petawatts.

All of these levels of energy have been associated to the production and use of laser technology. The first two are the measurments of current laser technologies and the exawatt is the goal of future generation laser technology - possibly a future very close.

Here's a few comments on the potential of petawatt laser technology that i found on physorg.

Petawatt Lasers could send a lightsail to our nearest star, with 1kg payload, in a few years.

Any idea on what material would be light enough to make the sail -and- withstand that kind of power density?

Anything is possible. But forget about petawatt laser technology and star searching. The controversy over uses of 178m2HF and rapid releases of exawatt energy which could make travelling to the nearest star a moot point for all but a very select few.

Who is at the center of the controversy over uses of 178m2HF ?

The Players...................read on.