Element of Surprise

Here's one for the road....

Once upon a time I was a student and we bashed atoms together.

Well, I still do it but the difference now is I get paid for it.

One of the strangest (and funniest) incidents occurred at LASL (Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory) in New Mexico, USA.

We were doing my thesis, smashing atoms into heavy nuclei. Amongst the elements used were Ruthenium, Molybdenum, Cadmium, and , err... Palladium.

This last element gave us an element of concern.

In the calculations, we need the EXACT masses of all the stuff we bash.

Unfortunately, Palladium turned in an element of surprise.

I remember it quite clearly.

There is a very famous "table of the Nuclides", published in Schenectady, USA, a sort of "bible" wallchart that gives information about everything ever measured about every isotope of element.

In that element, when I consulted it, there was a blank space where Palladium 114 should have been. No-one had officially measured the mass of it.

Without it, my thesis was dead in the water.

So what did we do? WE measured the mass ourselves.