Glenn Seaborg was a leader in the search for the heaviest elements, and element 106 is named Seaborgium (Sg) in his honor. In an article in the Journal of Chemical Education, Seaborg summarized the history of the search for the transuranium elements up to the mid-1980s (Glenn T. Seaborg, “The Transuranium Elements,” Journal of Chemical Education 1985, 62, pp. 4632467). Read the article and answer the following questions.

(a) Who was responsible for the position of the lanthanides in the periodic table?

(b) What did Enrico Fermi think was being produced when he bombarded uranium with neutrons?

(c) How did Ida Noddack’s paper straighten out the confusion about the identity of the products of Fermi’s nuclear reaction?

(d) Compare Figures 1 and 2 in the paper, the 1930 periodic table, and Seaborg’s 1945 version of the table.

What was Seaborg’s insight that gave us the modern periodic table?

(e) State the two possible reasons Seaborg gives for the fact that the “island of stability” has not been reached.

(f) Why does fusion of two elements with heavy nuclei produce only a few atoms of a new, superheavy nucleus?

(g) In answer to a student’s question, Seaborg announced to the world the discovery of two new elements in 1945 on “The Quiz Kids,” a radio program in Chicago.

Seaborg wrote, “This was the first time in the history of the world that the announcement of the discovery of chemical elements was sponsored by Alka Seltzer.” What are the atomic numbers and names of the two elements?