"Some recent work by E. Fermi and L. Szilard, which has been communicated to me in manuscript, leads me to expect that the element may be turned into a new and important source of energy in the immediate future. Certain aspects of the situation seem to call for watchfulness and, if necessary, quick action on the part of the Administration..."
A chemical element is a species of atom defined by its number of protons. The number of protons is called the atomic number of that element. For example, oxygen has an atomic number of 8: each oxygen atom has 8 protons in its nucleus. Atoms of the same element can have different numbers of neutrons in their nuclei, known as isotopes of the element. Atoms of one element can be transformed into atom
"It was a great achievement of the early chemists—with the crude experimental techniques available also with the ever-astonishing power of human reason... to discover this reduction of the world to its components, the chemical elements. Such reduction does not destroy its charm but adds understanding to sensation, and this understanding only deepens our delight."
Chemical element"[[w:Chlorine|[C]hlorine]] possesses the singular power of removing the of certain bodies, replacing it atom for atom. This law of nature, this law or theory of substitutions... I propose to call... metalepsy, from μετάληψις, which expresses... that the body... has taken one element in place of another, chlorine in place of hydrogen, for example. Thus is formed by substitution, or by metalepsy; it is one of the maleptic products of alcohol. ...acetic ether, , are maleptic products of alcohol."
Chemical element"No matter how properties of simple bodies may change in the free state, something remains constant, and when the element forms compounds, this something is material existence and establishes the characteristics of the compounds, which include the given element. In this respect we know only one constant peculiar to an element, namely the atomic weight. The size of the atomic weight, by the very essence of matter, is common to the simple body and all its compounds. Atomic weight belongs not to coal or diamond, but to carbon."
Chemical element"He was... the first to define the relation of an element to a compound, and to draw the distinction we still make between compounds and s."
Chemical element"[] worked in every field of chemistry. He invented many analytical processes, established the gravimetric composition of water and of air, and revised the atomic weights of the greater number of the elements then known."
Chemical element"[T]he purpose of my paper would be entirely attained if I succeed in turning the attention of investigators to the relationships in the size of the atomic weights of nonsimilar elements, which have, as far as I know, been almost entirely neglected until now."
Chemical element