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Biography Of Glenn T. Seaborg

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Glenn T. Seaborg was born into an educated family in Ishpeming, Michigan in 1912. When Seaborg was ten, in 1922, the family moved to California in order to seek new opportunities. In high school, he had no exposure to science and, therefore, little knowledge of its possibilities (290). Dwight Reid, the teacher of his first chemistry course captured his imagination and caused him to realize his passion. After graduation, he attended the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), due to its free tuition and his family’s financial situation. Financial hardships were common throughout Seaborg’s childhood and early adulthood due to the Great Depression. However, these financial barriers exhibited throughout the book represent his ability …show more content…

Adventure’s in the Atomic Age displays the idea that financial barriers and difficult courses should not be what is stopping someone from being successful in the field of science. “Scientists would feel a sense of purpose and inner satisfaction even if their efforts were not important to the world in which we live. In actuality, of course, there is no group of persons on whom society as a whole depends so heavily” (292). Seaborg began working with one of the pioneers of nuclear medicine, Joe Hamilton, while attending Berkley. Hamilton needed a radioisotope that had a half-life long enough to be useful in dealing with in the human body; a half-life that was about a week. Seaborg and his long-time friend and partner, Jack Livingwood, used targets of tellurium and bombarded it with deuterons and some with neutrons to reveal iodine-131, which had a half-life of eight days. This element held major sentimental value to Seaborg due to its aid in his mother’s cure of hyperthyroidism. Iodine-131 is a major component still today in cancer treatment, particularly thyroid cancer. Seaborg and Livingwood also discovered cobalt-60, which is also a critical medical isotope. Cobalt-60 emits gamma radiation which in turn focuses directly on cancer cells to destroy it. “Hundreds of thousands of Americans have had their cancers treated by cobalt-60 irradiation, and it is also used to sterilize medical products and equipment” (36). Shortly

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