Much Ado about (Practically) Nothing: A History of the Noble Gases

279 Pages·2010·1.12 MB·English

by  David Fisher

Much Ado about (Practically) Nothing
Books by David E. Fisher
Novels
Crisis
Compartments
A Fearful Symmetry
The Last Flying Tiger
The Man You Sleep With
Variation on a Theme
Katie’s Terror
Hostage One
The Man
Nonfiction
The Creation of the Universe
The Creation of Atoms and Stars
The Ideas of Einstein (Juvenile)
The Third Experiment
The Birth of the Earth
A Dance on the Edge of Time: The Birth of Radar
The Origin and Evolution of Our Own Particular Universe
Fire and Ice: The Greenhouse Effect, Ozone Depletion, and Nuclear Winter
Across the Top of the World
The Scariest Place in the World
Tube: The Invention of Television (with M. J. Fisher )
Strangers in the Night: A Brief History of Life on Other Worlds (with
M. J. Fisher)
Mysteries of the Past: Companion to the NOVA series (with M. J. Fisher)
A Summer Bright and Terrible
DAVID E. FISHER
Much
Ado about
(Practically)
Nothing
z
A History of the Noble
Gases
1
2010
3
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Fisher, David E., 1932–
Much ado about (practically) nothing : a history of the noble gases / David E. Fisher.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN978-0-19-539396-5
1. Gases, Rare. I. Title.
QD162.F572010
546'.75—dc22 2009054365
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
For
Jackson Henry
and
Louis Samuel
What is the path? There is no path. On into the Unknown!
—Niels Bohr, loosely translated from Goethe’s Faust
Acknowledgments
You do this, and you do that, and suddenly that’s your life.
—Bernhard Schlink
z
M
y gratitude is due to alex zucker and
John Pinajian, who taught me science, to Ollie
Schaeffer and Ray Davis, who introduced me to the noble gases,
and to Tommy Gold and Cesare Emiliani for expanding my
horizons. I am indebted to Neta Bahcall, Grenville Turner, Rob-
ert Fleischer, and Norbert Porile for their suggestions regarding
this book, although they must be held blameless for the fi nished
product; it should be clear that all opinions expressed herein are
mine alone. Conversations reported with these and others over
the past fi fty years are accurate to the best of my recollection, but
just as space is warped by mass, memory is warped by time; some
slack must be cut.
This page intentionally left blank
Contents
1. Philosophy and Apology 1
2. In the Beginning 4
3. Helium 9
4. Argon and the Rest 18
5. Helium and the Age of the Earth 33
6. The Strange Case of Helium and the
Nuclear Atom 48
7. Interlude: Helium, Argon, and Creationism 59
8. Meanwhile, Back at Brookhaven 66
9. Cornell, the Ten-Minute Experiment, and
Back to Argon 77
10. K/Ar and the Irons 90
11. Interlude: The Spreading Oceans 100
12. Dating the Spreading Seafl oor 112
13. The Argon Surprise 124