But it can be done by the methods of a new science called nuclear chemistry. The "temperatures and pressures" of nuclear chemistry are protons and neutrons, nuclei of heavy hydrogen isotopes (deuterons) and nuclei of helium atoms (alpha-particles), and finally, ions of the lighter elements of the Mendeleyev Table, boron and oxygen, neon and argon.

   Its chemical equipment includes nuclear reactors in which certain bombarding particles are formed, and accelerators, complex apparatus for speeding up the particles to immense velocities. To penetrate the atomic nucleus the missile particle must possess a high energy (especially if it is positively charged); this makes it easier to overcome the repulsive action of the nuclear charge. Nuclear chemistry has its own system of symbols, but the equations of its reactions resemble "conventional" chemical equations.

   It was due to nuclear chemistry that the blank spaces in the Mendeleyev Table were finally filled.

   The Greek  word "tecnetos" meaning "artificial" went into the name of the first element prepared artificially by man. In late 1936 a beam of fast deuterons accelerated in a cyclotron crashed down on a molybdenum plate. The swift deuterons cut through the electron shells like a knife through butter and reached the nucleus.

   On hitting the nucleus each deuteron, consisting of a proton and a neutron decomposed, the neutron glancing off at an angle and the proton being captured by the nucleus. This increased the nuclear charge by one unit, and molybdenum, which occupies Box No.42 changed into its right-hand neighbour, element No.43.

---