LBNL Image Library -- Collection BERKELEY-LAB/PEOPLE/INDIVIDUALS

Image File: 96602533
Title: Luis Alvarez in lab, just before identification of helium-3
Description: Luis Alvarez about 1938 in lab, just before his work leading to the identification of helium-3. Since Rutherford thought that tritium is stable, he required a reason why he could not obtain it from the plentiful interactions of deuterons. His answer: tritium disappears quickly by combining with the bombarding deuterons. As for helium-3 the consensus, as represented by H. A. Bethe, held it to be unstable, decaying into the elusive tritium by electron capture. It was precisely with this preconception- that tritium is elusive but stable and helium-3 is radioactive-that Luis Alvarez went to look for them in the summer of 1939. (The preceding information was excerpted from the text of the Fall 1981 issue of LBL Newsmagazine.)
Citation Caption: LBL NEWS Magazine, Vol. 6, No. 3, Fall 1981, p. 22 | Luis Alvarez about 1938, just before his work leading to the identification of helium-3.
Date: 1938
People: Luis Alvarez
TEID Doc ID: XBD 9606-02533.TIF