What if YOU could create something that never existed anywhere in the entire universe?

The Day Scientists Discovered New Elements!

How scientists found mysterious building blocks of the universe

Scientists created a brand new element called neptunium by smashing atoms together!

On May 26, 1940, something AMAZING happened in a laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley! Scientists Glenn Seaborg and Edwin McMillan discovered a brand new element that nobody had ever seen before — neptunium!

But wait, what's an element? Think of elements as LEGO bricks for the entire universe. Everything around you — your desk, your pet, even YOU — is made of tiny building blocks called elements. Scientists had found 92 natural elements on Earth, but these brilliant researchers wanted more!

Using a giant machine called a cyclotron (imagine a super-powered atomic merry-go-round!), they smashed tiny particles together at incredible speeds. BOOM! They created neptunium, named after the planet Neptune!

But here's the coolest part — this discovery opened the door to finding even MORE new elements! Seaborg went on to discover plutonium and EIGHT more elements. That's like finding hidden treasure in the periodic table!

💡 Glenn Seaborg is the only person to have an element named after him while he was still alive — element 106, seaborgium!