In the early nineteenth century chemists knew of the existence of ninety-two chemical elements, from Hydrogen, the lightest, to Uranium, the heaviest. For nearly forty years scientists thought they knew what our planet and all of its contents was made of...then things started to change.
In the late 1930s the world of chemical science began to discover elements beyond Uranium - the 'transuranics'. These new, super-heavy elements are probably not found in Nature at all, but they can be detected, even if only for a few fractions of a second, in precisely designed experiments using powerful nuclear tools.
This book is full of exciting new concepts and tells the story of the author's quest to discover elements never before known to man.

• 1. The Landscape
• 2. Elements Created in Stars
• 3. Synthetic Elements
• 4. Elements made with Light Ion Beams form 'Small' Cyclotrons
• 5. Hot Fusion and Controversial Discoveries - Elements 102 to 106
• 6. Cold Fusion and 'Big' Cyclotrons
• 7. The Dream - Uranium Beams
• 8. Models, Cross-section and Fusion
• 9. New Techniques - Kinematic Separators and Position-Sensitive Detectors
• 10. New Elements and other Stories - from Bohrium to Meitnerium
• 11. The Year 1998 - a New Beginning
• 12. Three more Elements - 110, 111 and 112
• 13. Names mean more than Numbers
• 14. Attack on the Domain of Superheavies - Elements 114, 116 and 118
• 15. Epilogue