1 James Andrew Harris

James Andrew Harris was the chemist who would discover Rutherfordium (element 104) and Dubnium (element 105). Despite being one of the first and most influential Black chemists, Harris’ work remains largely underappreciated. However, Harris’ life and career remains an inspiring story of determination and fortitude, defined by overcoming systemic inequality in both his personal and professional life.

Born in Waco, Texas in 1932, James Harris faced oppression throughout his life. Jim Crow laws established racial segregation throughout all of Texas during this period, dividing White and Black racial communities. Following his parents’ divorce, he moved to Oakland, California to complete his high school education. Harris would then move back to Texas to attend Huston-Tillotson College. Pursuing a chemistry degree, Harris would graduate in 1953 before choosing to serve in the U.S. army. Two years later, Harris would be honorably discharged. Following his short military career, Harris began searching for a job in chemistry.

Being a black male in the Jim Crow era subjugated Harris to a lot of heavy-handed racism, putting him at a disadvantage when applying for jobs. When applying for a chemistry level job, a job requiring advanced scientific knowledge and advanced education, Harris would often face shocked interviewers. He would often be directed to, or assumed to be applying for, janitorial jobs. Harris would later recount how he could “write a book” about his job-hunting experiences. Eventually, Harris would find a job at Tracer lab in Richmond, California. Due to his scientific talent, Harris would relocate to the Lawrence radiation lab, where he really had the opportunity to really make a name from self.

Disgruntled with his job hunting experience, Harris worried about the future career prospects of upcoming Black chemists. Following his retirement, Harris began advocating for African American Youth communities, organizing efforts and providing resources to improve job prospects and education for Black youth. Harris would travel around the entire country in efforts to provide resources for underrepresented black communities. In impoverished areas of the United States, Harris would teach elementary school students to advocate for science in the classroom. Harris passed away at the age of 68, on December 12, 2000.

 James Andrew Harris’s contribution to chemistry was the discovery of elements 104 and 105, Rutherfordium and Dubnium. He got a position at the Lawrence Radiation Lab at the University of California Berkeley after five years of doing work that was well below what he was qualified to do. Harris served as the head of the Heavy Isotopes Production Group in the Nuclear Chemistry Division. Their goal was to discover new elements by using bombardment.  This involved taking one element called the projectile and accelerating it to incredibly fast speeds before smashing it into a second element called the target.  Sometimes, the elements will combine to form a completely new element. This process of combining elements together is called nuclear fusion, and requires a large amount of energy, which is why the projectile element is sped up to such high speeds. Harris was responsible for purifying and preparing the atomic target materials of curium and californium that would be bombarded with carbon, nitrogen, and neon by using a particle accelerator.

Element 104, known as rutherfordium, is an unnaturally occurring element with the periodic symbol of Rf. It was named after the British physicist Earnest Rutherford. The discovery of rutherfordium was discovered by a Russian research group as well as the research group including Harris, earning him the title of the first African American to discover a new element. It is a solid, radioactive metal with an atomic number of 104. Because rutherfordium is an unnatural element, many of its properties have not been measured. Rutherfordium has 5 different isotopes The most stable form being 263Rf which has a half-life of around 10 minutes and decays through spontaneous fission, where the atom can split into two similarly sized pieces releasing a large amount of heat.  This is the opposite of nuclear fusion, what was used to create Rutherfordium in the first place. The heat generated through nuclear fusion is also what is generally used to fuel nuclear powerplants, and in large enough quantities with no control, is also what fuels nuclear weapons. Other isotopes of rutherfordium can decay by alpha decay, where a helium nucleus is ejected from the atom, or electron capture where a proton is converted into a neutron. There are two other types of radioactive decay that are not exhibited in Rutherfordium.  Those are beta decay, or the loss of an electron, and gamma decay, where gamma rays are emitted as high-energy electromagnetic radiation. All of these types of radiation are first order exponential decay, and depend only on the concentration of the starting material. Since there is only a small amount of rutherfordium that is produced and the element has a short half-life, no practical uses for it have been discovered. Little is known about the radioactive properties of this element, because it decays so quickly.

One year later in 1970, Element 105, Dubnium was discovered. It is also a solid, radioactive metal that does not occur naturally, with an element symbol of Db. the atomic number of Dubnium is 105 and like rutherfordium, many of its properties have not been measured. The most stable form of this element is 268-Db and has a half-life of around 32 hours, which decays through fission and alpha decay. Like Rutherfordium, Dubnium is made artificially. Only small amounts have been produced and due to its short half-life, the element is only used for scientific research.

Harris’ work in element discovery not only taught us more about the periodic table and heavy elements, but also inspired future chemists for years to come.  The creation of new elements, even unstable ones that have no practical use, is a symbol of the progression of science and the human race.