Harold Urey

Harold Urey (1893–1981) was an American physical chemist who discovered deuterium and shared the 1934 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for research on heavy hydrogen.

Ferdinand Brickwedde: An American physicist who collaborated with Urey and George Murphy in identifying deuterium. He helped produce and analyze the hydrogen samples in which Urey’s team detected deuterium.
Deuterium: A stable hydrogen isotope whose nucleus contains one proton and one neutron. This is the heavy hydrogen isotope Urey’s group discovered.
Isotope geochemistry: The study of isotope abundances in Earth materials to investigate geological and chemical processes. Urey helped establish isotope measurements as tools for reconstructing natural history.
Heavy water: Water in which deuterium replaces ordinary hydrogen in some or all molecules. The discovery of deuterium made heavy water a measurable substance with scientific and industrial uses.
University of Montana: A public university in Missoula, Montana, founded in 1893. Urey studied zoology there before turning toward chemistry and physics.
George Murphy: An American astronomer and physicist who worked with Urey and Ferdinand Brickwedde on deuterium’s discovery. His spectroscopic expertise helped identify the new hydrogen isotope.
Isotope: One of two or more atoms of the same element with different numbers of neutrons. Deuterium differs from ordinary hydrogen by one neutron.
Paleoclimatology: The study of past climates using evidence preserved in geological and biological records. Urey connected oxygen-isotope ratios in fossils to ancient ocean temperatures.
Isotope geochronology: The use of radioactive isotope decay to determine the ages of rocks and other materials. Urey’s isotope research helped establish quantitative methods for studying geological time.
Niels Bohr: A Danish physicist whose atomic model and quantum theory transformed modern physics. Bohr’s work on atomic structure informed the theoretical setting for interpreting hydrogen spectra.

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