Crossword clues for deuterium
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1933, coined by U.S. chemist Harold C. Urey, with Modern Latin ending + Greek deuterion, neuter of deuterios "having second place," from deuteros "next, second," according to some sources from duo (see two), but according to Watkins the ground sense is "missing" and the Greek word is from PIE from *deu-tero-, suffixed form of root *deu- "to lack, be wanting." So called because it is twice the mass of hydrogen.
Wiktionary
n. 1 (context isotope English) An isotope of hydrogen formed of one proton and one neutron in each atom - (nuclide 2 1 H). 2 An atom of this isotope.
WordNet
n. an isotope of hydrogen which has one neutron (as opposed to zero neutrons in hydrogen) [syn: heavy hydrogen]
Wikipedia
Deuterium (symbol or , also known as heavy hydrogen) is one of two stable isotopes of hydrogen. The nucleus of deuterium, called a deuteron, contains one proton and one neutron, whereas the far more common hydrogen isotope, protium, has no neutron in the nucleus. Deuterium has a natural abundance in Earth's oceans of about one atom in of hydrogen. Thus deuterium accounts for approximately 0.0156% (or on a mass basis 0.0312%) of all the naturally occurring hydrogen in the oceans, while the most common isotope ( hydrogen-1 or protium) accounts for more than 99.98%. The abundance of deuterium changes slightly from one kind of natural water to another (see Vienna Standard Mean Ocean Water).
The deuterium isotope's name is formed from the Greek deuteros meaning "second", to denote the two particles composing the nucleus. Deuterium was discovered and named in 1931 by Harold Urey. When the neutron was discovered in 1932, this made the nuclear structure of deuterium obvious, and Urey won the Nobel Prize in 1934. Soon after deuterium's discovery, Urey and others produced samples of " heavy water" in which the deuterium content had been highly concentrated.
Deuterium is destroyed in the interiors of stars faster than it is produced. Other natural processes are thought to produce only an insignificant amount of deuterium. Nearly all deuterium found in nature was produced in the Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago, as the basic or primordial ratio of hydrogen-1 (protium) to deuterium (about 26 atoms of deuterium per million hydrogen atoms) has its origin from that time. This is the ratio found in the gas giant planets, such as Jupiter (see references 2,3 and 4). However, other astronomical bodies are found to have different ratios of deuterium to hydrogen-1. This is thought to be as a result of natural isotope separation processes that occur from solar heating of ices in comets. Like the water-cycle in Earth's weather, such heating processes may enrich deuterium with respect to protium. The analysis of deuterium/protium ratios in comets found results very similar to the mean ratio in Earth's oceans (156 atoms of deuterium per million hydrogens). This reinforces theories that much of Earth's ocean water is of cometary origin. The deuterium/protium ratio of the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, as measured by the Rosetta space probe, is about three times that of earth water. This figure is the highest yet measured in a comet.
Deuterium/protium ratios thus continue to be an active topic of research in both astronomy and climatology.
Usage examples of "deuterium".
This made economic sense, because Canada had lots of natural uranium and a great deal of hydroelectric power, and during off-peak times this surplus electricity could be used to separate deuterium from hydrogen by electrolysis to make heavy water.
The fusion of helium3 and deuterium releases no neutrons, but there would be some side deuterium-deuterium reactions in any system using this fuel combination.
The egg-shaped shell was a miniature laser array with a deuterium pellet at the heart of it.
When the lasers fired, their beams heated and compressed the deuterium into a fusion explosion.
The deuterium, converted to sun-hot plasma by the energy of its own fusion, ripped down the channel of the barrel and devoured everything in its path.
It was immediately stuffed with a tiny snowball made of frozen deuterium and tritium.
After replacing the supply of deuterium, using the gas giant known to be there, the travelers might decide to go on rather than return.
The dark metal globe which comprised most of its body, which would contain the frozen deuterium that would power the vessel, seemed to mirror the hopes and fears of those who had planned the voyage.
The top of the core ascended past her eye level, and climbed steadily upward toward the deuterium injector valves.
Conlon would be finished with the deuterium injector in a few minutes, then would go below to help Stevens.
Gomez looked up and noticed Conlon was climbing down from the deuterium injector.
Turn on the kitchen tap and filter out enough deuterium in five minutes to run the house for a year.
Instead of a microgram of deuterium being fused and giving off a puff of energy, a quarter ton of lithium and heavier metals will explode.
On the other side of that wall was the reactor itself, where the energy from the lasers was concentrated on micropellets of deuterium fuel.
Cut off the light that the lasers were pouring into the deuterium fuel pellets and the reactor would shut down.