Abstract
THE experiments on the transformation of mercury into gold (A. Miethe and H. Stammreich, H. Nagaoka) and the suggested explanation of the process (F. Soddy) lead me to make the following observations. The possibility of the transformation of a nucleus into that of the element next below it by the absorption of one electron is most likely to be detected when both nuclei are stable. This occurs most obviously when the elements have a mass in common, an isobare, and, since even mass-numbers are not found in non-radioactive elements of odd atomic number, an isobare of odd mass-number.
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RUSSELL, A. Transformation of Mercury into Gold. Nature 116, 312 (1925). https://doi.org/10.1038/116312b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/116312b0
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