The George Herbert Jones Laboratory is an academic building at 5747 S. Ellis Avenue,

Chicago, Illinois Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

, on the main campus of the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

. Room 405 of the building was named a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a National Register of Historic Places property types, building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the Federal government of the United States, United States government f ...

in 1967; it was the site where

plutonium Plutonium is a chemical element; it has symbol Pu and atomic number 94. It is a silvery-gray actinide metal that tarnishes when exposed to air, and forms a dull coating when oxidized. The element normally exhibits six allotropes and four ...

, the first man-made element, was isolated and measured.

Description and history

The George Herbert Jones Laboratory is located at the northwest corner of the main quadrangle of the University of Chicago campus, between East 58th and 57th Streets. It is a four-story masonry structure, built in 1928-29 as facility and instructional space for the university's staff of research

chemist A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a graduated scientist trained in the study of chemistry, or an officially enrolled student in the field. Chemists study the composition of ...

s and graduate students in

chemistry Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a physical science within the natural sciences that studies the chemical elements that make up matter and chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules a ...

. Room 405 is a relatively non-descript chamber on the fourth floor, measuring , with shelves and counters lining its walls. It is accessed via a wooden door with a glass window in its upper half. As part of the U.S. War Department's

Manhattan Project The Manhattan Project was a research and development program undertaken during World War II to produce the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States in collaboration with the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the ...

, University of Chicago chemists began to study the newly manufactured radioactive element,

. Room 405 was the site where, for the first time on August 18, 1942, a team led by physicist

Glenn Seaborg Glenn Theodore Seaborg ( ; April 19, 1912February 25, 1999) was an American chemist whose involvement in the synthesis, discovery and investigation of ten transuranium elements earned him a share of the 1951 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. His work i ...

isolated a trace quantity of this new element. Measurements, performed on September 10, 1942, enabled chemists to determine the new element's

atomic weight Relative atomic mass (symbol: ''A''; sometimes abbreviated RAM or r.a.m.), also known by the deprecated synonym atomic weight, is a dimensionless physical quantity defined as the ratio of the average mass of atoms of a chemical element in a giv ...

. This important step was to change the world, making possible both

nuclear power Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions to produce electricity. Nuclear power can be obtained from nuclear fission, nuclear decay and nuclear fusion reactions. Presently, the vast majority of electricity from nuclear power is produced by ...

and

nuclear weapon A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission or atomic bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear weapon), producing a nuclear exp ...

s. Seaborg later said of this event: "These memorable days will go down in scientific history to mark the first sight of a

synthetic element A synthetic element is a known chemical element that does not occur naturally on Earth: it has been created by human manipulation of fundamental particles in a nuclear reactor, a particle accelerator, or the explosion of an atomic bomb; thus, it i ...

, and the first isolation of a weighable amount of an artificially produced

isotope Isotopes are distinct nuclear species (or ''nuclides'') of the same chemical element. They have the same atomic number (number of protons in their Atomic nucleus, nuclei) and position in the periodic table (and hence belong to the same chemica ...

of any element." The U.S.

Department of Energy A ministry of energy or department of energy is a government department in some countries that typically oversees the production of fuel and electricity; in the United States, however, it manages nuclear weapons development and conducts energy-rela ...

remediated Jones Laboratory in the 1980s by studying and removing almost all of the building's

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

-era radioactive waste. The remediation took place in 1982, 1983, and 1987. Although room 405 looks nothing like the original condition, the lobby of the laboratory maintains a collection of the specialized equipment used to perform the measurements. Although the building's basement and ground floor were significantly damaged by an explosion in 1973, Room 405 was not affected. Room 405, George Herbert Jones Laboratory, The University of Chicago (7189830229).jpg, Room 405 File:Jones Laboratory Room 405 Plaque.jpg, National Historic Landmark Dedication Plaque

References

{{UChicago, history School buildings completed in 1929 Jones, George Herbert George Herbert Jones Laboratory National Historic Landmarks in Chicago 1929 establishments in Illinois