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OCR for page 363
HAROLD CLAYI ON UREY
April 29, 1893-January 5, 1981
BY JAMES R. ARNOLD, JACOB BIGELEISEN, AND
CLYDE A. HUTCHISON JR.
HAROLD UREY WAS A SCIENTIST whose interests, accomplish-
ments, and influence spanned the disciplines of chem-
istry, astronomy, astrophysics, geology, geophysics, and biol-
ogy. Although he was meticulous in his attention to cletail,
his sights were always on broad questions at the forefront
of knowlecige. His unusual powers of concentration and
capacity for hard work accounted for much of his success
in exploring en cl opening up major new fields of research,
including his discovery of deuterium and work on isotope
chemistry, isotope separation, isotope geology, en cl cosmo-
chemistry. Urey's approach to a new area began with his
becoming thoroughly familiar with what was known about
the subject of his curiosity en c] then the formulation of a
theory to explain a large amount of uncorrelated material,
which was then followed by carefully planner! experiments.
The latter frequently involves! the design of new experi-
mental equipment beyond] the state of the art.
As a graduate student in physical chemistry in the early
A part of the section "Urey's Personal Life and His Political and Educational Activi-
ties" in this memoir is taken with permission of the publisher from Memoir 43, by C.
A. Hutchison fir., in Remembering the University of Chicago, Teachers, Scientists and Schol-
ars, ed. E. Shils, copyright C)1991 by the University of Chicago. All rights reserved.
363
OCR for page 364
364
BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
1920s, Urey realized that future progress in that discipline
would require a knowlecige of the quantum theory of atomic
anct molecular systems, which was undergoing a revolution
in Europe. He supplemented his command of mathematics
en cl physics by formal coursework prior to going to the
Bohr Institute in Copenhagen in 1923. His exposure there
lecI to his formulation of the concept of the electron spin
concurrent with but less complete than the Goucismit-
Uhienbeck discovery. After completion of his text with Arthur
Ruark, Atoms, Quanta and Molecules, one of the first English
texts on quantum mechanics and its applications to atomic
and molecular systems, Urey became interested in nuclear
systematics. This led to his discovery of cleuterium. The
conception of this search, the design of the experiment,
the actual discovery, and its publication are a mocle! for the
planning and execution of scientific research. His discov-
ery of the differences in the chemical en c! physical proper-
ties of cleuterium compounds lecI to his broacler interest in
isotope chemistry and isotope separation. Here again he
developer! the theory that lee! to the precliction of the mag-
nitucle of isotope effects in the light elements. He followed
this up with experiments to confirm the theory, en c! this
lee! to his pilot plants that achieved the first concentration
of AN, i3C, and 34S
Urey's interest in (lemocratic government en c! world af-
-fairs lee! to the sense of urgency that developed in the Man-
hattan Project late in 1941. His major contributions and
cleclication to the success of the program through his work
on uranium isotope separation, heavy water production, anc!
~°B enrichment and his service on the various NRDC and
OSRD committees relater! to the development of the atomic
bomb have never been fully appreciatecl.
With the war behind him Urey conceived the isotope
thermometer anct its application to geochemistry. From there
OCR for page 365
HAROLD CLAYTON UREY
365
he became interested! in the moon, formation of the plan-
ets, meteorites, the abundances of the elements, en c} fi-
nally, the origin of life. He was a major supporter of the
manned mission to the moon and was an active investigator
in the program.
Harold Urey was a warm en cl generous person. He was
warm in all his personal relations and generous with his
time, attention, en c] resources. To have known him and
worked with him were unequaled experiences for each of
the authors of this memoir. None of us conic! have pre-
pared this memoir alone.
UREY'S EARLY LIFE UP TO HIS ENTRANCE TO
GRADUATE SCHOOL IN BERKELEY
Harold Clayton Urey was born in Walkerton, a small town
in Indiana, on April 29, IS93. His father, a school teacher
and a minister in the Church of the Brethren, diecl at the
time Haroicl was just starting his elementary schooling. Upon
graduation from grade school at age fourteen, Urey barely
managed to pass the entrance exams for high school. But
in high school he became interested in all aspects of his
work, clue, he saicI, to the excellent teachers he had there,
en c] he immediately became the leacler of his class in all
subjects, a position he maintained throughout his high school
years en cl in college.
When in All at age eighteen he gra(luated from high
school, Urey became a teacher in a small country school in
Indiana with some twenty-five children in various grades.
After one year he went to Montana, where his mother, step-
father, brother, and sisters had aIreacly gone, en c! taught in
small elementary schools.
It was while teaching in a mining camp that the son of
the family with which he was living decided to attend col-
lege, and this influenced Harold to do the same. He en-
~ - 1
OCR for page 366
366
BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
terec! the University of Montana in Missoula in the autumn
of 1914. By carrying a heavy scheclule of courses he was
able to complete his college education in three years with a
straight A record, except in athletics. He click this in spite of
being required by his financial situation to wait on tables in
the girls' dormitory and work one summer on the railroad
being built there. Many years later in his Willard Gibbs
Medal adclress he spoke warmly of the inspiration he re-
ceivect from the professors at the University of Montana
en c! of the beginning of his interest in science due to their
counseling advice, in particular the influence of A. W. Bray,
professor of biology. Under Bray's guidance Haroicl ma-
jored in biology, and his first research effort was a study of
the protozoa in a backwater of the Missoula River. His in-
terest in the origins of life, a fielc! in which he was to make
a major contribution much later at the University of Chi-
cago, originated with that earliest research. Bray also en-
couraged him to stucly chemistry, en c! he obtained a second
major in that subject.
WorIcT War T began as Urey entered the university, and at
the time he completed his work there in 19:~7 the Uniter!
States decIarect war. He was urged by his professors to work
in a chemical plant, chemists being badly neecled at that
time. During the rest of the war he worked at the Barrett
Chemical Company in Philadelphia. In 1~919 after the end
of the war he returned to the University of Montana as
instructor in chemistry.
After two years of teaching he realized that if he was to
advance academically he wouIc] neec! to obtain a Ph.D. cle-
gree. The head of the Chemistry Department at Montana
sent a letter of recommendation to Professor Gilbert N.
Lewis of the Chemistry Department of the University of
California, Berkeley. A fellowship was offered to Harold,
OCR for page 367
HAROLD CLAYTON UREY
367
and so in 1921, at the age of twenty-eight, he entered the
University of California as a graduate student.
FROM CHEMICAL PHYSICS TO ISOTOPE GEOLOGY
The educational facilities, opportunities, and philosophy
of Berkeley's Chemistry Department matched Urey's inter-
ests. The department stressed exploration of new ideas
through original research and its weekly seminars. There
were a minimum of formal requirements. Urey, neverthe-
less, took the opportunity to enroll in courses in mathemat-
ics and physics, which he deemed essential for his educa-
tion as a chemist. In an unpublished autobiography (ca.
1969), Urey described his two years as a graduate student as
"among the most inspiring of any of my entire life." His
thesis was self-generated. The first part was an outgrowth of
his unsuccessful attempt to measure the thermal ionization
of cesium vapor. Bohr, Herzfeld, and Fowler had shown
earlier that the ideal gas approximation leads to a dissocia-
tion instability for an atom with an infinite number of states
below the dissociation or ionization limit. its partition func-
tion is infinite at all temperatures. Urey and later Fermi
showed that the correction of the ideal gas approximation
for the excluded volume of the dissociating species leads to
a convergence of the partition function of the atom or mol-
ecule. Urey's result was published in the Astrophysical four-
nal. When he became interested in the moon and planets,
Urey was wont to tell his younger astronomy colleagues that
he published a paper in the Astrophysical journal before they
~ . . am.
1 ~ ~ ,
entered the field. l he second part of his thesis was of lesser
long-term significance. He attempted to calculate the heat
capacities and entropies of polyatomic gases before the cor-
rect description of the rotational energy states of molecules
had been established by quantum mechanics.
When Urey received his doctorate in 1923, he realized
OCR for page 368
368
BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
that there was much he needec! to learn about the struc-
ture of atoms and molecules. He received a fellowship from
the American Scandinavian Foundation and went to the
Institute of Theoretical Physics, Bohr Institute, in
Copenhagen. The institute under Bohr's leadership was a
major center in theoretical physics, particularly the (level-
opment of the new quantum mechanics and its application
to atomic ant! molecular structure. There Urey became ac-
quaintecI with Heisenberg, Kramers, PauTi, and Slater and
the biochemist Hevesy. Before Urey returnee! to the Uniter!
States in 1924, he atten(lecl a meeting of the German Physi-
cal Society where he met Einstein and James Franck, who
later became lifelong friends.
On his return to the United States Urey took a position
as associate in chemistry at Johns Hopkins University. There
he continued his association with physicists, including Ames,
Herzfelc3, and Wood of Hopkins; Brickwecicle, Foote, and
Meggers of the Bureau of Stanciar(ls; and Tuve of the Carnegie
Institution. His research at Hopkins ranged from sr~,l~-
tions on the spin of the electron to cooperative exceri-
_~ rip
1 ~ r--
ments with F. O. Rice on the disproof of the radiation hy-
pothesis of unimolecular reactions. With Arthur Ruark, Urey
wrote Atoms, Quanta and Molecules. He had established him-
self as one of the new generation of chemists who applied
the new quantum mechanics of Heisenberg en c! Schroclinger
to chemistry.
In the fall of 1929 Urey joinecl the Columbia faculty as
associate professor of chemistry. He initiated both experi-
mental ant! theoretical research. In the former area his
work was mainly in spectroscopy- ultraviolet spectra of tri-
atomic molecules and vibrational spectroscopy. He and his
student Charles Bradley measured the Raman spectrum of
silico-chIoroform, a tetrahedral molecule. They fount! that
none of the molecular force fields in use at the time couict
OCR for page 369
HAROLD CLAYTON UREY
369
reproduce the spectra of tetrahedral molecules. They intro-
duced a new force field, the Urey-Bradley field, which is an
admixture of valence bond and central force fields. The
Urey-Bradley field remains in use in the analysis of the vi-
brational spectra of tetrahedral molecules. Urey's theoreti-
cal work at that time was directed to nuclear stability and
the classification of atomic nuclei.
In 1931 Urey had on the wall of his office a chart of
atomic nuclei. On the ordinate his chart was labeled "pro-
tons"; on the abscissa he plotted "nuclear electrons." This
was prior to the discovery of the neutron. The number of
nuclear electrons is the number of neutrons in the nucleus.
The atomic number or nuclear charge is the number of
protons minus the number of nuclear electrons. For the
light elements Urey's chart showed the stable nuclei OH,
2He, 6Li, 73Li, 9Be, JOB, and JOB. From nuclear systematics,
Urey and others postulated the existence of 2H, 3H, and
2He. No isotopes of hydrogen or helium other than OH and
2He were known in 1931. From atomic weight consider-
ations, to be discussed below, it was estimated that, if a
stable isotope of hydrogen of mass 2 existed, its natural
abundance would be less than 1:30,000 parts of OH.
DISCOVERY OF DEUTERIUM
As early as 1919 Otto Stern reported an unsuccessful search
for isotopes of hydrogen and oxygen, other than the ones
of masses ~ and 16, respectively. In 1929 two Berkeley chem-
ists, W. F. Giauque (who had been a graduate student con-
temporary of Urey) and H. L. Johnston, discovered the stable
isotopes of oxygen, TO and i8O. Their natural abundances
are 0.04 and 0.2 percent, respectively. The chemical atomic
weight scale was based on the assumption that oxygen had
only one isotope, mass 16. The atomic weight of hydrogen
was based on the relative densities of hydrogen and oxygen
.
OCR for page 370
370
BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
gases and the atomic weight of natural oxygen equal to 16.
Aston hacI cleterminec! the atomic weight of hydrogen based
on ~6 0 = 16. The chemical value of the atomic weight of
hydrogen was 1.00777 + 0.00002. Aston's mass spectrograph
value, 1.00778 + 0.00015, recluced to the chemical scale
using the 1931 values for the abundances of ]70 and ~80
was 1.00756. To reconcile the physical and chemical atomic
weights of hydrogen, Birge and Menze} postulated the ex-
istence of a stable isotope of hydrogen of mass 2 with a
natural abundance of ~ :4500.
Urey react Birge and Menzel's communication in Physical
Review in August 1931. Within days he deciclec! to look for
an isotope of hydrogen of mass 2 and outlined his plan of
attack. He would need a method of detection, and it wouIc!
be desirable to prepare samples enriched in this isotope.
The design of the experiment was a moclel of how one
shouIc! conduct a search for a small effect. It was the proto-
type of the characteristics of Urey's work for the next two
decades. As a method of ctetection, Urey en c! his assistant
George Murphy chose the atomic spectrum of hyclrogen.
An isotope of hydrogen of mass 2 should have reel shifted
lines in the Baimer series. The shifts couIcl be calculated
from the Ryclberg formula for the energy levels in the hy-
cirogen atom after taking into account the relative masses
of the electron and nucleus. They amountec! to I.] to I.S A
in four lines in the visible part of the spectrum. These
couIcl readily be resolvecl with the 21-foot grating spectrograph
that hac! just been installer! at the Pupin Laboratory of Co-
lumbia University. The latter had a (dispersion of I.2 A/
millimeter in the second order. To enrich the heavy iso-
tope, Urey and Murphy chose the clistillation of liquid hy-
cirogen. They estimated the fractionation factor for THIGH
from THE in the range between the freezing and boiling
points from a Debye mocle! for liquid hydrogen. Their esti-
OCR for page 371
HAROLD CLAYTON UREY
371
mated fractionation factor was 2.5. To achieve an overall
enrichment of 100 to 200 above natural abundance would
require evaporating 5 liters of liquid hydrogen to ~ ml. The
heaw hydrogen should be in this I-ml residue. There were
, , ~
. . . ~ · . ~ ~ ~ · ~ 1 ~ . . ~ 1 ~ ~ I ~ ~ ~
but two places in the United States capable ot procruc~ng ~
liters of liquid hydrogen in 1931. They were Giauque's labo-
ratory at the University of California and the low-tempera-
ture laboratory at the National Bureau of Standards in Wash-
ington, D.C. The NBS cryogenic laboratory had been
established by Hopkins physics graduate F. G. Brickwedde,
, c'
~ . , _
who overlapped with Urey at Hopkins. It is not difficult to
understand why Urey chose to collaborate with Brickwedde.
During the period when Brickwedde was preparing the
enriched sample, Urey and Murphy determined the opti-
mum conditions for excitation of the atomic spectrum of
hydrogen and suppression of the molecular spectrum. They
did in fact find the lines to be expected for 2H in the
atomic spectrum of natural hydrogen. They delayed publi-
cation until these lines could be shown to increase in inten-
sity in an enriched sample. In particular, it was necessary to
rule out any possibility that the 2H lines were artifacts (e.g.,
~~ ~ ~~ A. ~ · ~. ~1 _ 1 _~ I
'~ghost77 lines trom periodic errors In tne ruling or one grar-
ing or lines from the molecular spectrum). The first of
_
r~c~wectcte s samples showed no increase in the intensities
of the lines attributed to 2H. A less persistent person than
Urey would have dropped the search. Brickwedde then pre-
pared two more samples each by evaporation of a 4-liter
batch of liquid hydrogen, this time close to the triple point,
where the enrichment factor is somewhat larger than at the
normal boiling point. Spectroscopic examination of these
samples on Thanksgiving Day of 1931 confirmed the dis-
covery of hydrogen isotope of mass 2, subsequently named
deuterium. Urey reported his success to his wife, Frieda,
OCR for page 372
372
BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
when he returned to his home in Leonia, New Jersey, hours
late for Thanksgiving dinner.
For the discovery of cleuterium, Harold Urey receiver!
the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1934. Urey was the thirc!
American to receive a Nobel Prize in chemistry. He was
young in comparison with most Nobel laureates in chemis-
try prior to or since 1934. He was the first of the California
school to receive a Nobel Prize. He valued the contribu-
tions that his associates macle to the discovery for which he
received the recognition ant! sharer! one-quarter of the prize
money with F. G. Brickweclcle and G. M. Murphy.
In Urey's Nobel lecture, cleliverec! on February 14, 1935,
he called attention to the fact that Aston had just recleter-
mined the physical atomic weight of hydrogen to be 1.0081.
This value, if correct, wouIcl have brought the physical and
chemical atomic weights of hydrogen into exact agreement
and invaliciatec! the basis of Birge ant! Menzel's prediction.
Urey would not have undertaken the search for cleuterium
in 1931 and its discovery wouIc3 have been clelayect, perhaps
for years. In 1932 Washburn anct Urey discoverer! the elec-
trolytic separation of (leuterium from hydrogen. Dihy(lrogen
gas generated by the electrolysis of water is depleted in
cleuterium. This fractionation explains the failure of Urey
and Murphy to finch any significant enrichment in cleute-
rium in Brickwedde's first sample. Brickwecicle took special
precautions before he undertook preparation of the en-
richecT samples. He took all of his equipment apart and
cleaned it thoroughly to eliminate artifacts from impuri-
ties. Most significantly, the electrolyte in the cell used to
generate the hydrogen to be liquef~ecl was replacecl by fresh
alkaline solution. Brickwoclcle literally threw the baby out
with the bath water. The dihycirogen procluced from fresh
alkaline solution is clepletec! in deuterium. The Raleigh clis-
tillation of this liquic! hydrogen brought the deuterium con-
OCR for page 373
HAROLD CLAYTON UREY
373
tent back to about natural abundance. As more and more
water is added to the electrolytic cell to replace that elec-
trolyzed, the deuterium abundances rise to the natural abun-
dance level.
THERMODYNAMIC PROPERTIES OF ISOTOPIC SUBSTANCES
Urey's Nobel address was titled "Some Thermodynamic
Properties of Hydrogen and Deuterium." The first part cov-
ered the discovery of deuterium. Two-thirds of the address
dealt with the differences in the thermodynamic properties
of isotopes and the feasibility of isotope separation based
on these differences. By the time Urey initiated his work on
deuterium, calculation of the thermodynamic properties of
ideal gases from spectroscopic data had been placed on a
firm foundation. Such calculations are particularly simple
when one compares the differences in behavior of isotopic
substances. Under the assumption of the Born-Oppenheimer
approximation, the large enthalpy changes from the differ-
ence in the minima of the potential energies of products
and reactants in a chemical reaction vanish for isotopic
exchange reactions. Thus, Urey and Rittenberg calculated
the differences in the degrees of dissociation of HCl~g)
and DCl(g) and HI(g) and DI(g), respectively. They con-
firmed their calculations with experiments on HI(g) and
DI(g). Gould, Bleakney, and H. S. Taylor confirmed the
Urey-Rittenberg calculations on the disproportionation of
HD into H2 and D2. The success of statistical mechanics to
predict differences in the chemical properties of hydrogen
and deuterium led Urey and Greiff to extend the method
to isotopomers of polyatomic molecules of carbon, nitro-
gen, oxygen, and sulfur. For each of these elements, Urey
and Greiff found exchange reactions with enrichment fac-
tors in the range from ~ to 4 percent at room temperature.
The predicted enrichment factors led Urey and Greiff to
OCR for page 402
402
BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
oxygen isotopes oi6 Old in stone meteorites. [. Am. Chem. Soc.
56:2601-9.
1935
With L. A. Weber and M. H. Wahl. Fractionation of the oxygen
isotopes in an exchange reaction. [. Chem. Phys. 3:129.
With M. H. Wahl. Vapor pressures of the isotopic forms of water. [.
Chem. Phys. 3:411-14.
Some thermodynamic properties of hydrogen and deuterium. In Le
Prix Nobel en 1934, pp. 1-10. Stockholm: Kungl. Baklryckenet. Also
published in Angew. Chem. 48:315-20.
With L. l. Greiff. Isotopic exchange equilibria. [. Am. Chem. Soc.
57:321-27.
With G. K. Teal. The hydrogen isotope of atomic weight two. Rev.
Mod. Phys. 7:34-94.
1936
With A. H. W. Aten, in On the chemical differences between nitro-
gen isotopes. Phys. Rev. 50:575.
With G. E. MacWood. Raman spectra of the deuteriomethanes. i.
Chem. Phys. 4:402-6.
With A. H. W. Aten, fir., and A. S. Keston. A concentration of the
carbon isotope. i. Chem. Phys. 4:622-23.
With G. B. Pegram and I. R. Huffman. The concentration of the
oxygen isotopes. i. Chem. Phys. 4:623.
1937
With T. I. Taylor. The electrolytic and chemical-exchange methods
for the separation of the lithium isotopes. J. Chem. Phys. 5:597-98.
With l. R. Huffman, H. G. Thode, and M. Fox. Concentration of
NO by chemical methods. J. Chem. Phys. 5:856-68.
1938
Chemistry and the future. Science 88:133-39.
With M. Cohn. Oxygen exchange reactions of organic compounds
and water. /. Am. Chem. Soc. 60: 679-87.
With I. Roberts. The exchange of oxygen between benzil and water
and the benzilic acid rearrangement. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 60:880-82.
OCR for page 403
HAROLD CLAYTON UREY
403
With I. Roberts. Esterification of benzoic acid with methyl alcohol
by use of isotopic oxygen. {. Am. Chem. Soc. 60:2391-93.
With H. G. Thode and I. E. Gorham. The concentration of Ni5 and
S34. /. Chem. Phys. 6:296.
With T. I. Taylor. Fractionation of the lithium and potassium iso-
topes by chemical exchange with zeolites. [. Chem. Phys. 6:429-38.
1939
The separation of isotopes. In Recent Advances in Surface Chemistry
and Chemical Physics, pp. 73-87. Washington, D.C.: American Asso-
ciation for the Advancement of Science.
With K. Cohen. Van der Waals' forces and the vapor pressures of
ortho- and parahydrogen and ortho- and paradeuterium. [. Chem.
Phys. 7:157-63.
With I. Roberts. Kinetics of the exchange of oxygen between ben-
zoic acid and water. {. Am. Chem. So c. 61:2580.
With I. Roberts. Mechanisms of acid catalyzed ester hydrolysis, es-
terification, and oxygen exchange of carboxylic acids. [. Am. Chem.
Soc. 61:2584.
Separation of isotopes. In Reports on Progress in Physics, vol. 6, pp. 48-
77. London: The Physical Society.
1940
With C. A. Hutchison, Jr., and D. W. Stewart. The concentration of
Ci3. f. Chem. Phys. 8:532-37.
Separation of isotopes by chemical means. [. Wash. Acad. Sci. 30:277-
94.
With G. A. Mills. The kinetics of isotopic exchange between carbon
dioxide, bicarbonate ion, carbonate ion and water. i. Am. Chem.
Soc. 62:1019-26.
1942
With E. Leifer. Kinetics of gaseous reactions by means of the mass
spectrometer. The thermal decomposition of dimethyl ether and
acetaldehyde. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 64:994-1001.
With I. Kirshenbaum. The differences in the vapor pressures, heats
of vaporization, and triple points of nitrogen (14) and nitrogen
~ 15 ~ and of ammonia and trideuteroammonia. I. J. Chem. Phys.
10:706-17.
OCR for page 404
404
BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
1943
With A. F. Reid. The use of the exchange between CO2, H2CO3,
HCO3 ion and H2O for isotopic concentration. [. Chem. Phys.
11 :403-12.
1945
With l. D. Brandner. Kinetics of the isotopic exchange reaction
between carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide. [. Chem. Phys.
13:351-62.
The atom and humanity. Science 102:435.
1946
Methods and objectives of the separation of isotopes. Pro c. Am. Philos.
Soc. 90:30-35.
Atomic energy in international politics. Foreign Policy Rep. 22:82-91.
1947
The thermodynamic properties of isotopic substances. /. Chem. So c.
(London) 1947:562-81.
1948
Oxygen isotopes in nature and in the laboratory. Science 108:489-96.
1950
With C. R. McKinney, l. M. McCrea, S. Epstein, and H. A. Allen.
Improvements in mass spectrometers for the measurement of
small differences in isotope abundance ratios. Rev. Sci. Instr. 21:724-
30.
The structure and chemical composition of Mars. Phys. Rev. 80:295.
-
1951
With H. A. Lowenstam, S. Epstein, and C. R. McKinney. Measure-
ments of paleotemperatures and temperatures of the upper cre-
taceous of England, Denmark, and the southeastern United States.
Bull. Geol. Soc. Am. 62:399-416.
With S. Epstein, R. Buchsbaum, and H. A. Lowenstam. Carbonate-
water isotopic temperature scale. Bull. Geol. Soc. Am. 62:417-26.
Cosmic abundances of the elements and the chemical composition
of the solar system. Am. Sci. 39:590-609.
OCR for page 405
HAROLD CLAYTON UREY
405
The origin and development of the earth and other terrestrial plan-
ets. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 1:209-77.
The social implications of the atomic bomb. Sci. Educ. 30:189-196.
1952
The Planets. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press.
On the early chemical history of the earth and the origin of life.
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S.A. 38:351-63.
The origin and development of the earth and other terrestrial plan-
ets: a correction. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 2:263-68.
Chemical fractionation in the meteorites and the abundance of the
elements. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 2:269-82.
The abundances of the elements. Phys. Rev. 88:248-52.
1953
With H. Craig. The composition of the stone meteorites and the
origin of the meteorites. Geochim. Cosmocham. Acta 4:36-82.
Chemical evidence regarding the earth's origin. In XIIth Congress for
Pure and Applied Chemistry: Plenary Lectures, pp. 188-214.
The deficiencies of elements in meteorites. Mem. So c. R. Sci. Liege
14:481-94.
1955
On the origin of tektites. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 41:27-31.
The cosmic abundances of potassium, uranium and thorium and
the heat balances of the earth, the moon and Mars. Proc. Natl.
Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 41:127-44.
Distribution of elements in the meteorites and the earth and the
origin of heat in the earth's core. Ann. Geophys. 11:65-74.
Origin and age of meteorites. Nature 175:321.
1956
Diamonds, meteorites and the origin of the solar system. Astrophys.
J. 124:623-37.
With H. E. Suess. Abundances of the elements. Rev. Mod. Phys. 28:53-
74.
Regarding the early history of the earth's atmosphere. Bull. Geol.
So c. Am. 67:1125-28.
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406
BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
The origin and significance of the moon's surface. Vistas Astron.
2:1667-80.
1957
Boundary conditions for theories of the origin of the solar system.
Prog. Phys. Chem. Earth 2:46-76.
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Cometary collisions and geological periods. Nature 242:32-33.
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r
OCR for page 412
Representative terms from entire chapter:
biographical memoirs
