Harold Clayton Urey

Harold Clayton Urey
(1893 - 1981)

American scientist awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1934 for his discovery of the heavy form of hydrogen known as deuterium. He was a key figure in the development of the atomic bomb and made fundamental contributions to a widely accepted theory of the origin of the Earth and other planets.
Urey received a B.S. degree from Montana State University (now the University of Montana), Missoula, in 1917. After teaching there for two years, he earned a Ph.D. in chemistry (1923) from the University of California at Berkeley. While he was doing research in Copenhagen (1923-24), Urey took part in Niels Bohr's basic research on the theory of atomic structure. He taught at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore (1924-29), and at Columbia University (1929-45); was professor of chemistry at the Institute for Nuclear Studies (1945-52) and Ryerson professor of chemistry (1952-58) at the University of Chicago; and served as professor-at-large (1958-70) and as professor emeritus of chemistry (1970-81) at the University of California at San Diego.

Urey's deuterium research began in the 1920s. By distilling a sample of liquid hydrogen, he concentrated its deuterium form, demonstrating its presence by light-emission studies. In 1931 he and his associates announced their discovery of heavy water, composed of an atom of oxygen and two atoms of deuterium. He also examined the chemical properties and separation of radioactive isotopes of carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, and sulfur.

During World War II he directed a Columbia research program that became an important part of the Manhattan Project, which developed the atomic bomb. Urey's group provided the fundamental information for the separation of the fissionable isotope uranium-235 from the more abundant isotope uranium-238 through the use of gaseous diffusion, and they also investigated methods for concentrating heavy hydrogen and separating boron isotopes.

After the war his work with the heavy isotope oxygen-18 led him to devise methods for estimating the temperature of the ocean during times as far back as 180 million years ago. This led him into the study of the relative abundances of the elements on Earth and the development of a theory of the origin of the elements and of their abundances in the Sun and other stars.

Urey theorized that the early atmosphere of the Earth was probably like the atmosphere now present on Jupiter--rich in ammonia, methane, and hydrogen. One of his students, Stanley Miller, working in his laboratory at the University of Chicago, demonstrated that when exposed to an energy source, such as ultraviolet radiation, these compounds and water might react to produce compounds essential for the formation of living matter.

Urey suggested that the planets of the solar system may have derived from a gaseous disk rotating about the Sun and that the disk, in combination with gases from the Sun, may have broken into fragments and begun to condense. He published his theory in The Planets: Their Origin and Development (1952).