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Up for sale "Isotope Carbon-14" Martin Kamen Hand Signed First Day Cover Dated 1963.
ES-1898
Martin David Kamen (August
27, 1913, Toronto – August 31, 2002, Montecito, California) was
an American chemist who, together with Sam Ruben, co-discovered February 27, 1940, at
the University
of California Radiation Laboratory, Berkeley. Kamen
was born on August 27, 1913, in Toronto, the son of up in Chicago. He received a bachelor's degree in chemistry from the University of Chicago in
1933 and obtained a PhD in physical chemistry from
the same university in 1936. Thereafter he sought a research position in
chemistry and nuclear physics under Ernest Lawrence at the radiation laboratory in Berkeley,
where he worked without pay for six months until being hired to oversee the
preparation and distribution of the cyclotron's products. Although carbon-14 was previously known,
the discovery of the synthesis of carbon-14 occurred at Berkeley when Kamen and
Ruben bombarded graphite in the cyclotron in hopes of
producing a radioactive isotope of carbon that could be used as a tracer in
investigating chemical reactions in photosynthesis. Their experiment resulted in production of
carbon-14. In
1943, Kamen was assigned to Manhattan Project work at Oak Ridge, Tennessee,
where he worked briefly before returning to Berkeley. He was fired from
Berkeley in 1945 after being accused of leaking nuclear weapons secrets to Russia, and for a time was
unable to obtain an academic position, until being hired by Arthur Holly Compton to
run the cyclotron program in the medical school of Washington University at St. Louis. Kamen taught the faculty how to use radioactive
tracer materials in research, and his own interests gradually shifted
into biochemistry. In
1957, he moved to Brandeis University in Massachusetts, and in 1961 he joined the University
of California, San Diego, where he remained until his retirement in
1978. Martin
Kamen died August 31, 2002, at the age of 89 He was a longtime resident of
Casa Dorinda retirement home, where he was well-liked and admired for helping
others. By bombarding matter with particles in the cyclotron, radioactive isotopes such
as carbon-14, were generated. Using carbon-14, the order of events in
biochemical reactions could be elucidated, showing the precursors of a
particular biochemical product, revealing the network of reactions that
constitute life. Kamen is credited with confirming that all of the oxygen released in photosynthesis comes from water, not carbon dioxide. He also studied the role of molybdenum in biological nitrogen fixation, the biochemistry of cytochromes and their
in photosynthesis and metabolism, the role of iron in the
activity of porphyrin compounds in plants and
animals, and calcium exchange in cancerous tumors.
Kamen came under long-term suspicion of espionage activity beginning in 1944.
He described his experiences during this era in his autobiography, Radiant
Science, Dark Politics. He first aroused suspicion while working at Oak
Ridge.[3] A cyclotron operator prepared radioactive sodium for an experiment, and Kamen
was surprised that the resulting sodium had a purple glow, indicating it was
much more intensely radioactive than could be produced in a cyclotron. Kamen
recognized immediately that the sodium must have been irradiated in a nuclear reactor elsewhere in the facility. Because of
wartime secrecy, he had not been aware of the reactor's existence. He excitedly
told his colleagues about his discovery. Shortly thereafter, an investigation
was launched to find out who had leaked the information to Kamen. After
returning to Berkeley, Kamen met two Russian officials at a party given by his
friend, the violinist Isaac Stern, whom he
sometimes accompanied as a viola player in social evenings
of chamber music. The
Russians were Grigory Kheifets and Grigory
Kasparov, posted as undercover KGB officers
in the Soviet Union's San
Francisco consulate. One of them asked Kamen for assistance in getting
experimental radiation treatment for a colleague with leukemia. Kamen made inquiries, and in appreciation the
official invited him for dinner at a local restaurant. In the aftermath of the
Oak Ridge incident, Kamen was under continuing surveillance by FBI agents
who observed the July 1, 1944 dinner, where Kamen was alleged to have discussed
atomic research with Kheifets. Kamen lost his Berkeley position shortly
afterwards. The House
Committee on Un-American Activities summoned Kamen to testify
in 1948. Subsequently the State Department refused to issue him a passport. In 1951
the Chicago Tribune named
him as a suspected spy. Kamen attempted suicide. After a 10-year effort to
establish his innocence and prove that he had been blacklisted as a security risk, he won a libel suit
against the Tribune in 1955 and was able once again to obtain a passport.
