Glenn Seaborg isolates plutonium for the first time. This is also the first time any artificial element—one that doesn’t exist in nature—has been synthesized in its pure form. It’s the first time the human eye can observe an artificial element. Following the name of the previous element (neptunium), he names it plutonium. It is then pointed out to him that Pluto is also the Roman god of the underworld, or the dead, and he replies that it’s nothing more than a coincidence, and that he wasn’t aware of it.
