Chapter 77: Tracer

Chapter 77: Chapter 77: Tracer

The Institute of Theoretical Physics of St. Petersburg.

Alexei Nikoláievich Romanov had turned seven in August of the previous year, but no one at the institute treated him like a child.

The scientists who worked there had learned, in the months since the center’s founding, that the Tsarevich asked questions that could not be answered with evasions. Questions about the behavior of electrons in intense magnetic fields. Questions about the stability of atomic nuclei. Questions about the possibility of transmuting elements through particle bombardment. Questions that the physicists of the previous generation would have considered philosophical and that the physicists of this new generation, the generation of Rutherford and Bohr and Einstein, were beginning to consider practical.

That May afternoon, Alexei was seated in Professor Stanislav’s office, on the second floor of the institute’s east wing.

The office was a spacious room with two windows overlooking the inner courtyard, where a neglected garden struggled to survive the scientists’ lack of attention.

The walls were covered with blackboards, and the blackboards were covered with equations, diagrams of alpha particle scattering, and notes on the effect of temperature on the conductivity of uranium salts.

Professor Stanislav was seated across from him, glasses on the tip of his nose and a cup of cold tea in his hand. His hair was grayer than the year before, and the dark circles had become a permanent feature of his face since Project Prometheus had entered its active phase.

But there was something in his eyes that had not been there before, a contained energy, as if every new piece of data arriving at the institute pushed him one step closer to something he had spent his whole life searching for without knowing it.

"Professor", said Alexei, setting on the table a black-covered notebook he had brought with him. "I have been thinking about the problem of isotope separation."

Stanislav set down his cup on the desk. "What problem exactly, Your Highness?"

"The problem that we cannot separate them. Not with current methods. Centrifugation is too slow. Gaseous diffusion requires industrial quantities of material we do not have. Mass spectroscopy is a laboratory toy, not a production tool." Alexei opened the notebook and pointed to a diagram he had drawn that morning. "But there is another path. A path that does not require separating anything."

Stanislav leaned forward. His eyes, behind the glasses, took on that expression Alexei had learned to recognize, that of a man about to hear something he had not considered.

"Radioactive isotopes", continued Alexei, "have a property that stable isotopes do not have. They emit radiation. Radiation that can be detected with sufficiently sensitive instruments. If we mix a tiny amount of a radioactive isotope with a large amount of a stable isotope of the same element, we can track the behavior of the stable element through the radioactive isotope. It is like... like putting a bell on a mouse to know where it is going."

Stanislav was silent for a moment. Then he took his notebook and wrote something down. "That is Hevesy’s idea", he said finally. "Georg von Hevesy. A Hungarian chemist working with Rutherford in Manchester. I read it in the Royal Society bulletins. He proposed using radium D as a tracer for lead."

"Exactly. The radioactive indicator principle." Alexei nodded. "Hevesy discovered it last year, or perhaps at the end of this year, I am not sure of the exact dates. But the principle is sound. And the applications are immense."

He rose from his chair and walked to one of the blackboards. He took a piece of chalk and drew a circle with a dot in the center. "Imagine, Professor. A radioactive isotope of iodine. We inject it into a patient. Iodine, as you know, concentrates in the thyroid gland. If the iodine is tagged with a radioactive isotope, we can detect its presence in the thyroid from outside the body. We can measure how much iodine the gland absorbs. We can diagnose thyroid diseases without the need for exploratory surgery."

Stanislav stood up as well. He walked to the blackboard and studied the diagram. "That would require isotopes that do not exist in nature. They would have to be produced."

"Or collected from the decay products of uranium. Radium D, as Hevesy says, is an isotope of lead. Radium E is an isotope of bismuth. Polonium is an isotope... well, polonium is polonium. But there are dozens of radioactive isotopes produced naturally in the decay chains of uranium and thorium. All of them can be used as tracers."

Stanislav took the chalk Alexei had left on the table. He drew a line below the circle and added three small dots. "And what practical application would that have for the Empire? Apart from medical diagnosis, I mean."

Alexei smiled. It was a small smile, calculated, the smile of someone who has been thinking about a problem for a long time and has finally found the answer. "Agriculture. Industry. Geology. Medicine. The list is endless, Professor. Imagine we can tag a fertilizer with a radioactive isotope and track its path through the soil, through the roots of plants, to the leaves. We can know exactly what nutrients crops absorb and in what quantity. We can optimize fertilizer use. We can increase agricultural production without increasing cost."

Stanislav nodded slowly. "That would be... revolutionary."

"And not only that." Alexei returned to his chair and sat down. "Imagine we can tag the flow of water in a dam. Or the flow of oil in an engine. Or the flow of blood in a human body. We can detect leaks no human eye can see. We can measure speeds no mechanical instrument can measure. Radioactivity gives us an eye that sees the invisible."

Stanislav sat down again. He removed his glasses and cleaned them with a handkerchief. It was a gesture he made when he was thinking, when he needed a moment to organize his ideas. "Who else is working on this? Apart from Hevesy, I mean."

"There is an Austrian chemist named Friedrich Paneth. He works at the Institute for Radium Research in Vienna. Hevesy has been in contact with him, or will be soon. Together they are going to develop the radioactive tracer method. They will publish their results next year, or perhaps the year after. I am not sure of the exact dates."

"And Rutherford?"

"Rutherford is in Manchester. He has Hevesy working with him. But Rutherford’s interest is the structure of the atom, not practical applications. Hevesy is the one who sees the potential of tracers. Paneth too. It is the two of them who will develop the technique."

Stanislav was silent for a moment. Then he spoke, in a lower voice. "Do you want to bring them here?"

"Yes."

"Both of them?"

"Both of them." Alexei leaned forward. "Hevesy is Hungarian. Paneth is Austrian. Neither has a permanent position at a first-rate institution. Hevesy is in Manchester, but he is a visitor. Paneth is in Vienna, but he is an assistant. If we offer them their own laboratory, a decent budget, and the freedom to investigate whatever they want... they will come."

Stanislav drummed his fingers on the desk. "And what about Curie? She is the expert in radiochemistry. Should we not consult her before bringing in two chemists who are going to work in her field?"

Alexei nodded. "You are right. I will speak with her tomorrow. But I wanted to speak with you first because I need your opinion on something else."

"What?"

"The problem of isotope production. We cannot depend on the natural decay products of uranium. They are too scarce, too difficult to separate. We need to produce isotopes artificially. And for that we need a source of particles. Neutrons, preferably. Neutrons have no charge, so they can penetrate the atomic nucleus without being repelled by the electrical barrier."

Stanislav frowned. "Neutrons have not been discovered yet. Rutherford has predicted them, but no one has detected them."

"I know. But they will be detected. And when they are, the production of artificial isotopes will be possible. We need to be prepared for that moment."

"How?"

"By building the infrastructure. A cyclotron. Or a linear accelerator. Something that can accelerate particles to energies high enough to penetrate the atomic nucleus."

Stanislav looked at him with an expression Alexei knew well: the expression of a man listening to something that sounds like science fiction but that, for some reason, he cannot entirely dismiss. "That would require enormous magnets. And a high-voltage source. And years of work."

"We have years. And we have resources." Alexei stood up. "What we do not have is unlimited time. The war is coming, Professor. I do not know exactly when, but it is coming. And when it comes, we need to be prepared. Not only with cannons and battleships. With science. With technology. With the tools that will allow us to win not only the war, but the peace that comes after."

He walked to the window and looked at the neglected garden. A gardener, an old man with a canvas apron, was pruning a shrub with slow, precise movements. "Hevesy and Paneth are the first step. We need to bring them here, give them everything they need, and let them work. And then, when they have developed the tracer method, we will apply it to everything. To medicine. To agriculture. To industry. To geology."

He turned to Stanislav. "And when artificial isotopes become possible, we will be ready. Because we will have built the infrastructure. Because we will have trained the personnel. Because we will have created the knowledge."

Stanislav stood up as well. He walked to the blackboard and looked at the diagram Alexei had drawn. Then he erased one of the equations with his jacket sleeve and wrote another in its place. "If we are going to do this, we need a name. A name for the tracer project."

Alexei smiled. "I already have one. We will call it Project Indicator. Because what we are doing is that: finding indicators. Signals. Traces. Ways of seeing what cannot be seen."

Stanislav nodded. "Project Indicator. I like it."

That night, Alexei dined with Marie Curie in the institute’s dining hall. The dining hall was a large room with wooden tables and straight-backed chairs, without any adornment except a portrait of Mendeleev that someone had hung on the north wall. Curie ate in silence, with the concentration of someone who has spent the entire day in the laboratory and now only wants to finish eating so she can return to it.

"Madame", said Alexei, sitting down across from her with his tray. "I need your opinion on something."

Curie looked up. Her hair was pulled back in a messy bun and her hands were stained with laboratory ink. "What is it?"

"Georg von Hevesy. Friedrich Paneth. Do you know them?"

Curie set down her fork. "Hevesy is a competent chemist. He worked in Freiburg, then went to Manchester with Rutherford. Paneth is younger, but he has a good reputation. Both are interested in radioactivity. Why do you ask?"

"I want to bring them here. To Project Prometheus. To have them develop the radioactive tracer method."

Curie looked at him for a moment. Then she took her glass of water and drank a sip. "The tracer method. Hevesy has been working on that. Using radium D to trace lead. It is an elegant idea. But it requires isotopes that are not easily found."

"I know. That is why I want to bring them. To have them work on the production of those isotopes. And on the applications."

Curie nodded slowly. "Hevesy is good. Paneth too. But they will need access to my radium samples. And to the Fergana laboratories."

"They will have everything they need. That I guarantee."

Curie was silent for a moment. Then she spoke, in a lower voice. "Do you know what you are doing, Your Highness?"

"What do you mean?"

"You are building a scientific empire. Not an empire of territory or armies. An empire of knowledge. You are gathering the best minds in Europe in one place. And you are giving them the resources to do whatever they want." Curie looked at him fixedly. "That has never been done. Not in Germany, not in England, not in France. No one has attempted anything like it."

Alexei held her gaze. "That is why I am doing it."

Curie smiled. It was a small smile, tired, but genuine. "Good. Then I will tell you something. Hevesy has a problem. He is in Manchester, but he does not have a permanent position. Rutherford values him, but he cannot offer him anything stable. Paneth is in Vienna, but the Institute for Radium Research is directed by Stefan Meyer, who does not give him the freedom he needs. If you offer them their own laboratory, with budget and staff, they will come."

"Are you sure?"

"I know Hevesy. I met him in Brussels, at the Solvay Conference. He is ambitious. Not in the bad sense of the word. He is ambitious for knowledge. He wants to do something great. And he cannot do it in Manchester, where Rutherford monopolizes all the attention. Nor in Vienna, where Meyer controls everything." Curie took another sip of water. "If you offer him what he needs, he will come. And if Hevesy comes, Paneth will come too. They are friends. They work together."

Alexei nodded. "Thank you, Madame. I appreciate the honesty."

"Do not thank me. I am only telling you the truth." Curie returned to her meal. "And now, if you will excuse me, I have to return to the laboratory. I am close to isolating a sample of radium D that could serve for the first tracer experiments."

Alexei watched her leave. Then he remained alone in the dining hall, with his tray half-finished and Mendeleev’s portrait watching him from the wall. He thought of Hevesy. Of Paneth. Of Project Indicator. Of all the things they could do with radioactive isotopes. And of all the things they did not yet know they could do.

The future was big. Bigger than anyone could imagine.

The letter to Hevesy left St. Petersburg three days later. It was written in French, in the precise handwriting of a secretary from the Ministry of Technology, and bore the seal of the Institute of Theoretical Physics in the header. The letter was brief and direct, without the usual flourishes of European academic correspondence.

"Dear Doctor Hevesy. The Institute of Theoretical Physics of St. Petersburg, under the patronage of His Imperial Highness the Tsarevich Alexei Nikoláievich, has the honor of inviting you to join its research team in the area of radiochemistry. The conditions include your own laboratory, guaranteed annual budget, auxiliary personnel of your choosing, and complete freedom of publication. If you are interested, we ask that you respond at your earliest convenience. Sincerely, Professor Stanislav, Director of Research."

The letter to Paneth was almost identical. Only the recipient’s name and the address changed, the Institute for Radium Research in Vienna instead of the Manchester Laboratory. The two letters were sent by diplomatic pouch, with instructions that they be delivered by hand.

Alexei signed the letters with his full name. Then he handed them to the messenger and remained looking out the window of his office. The Neva was thawing. Spring was arriving late that year, but it was arriving. Ice floes floated downstream, colliding with each other with a hollow, deep sound that echoed along the embankments.

Somewhere in Manchester, Georg von Hevesy was working in his laboratory, probably unaware that an eight-year-old boy in St. Petersburg had just invited him to change the course of science. Somewhere in Vienna, Friedrich Paneth was doing the same.

Alexei smiled. It was a small smile, a little imperceptible, the smile of someone who has planted a seed and knows that, in time, it will grow.

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