An Element of Interest...

Radium is the heaviest and most reactive element of the alkaline earth metals family. Radium is rare because of its high reactivity and short half-life. It is a part of the group of elements that appears after bismuth (Z=83) which are all radioactive and unstable. As Uranium decays it briefly turns into radium and eventually turns into stable lead.

Radioactive Decay Series

History

Discovered by Marie Curie and her husband when they noticed that a mineral called pitchblende that contained uranium gave off more radiation than would be expected. The government of Austria-Hungary agreed to provide as much of the pitchblende as the Curies could afford. The Curies eventually discovered the existence of polonium, named after Poland, her homeland, that was 1 hundred times more radioactive than uranium. Yet, the radioactivity was still unaccountably high, and after more experimenting, radium was discovered that was 1 million times as radioactive as uranium! Through the Curies' experiments, alpha, beta, and gamma radiation were discovered (but named later by Ernest Rutherford). Marie Curie eventually died of a cancer caused by years of exposure to radiation, including her work in a mobile x-ray station during World War I.

Practical Applications

Radium was once used in making fluorescent markings on watches and instrument dials because of the bluish glow that it emitted until it was found to be unhealthful. Radium, like calcium and strontium, is absorbed into the bone marrow were it bombards the marrow with radiation. Radium is currently used as a form of radiotherapy to treat some cancers.

Element Profile Source: The Camelot Chemistry Primer. Coop, Dwight Wayne. Kenndon, Krastins & Gould, Publishers. 1992
Photographic Source (Element): Chemistry: Third Edition. Chang, Raymond. Random House, New York. 1988.
Photographic Source (Curies): ChemTeam Web Site.