Discovery Information
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Who: Pierre and Marie Curie |
When: 1898 |
Where: France |
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Name Origin
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Latin: radius (ray). |
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Sources
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Found in uranium ores at 1 part per 3 million parts uranium.
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Uses
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Used in treating cancer because of the gamma rays it gives off. |
Formerly used in self-luminous paints for watches, clocks and instrument dials. More than 100 former watch dial painters who
used their lips to shape the paintbrush died from the radiation. Soon afterward, the adverse effects of radioactivity became
widely known. Radium was still used in dials as late as the 1950's. Objects painted with this paint may still be dangerous,
and must be handled properly. Currently, tritium is used instead of radium. Although tritium still carries some risks, it is considered by many to be safer than radium.
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Notes
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Radium is highly radioactive and its decay product, radon gas is also radioactive. Since radium is chemically similar to calcium, it has the potential to cause great harm by replacing it in the bone.
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Radium is over a million times more reactive than an equivalent mass of Uranium.
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