Research Investigation:
1. Investigate an important radioactive element
a. Name the element.
The radioactive element I have chosen to research is Radium.
b. Identify the isotopes of this element and represent them using the correct conventions.
Radium is a very unstable element and has no stable isotope/s, which in turn means that an atomic mass cannot be given. The most lived radium isotope is Ra-226, which is also known as the most common radium isotope. Radium has 35 other known isotopes right from Ra-201 right through to Ra-235. The most recent Radium isotope discovered was Ra-235.
c. Describe when the element and isotope were discovered or manufactured and by whom.
The radioactive element radium was discovered by Marie Curie and Pierre Curie in the year 1898. They both extracted the radium compound from uranite, and later shared the discovery at the French Academy of Sciences only five days later. Radium was isolated in its metallic state through the electrolysis of radium in 1910, by the help of Andre-Louis Debierne.
2. Describe how this isotope is used in an everyday application or process.
a. Describe the application
Radium was used mostly in the past. The discovery of radium introduced a new paint that was used to emit light on the dials and hands of a watch or clock. The radium paint was also used to illuminate the switches on aircraft switches and dials, also nuclear panels. A lawsuit was filed against the US Radium Corporation in the mid 1920’s, after five factory workers known as the ‘Radium Girls’ lost their lives. The painters were working in factories painting the dials on watches, they often licked the tips of the brushes to get a fine point, therefor ingesting the radium chemicals. The ingestion of radium ...
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...wned and run website about scientific history. The web source supplied sufficient and detailed explanations and information about radium but more importantly about the history and discoverer (question 1c). Government sources are considered much more reliable then public or private websites, given the extensive research and professional advice given behind the collaboration of information given out through the source.
Radium, How Stuff Works, 2012, retrieved 28th of April 2014, from, http://science.howstuffworks.com/radium-info.htm
The Radium Girls, Wired, 2012, retrieved 28th of April 2014, from, http://www.wired.com/2011/03/the-radium-girls/
Radium, Web Elements, 2010, retrieved 28th of April 2014, from, https://www.webelements.com/radium/
Element 88, Periodic Elements Science Laboratory, 2012, retrieved 28th of April 2014, from, http://periodic.lanl.gov/88.shtml
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