18 Facts About Radium

Radium is a chemical element with the symbol Ra and atomic number 88.

Radium was isolated in its metallic state by Marie Curie and Andre-Louis Debierne through the electrolysis of radium chloride in 1911.

Radium is not necessary for living organisms, and adverse health effects are likely when it is incorporated into biochemical processes because of its radioactivity and chemical reactivity.

Radium is the heaviest known alkaline earth metal and is the only radioactive member of its group.

Radium has 33 known isotopes, with mass numbers from 202 to 234: all of them are radioactive.

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Radium, like barium, is a highly reactive metal and always exhibits its group oxidation state of +2.

Radium oxide has not been characterized well past its existence, despite oxides being common compounds for the other alkaline earth metals.

Radium hydroxide is the most readily soluble among the alkaline earth hydroxides and is a stronger base than its barium congener, barium hydroxide.

Radium nitrate is a white compound that can be made by dissolving radium carbonate in nitric acid.

Radium was discovered by Marie Sklodowska-Curie and her husband Pierre Curie on 21 December 1898, in a uraninite sample from Jachymov.

Radium metal was first industrially produced at the beginning of the 20th century by Biraco, a subsidiary company of Union Miniere du Haut Katanga in its Olen plant in Belgium.

Radium was formerly used in self-luminous paints for watches, nuclear panels, aircraft switches, clocks, and instrument dials.

Radium was still used in dials as late as the 1960s, but there were no further injuries to dial painters.

Radium was once an additive in products such as toothpaste, hair creams, and even food items due to its supposed curative powers.

Radium was used in medicine to produce radon gas, which in turn was used as a cancer treatment; for example, several of these radon sources were used in Canada in the 1920s and 1930s.

Radium is seeing increasing use in the field of atomic, molecular, and optical physics.

Radium is still used in 2007 as a radiation source in some industrial radiography devices to check for flawed metallic parts, similarly to X-ray imaging.

Radium is highly radioactive, and its immediate daughter, radon gas, is radioactive.