Each element has a distinctive atomic number. The atomic number represents the number of protons in the nucleus. Isotopes have the same number of protons, meaning they are the same element, but different numbers of neutrons. Carbon, for example, has three isotopes: carbon-12, carbon-13, and carbon-14. Each has six protons, but they have six, seven, and eight neutrons, respectively. As for isotopes, they're pretty boring, and some have remarkable properties.
10. Tellurium-128 has an incredibly long half-life.
Tellurium is number 52 on the periodic table and is a silvery metalloid element. It's also slightly toxic, so try not to play with it. It has eight isotopes, and one of them, tellurium-128, has actually earned its own Guinness World Record due to the fact that it has a staggeringly long half-life.
The number was calculated as 2.2 x (10 to the power of 24) years. This is an obscure number for most of us, so you can express it in another way. This 160 trillion times longer than the age of the universe itself. The universe is almost 14 billion years old, so the half-life of tellurium-128 is about as close to eternity as anything you're likely to find in nature.
9. The decay of astatine isotopes in the blink of an eye
At the opposite end of the spectrum from tellurium, astatine doesn't have a long half-life at all. Ranked 85th on the periodic table, it's also the most rare element on Earth: At any given time, only about 25 grams are present on the planet. Why so rare? It's those half-lives again.
The longest-lived isotope of astatine is astatine-210, with a half-life of 8.1 hours. There are 32 isotopes in existence, and none of them are stable. The shortest-lived is astatine-213, with a half-life of 125 nanoseconds . It has also been said that astatine's radioactivity is so strong that it actually destroys itself.
All isotopes are radioactive and can be formed from bismuth in the laboratory. They are sometimes used as radioactive tracers, but other than that, they have little scientific application.
8. Gold has 41 isotopes, but only one of them is stable.
Gold is a well-known element, and most of us would be happy to encounter it in the wild. It's highly valuable and doesn't corrode like many other metals. What's less well known is that there are actually 41 known isotopes of the metal. The one we know and covet is gold-197, and it's the only one. stable isotope, which is present in gold. The remaining 40 are radioactive.
It is interesting that gold-197 observationally stable . This means that science says it should be radioactive, but observations don't live up to that promise. So even if you expect it to be radioactive, it's not. Overall, this has been a good thing for almost every economy in history.
7. Germanium-72 undergoes an unusual phase transition
Germanium is the 32nd element on the periodic table and another metalloid that straddles the line between metal and nonmetal. It consists of five stable isotopes, and germanium-76 is the longest-lived of them, with a half-life approximately 130 billion times the age of the universe. However, it is not the most interesting of the isotopes. As for germanium, it is the isotope 72 that exhibits a very unusual behavior when heated.
We understand that certain things happen to atoms when heat is applied to a substance. As with water, heat excites the atoms and makes them move faster. But what happens inside the atoms themselves? Germanium-72 proves that it's not as obvious as you think.
Germanium has 32 protons, while germanium has 72.40 neutrons. These protons form strong pairs that become weaker as the atom heats up. This makes sense in our water example. The problem is that at some point, something unusual happens. When the temperature gets high enough, the bonds between the proton pairs is getting stronger again . The reason for this is something called a phase transition. Stabilization occurs when the transition begins, before weakening again as the temperature continues to rise.
6. Iron-60 was found in Antarctic snow.
Everyone knows iron, one of the most common elements in the world, so important that an entire century was literally named after it. Without iron, all our magnets would fall to the floor, not to mention our inability to make almost everything we make out of metal in the world. According to estimates , in the world there are about 800 billion tons unrefined iron ore containing 230 billion tons of iron, so we have some work to do.
There are four stable isotopes of iron and 24 radioactive isotopes. One of these, iron-60, is the most stable, with a half-life of about 2.6 million years. It's also not something that just happens to appear anywhere. If you want your own iron-60, you'll have to go hunting for it, because it's created during stellar explosions—supernovae. When a star explodes, iron-60 is ejected into the universe, and small amounts occasionally fall to Earth. Some have even been detected in Antarctic snows . From 500 kilograms of pure snow collected for the sample, scientists discovered five atoms of iron-60. The isotope was first detected on Earth just 23 years ago in some deep-sea soil sediments.
5. Plutonium-244 was found on the ocean floor.
Like iron-60, plutonium-244 isn't an isotope that just appears out of nowhere. Unlike iron, there are no plutonium isotopes you'd want to get too close to. There are 20 of them, all radioactive, but plutonium-244 is the most stable.
Traces of plutonium-244 were found on ocean floor in 2021, and it's believed it's traveled a long way to get here. Plutonium-244 is produced under rather complex conditions. In this case, the plutonium was formed during collision of two stars , which led to a powerful explosion. It is likely also formed in supernovae along with iron-60.
Plutonium-244 is not an isotope we can easily create on Earth. Nuclear reactors produce various isotopes, but when plutonium-242 decays into 243, its half-life is only a few hours and it cannot decay into 244. It has been theorized that a nuclear weapon explosion could potentially produce 244, but this remains purely theoretical and has not been observed.
4. Magnesium-18 decomposes to form
We've seen that astatine has a very short half-life, but scientists have created an isotope of magnesium that is so unstable that it's virtually impossible to observe. Normally, magnesium has three stable isotopes and 19 unstable ones.
Of the unstable elements, magnesium-18 and magnesium-19 are particularly interesting due to their incredibly short lifespans. Magnesium-19 has a half-life 5 picoseconds . That's five trillionths of a second. If that seems like a short period of time, and it is, then get ready for magnesium-18.
Magnesium-18 has not been adequately measured because its lifetime is approximately one sextillionth of a second . It disintegrates so quickly that the electrons can't even arrange the electrons around them to become a true atom. It's just a nucleus, and then it decays. This means scientists can't study it directly, but simply observe what it did during its short existence.
3. There are only 500 g of natural promethium in the world.
Promethium is an exceptionally rare element with no stable isotopes, although it does have 38 unstable isotopes. It emits X-rays and is astonishingly rare. Currently, only 100% of promethium can be found on the entire planet. about one pound Natural promethium. However, we can also produce it in the laboratory by bombarding uranium-235 and neodymium-147 with neutrons.
In 1902, a Czech chemist named Bohuslav Braun suggested that promethium must exist along with six other undiscovered elements, and his hunch was confirmed a few years later when Henry Moseley confirmed that something in between neodymium and samarium must exist in the periodic table with atomic weighing 61. It took another 20 years of searching before it was determined that whatever element 61 was, it would have no stable isotopes.
After years of searching, promethium was finally discovered not in nature, but in the laboratory, when scientists realized they could create elements and their isotopes.
For something so rare and radioactive, you might think it would have some serious global applications, but you'd be wrong. Instead, it's primarily used for things like luminescent paint and nuclear batteries.
2. Strontium-90 is processed in your body like calcium.
Strontium is an alkaline earth metal and ranks 38th on the periodic table. It has four naturally occurring stable isotopes, as well as 32 unstable ones. Of these isotopes, strontium-90 is the one you should keep an eye on, as it's a bit tricky.
Strontium-90 is highly reactive and can produce heat. This reaction makes it useful as energy source , and it is used in remote weather stations and even spacecraft, as well as in the medical industry. Although it is not a stable isotope found in nature, it is a byproduct of nuclear fission, from which most of the world's supplies come, although it was also produced as a result of nuclear weapons testing in the 1950s.
Strontium-90 is obviously something to avoid due to its radioactivity, but it has a sneaky way of making you sick if you come into contact with it. can be inhaled , but it can also enter the body through contaminated food and water. Once inside, your body processes it the same way it processes calcium. This means radioactive strontium will penetrate your teeth and bones. Once it becomes a part of you, it can lead to bone cancer, bone marrow cancer, and soft tissue cancer in the areas around the radioactive particles.
1. Tritium is one of the most expensive things on Earth.
Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe, with seven isotopes, though only three occur naturally. The last, hydrogen-3, is what we call tritium, and it is as rare as it is valuable. It can form naturally in the atmosphere when cosmic rays hit nitrogen , but only trace amounts are produced. It is also produced during nuclear explosions and as a byproduct of nuclear reactors.
Tritium is used in the production of nuclear weapons and also for the production of luminous dials and for various scientific and research purposes. Pound for pound, it's also one of the most valuable substances on earth. For example, a gram of pure gold can cost around $70, depending on a number of factors. A gram of platinum can cost around $40. A gram of cocaine can cost around $120, depending on where you buy it. And a gram of tritium? That'll cost you approximately $25,000 .
About four grams of tritium are used in nuclear weapons to improve efficiency and make the weapon more destructive, but at the same time lighter.