Astatine Facts
Astatine Facts
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| Interesting Astatine Facts: |
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| Astatine was discovered in 1940 by Dale Corson, Kenneth McKenzie, and Emilio Segre at Berkley. |
| It wasn't until three years later, however, that astatine was found in nature. |
| Since astatine is usually only found as a state of another heavier element in the process of radioactive decay, astatine is one of the rarest elements on Earth. |
| Only up to one gram of astatine at a time has ever been discovered in nature. |
| Astatine cannot be seen with the naked eye, since a large enough sample would immediately disintegrate due to its own radioactivity. |
| There are thirty-two isotopes of astatine. |
| All of them are radioactive, with the most stable being At-210, whose half-life is just over eight hours. |
| Only five of the isotopes even have half-lives longer than an hour. |
| Isotope At-211 is the only one of astatine's isotopes with a commercial use, where it is used in the diagnosis of some diseases. |
| Astatine is the rarest element, other than the transuranic elements (those with a higher atomic number than uranium). |
| Astatine was once believed to be the rarest element on Earth, prior to the discovery of berkelium in 1949; since that time less than two grams of the element have ever been produced. |
| Since it is only released during the radioactive decay of other elements, it is estimated that there is no more than twenty-eight grams of astatine on Earth at any time. |
| Astatine has an important use in nuclear medicine, but it decays so quickly that it must be used within a matter of hours following production. |
| Astatine concentrates in the thyroid and liver in a way similar to iodine, but it does not emit high-energy electrons like iodine does. |
| Its short half-life makes it preferable to iodine for some treatments. |
| Animal experiments show that astatine does far greater damage to cells in the thyroid than iodine does. |
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