Properties
            Radium’s atomic number is 88 and its symbol is Ra. Radium is the heaviest alkali earth metal and is very radioactive. Radium melts at 700 degrees Celsius and boils at 1,140 degrees Celsius. The density of Radium is 5 grams per cubic centimeter. Small quantities of it are found in a uranium ore called pitchblende. If you had the same mass of radium and uranium, the radium would be more than a million times more radioactive. The solid form of radium is silver-white but it turns black once it is exposed to air. Radium is luminess and reacts with water to form radium hydroxide [Ra(OH)2].

Historical Uses

Radium used to be used in luminous paints for watches, clocks, nuclear panels, instrument dials, and aircraft switches. This paint glowed in the dark. Radium was removed from these paints after people discovered the effects of radiation in the mid 1900s. Over 100 painters who worked with radium died from the radiation. Inhaling, injecting, or being exposed to radium can form serious health problems. When radium enters you, your body thinks this element is calcium so the body sends the radium to your bones. When the radium reaches your bones, it can mutate the bone cells and will lead to bone cancer. Though radium can cause cancer, it also was used as a treatment for cancer. Radium is used to form radon gas which was used to fight cancer. Today doctors are starting to use substitutes other than radium for cancer treatments that are more effective and are safer to perform.

History
            Radium was found by Marie Curie and her husband Pierre in 1898. The Curies were studying a uranium ore called pitchblende. While studying it, the Curies removed the Uranium from the pitchblende and found that the remaining material was still radioactive. They then seperated out the mysterious radioactive mixture and discovered two new elements, polonium and radium. One gram of radium could be found in seven tons of pitchblende. This discovery earned the Curries a noble prize. The Curies work led to the discovery that atoms of one element can transform into atoms of another element through a proccess called transmutation. Transmutation happens when the radioactive decay of one element, over a long period of time, turns into another more stable element.