1890-1901

Europium

• William Crookes in London
• and Paul-Émile Lecoq de Boisbaudran in Paris
• had noted its spectral lines
• but Eugène-Anatole Demarçay got credit
• for discovering europium
• because he had more special characters in his name.
• Seriously, Lecoq already had a sample of it
• contaminating his samarium,
• which he had previously discovered.
• But Demarçay isolated the contamination
• and so he got to name it after Europe,
• thinking that Europe was not just a fiction.

Atomic number 63

• This rare
• rare earth
• can make
• a red phosphor
• and a blue one.

Anomaly

• Chemistry isn’t random.
• Europium atoms are similar in size and charge
• to the calcium contained in plagioclase,
• so if a magma crystalizes into plagioclase
• then it captures more europium.
• Biology seems more random.
• Who’s to say whether the second child
• will die of old age or cancer?
• Will he inherit his father’s strength
• or his mother’s good looks?