Francium Atomic number 87 Unlucky 87 Commentary

Paris—Marguerite Perey elements

Francium

• After many erroneous discoveries,
• Marguerite Perey identified the new element
• contaminating a purified sample of actinium-227,
• which decayed to thorium-227 and francium-223.
• Extremely radioactive, francium
• has at least thirty four isotopes.
• The most stable isotope, francium-223,
• decays into astatine and radium
• with a half-life of less than 22 minutes.

Atomic number 87

• D. K. Dobroserdov thought he had found it
• and named it russium.
• Gerald J. F. Druce and Frederick H. Loring
• thought they had found it
• and named it alkalinium.
• Fred Allison thought he had found it
• and named it virginium.
• Horia Hulubei and Yvette Cauchois
• thought they had found it
• and named it moldavium.
• When Marguerite Perey found it
• she named it actinium-K.
• Later, she wanted to name it catium,
• but Irène Joliot-Curie said catium
• sounded more like “cat” than “cation”
• so Perey suggested francium.

Unlucky 87

• No stable isotope of francium
• has been found or synthesized.
• Nothing can be made of it. If it could be
• gathered, it would vaporize itself.
• Francium does not represent the universe
• my grandparents grew up with,
• in which atoms and stars were immutable
• and, kneeling before nature, we were nothing.