Thorium Atomic number 90 Radioactive stuff Commentary

Stockholm—Morten Thrane Esmark, Jöns Jacob Berzelius elements

Thorium

• Actually, both
• Morten Thrane Esmark
• and his father, Jens Esmark,
• should be given credit.
• Morten found the mineral
• and his father, Jens, recognized
• it was something new
• and forwarded it to Berzelius.
• So Berzelius tested it
• and found that sixty percent of it
• was the oxide of a new element,
• and named it after the Norse god Thor.

Atomic number 90

• Thorium is a soft ductile metal,
• softer than steel
• harder and lighter than uranium
• but it’s radioactive, with a half-life
• greater than the age of the universe
• decaying, eventually, to lead.
• It’s used in gas mantles
• heat-resistant ceramics
• and microwave-oven magnetrons.

Radioactive stuff

• Depending on where you live
• damage could be accumulating.
• Radiation exists almost everywhere
• at least in small quantities.
• You’re born, you live a while
• and then you die.
• This pattern continues to repeat
• with significant variation
• until the clock of the universe
• is all unwound.