Wanted: Californium
The Radioactive Element Is At It Again!
Wanted For:
Identifying Gold And Silver, Being Used In Portable Metal Detectors, And To Identify Water And Oil Layers In Oil Wells! This element is important because it helps identify these very valuable resources.
Aliases:
Its chemical symbol is "Cf". Named Californium after University of California in Berkeley where it was formed. Historically and commonly known as Californium with no slang terms.
Description:
A silvery-white actinide with an atomic number of 98 and an atomic mass of 251. It is also metal and usually vaporizes at room temperature.
First Arresting Officer:
Stanley Thompson, Kenneth Street Jr., Albert Ghiorso, and Glenn Seaborg were a team of scientists working at The University Of California in Berkeley, California. They explained that it was a lot of long days of work that really paid off in the end.
Report of First Arrest:
The element was discovered in 1950 by firing helium nuclei at curium-242. This created the element Californium which was extremely radioactive because of the curium. It became the substance used to identify gold and silver.
Last Seen:
In the group Actinides on the Periodic Table. Not much is known about where it comes from other than California.
Known Associates:
Unfortunately there isn't much information about who Californium affiliates with because it is a very toxic material. However, this material has a moderate amount of reactivity. Therefore, Californium reacts to oxygen, sulfur, nitrogen, hydrogen, halogens, and water.
Warning:
This substance is highly radioactive in its pure form!
Bibliography:
There were no books where I was able to gather information.
Websites:
http://www.rsc.org/periodic-table/element/98/californium
http://education.jlab.org/itselemental/ele098.html
http://www.chemicalelements.com/elements/cf.html
http://www.chemistryexplained.com/elements/A-C/Californium.html