Radium

Radium is a radioactive, silvery-white alkaline earth metal with atomic number 88. It occurs in trace amounts in uranium ores and decays into radon.

Radium-226: A long-lived radioactive isotope of radium, with a half-life of about 1,600 years. It is the principal naturally occurring radium isotope in uranium ores.
Marie Curie: A physicist and chemist who pioneered research on radioactivity and discovered polonium and radium. She led the research that isolated radium from pitchblende.
Radium therapy: The historical medical use of radium sources to irradiate tumors and other tissues. Radium’s penetrating radiation made it an early source for treating cancer.
Radium jaw: A severe jaw disorder suffered by some dial painters after ingesting radium-containing paint. The illness linked occupational radium exposure to bone damage and death.
Radium decay series: The sequence of radioactive decays beginning with radium-226 and ending at stable lead-206. It explains the radioactive products formed as radium-226 decays.
Pierre Curie: A French physicist whose research included magnetism, crystals, and radioactivity. He collaborated with Marie Curie in discovering radium.
Brachytherapy: Radiation therapy in which sealed radioactive sources are placed within or near the treatment area. Radium sources were early brachytherapy implants, later largely replaced by other radionuclides.
Radium Girls: The name commonly given to dial painters who suffered illness after workplace exposure to radium paint. Their legal cases brought public attention to industrial radiation hazards.
Radon: A radioactive noble gas produced by the decay of radium and other radioactive elements. Radium-226 releases radon-222, which can accumulate indoors.
Polonium: A radioactive chemical element with atomic number 84, discovered by Marie and Pierre Curie in 1898. The Curies announced polonium alongside radium in their work on pitchblende.

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