This week's element is francium, which has the symbol Fr and the atomic number 87. Francium is a highly radioactive alkali metal that is vanishingly rare in the wild. It is the most unstable naturally ...

Benjamin holds a Master's degree in anthropology from University College London and has previously worked in the fields of psychedelic neuroscience and mental health. Benjamin holds a Master's degree ...

Mlle. Marguerite Perey of the Curie Institute, Paris, discovered francium in 1939. It is the heaviest known member of the alkali metal series and occurs as a result of an alpha disintegration of ...

Thanks to new research, we now know with much greater certainty the nuclear magnetic moments of francium atoms. Thanks to researchers from The University of Queensland, we now know with much greater ...

One of the most remarkable things about element 87 is the number of times that people have claimed to have discovered it after it was first predicted by Mendeleev in 1871 and given the provisional ...

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There is about an ounce of francium in the Earth’s crust. It’s the most unstable of the first 101 elements. It lasts only 45 seconds longer than an episode of Archer. So how did anyone discover it?

Thanks to researchers from The University of Queensland, we now know with much greater certainty the nuclear magnetic moments of francium atoms. Dr Ben Roberts, a postdoctoral research fellow in UQ's ...