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pibbur who
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Astatine (At) with atomic number 85 is one of the heaviest naturally occuring elements (Uranium has atomic number 92). It's also the rarest of the naturally occuring elements. According to Wikipedia, it's estimated that less than a gram of the substance is present in the earth's crust. The total landmass of the Americas contains about a trillion atoms of the stuff, and little Norway possesses around 10 billion or 2000 atoms per Norwegian. Other sources, (https://www.chemicool.com/elements/astatine.html) give a somewhat higher estimate (25 g). OTOH Isaac Asimov estimated the world wide total as 0.07 g in 1953 (https://www.livescience.com/32064-rarest-particle-on-earth-property.html). But for all practical purposes, even if the substance must be valuable, don't waste your money on an astatine mine. Follow James Veitch advice in stead and spend it on hummus.
The reason for the deplorable shortage is that astatine is extremely radioactive. The most stable isotope (Astatine-210) has a half-life of 8.1 hours. This means that, even if you subscribe to the young earth "theory", none of the astatine present at the dawn of the earth remains today. In stead, it's produced by the decay of heavier elements. Actually, the astatine you find now (if you were unlucky) is not the same astatine as the astatine of last week.
BTW: The name "astatine" is derived from greek, "astatos" which means "unstable".
For a long time it existed only as an empty space in the periodic table, but it was finally discovered (from artificial synthesis) in 1940.
Little is known about the physical properties of the element, as we haven't actually seen it. If you (very unlikely, and very dangerous) had a lump of the element in front of you, it would immediately vaporize due to the heat generated by radioactive decay (followed by your decay within the next 48 hours). We can deduce (guess) some of it's properties from it's position in the periodic table (same group as chlorine and iodine). We think it's nearly black, and we think it may behave like a metal (if it did behave, which it clearly doesn't).
It can be produced synthetically, and has found some use i experimental cancer therapy.
pibbur who would rather invest in Grimoire 2 than in astatine mining.
PS. A list of the properties of astatine can be found here: http://periodictable.com/Elements/085/data.html. It's quite illustrating, the most common value is N/A, and as such, what we know about astatine can be compared to what we know about the Heechee. DS.
PPS. Regarding it's value, it turns out it's not as costly as one might expect. Astatine-211 is not prohibitively difficult to produce in "commercial" quantities using high-yield cyclotrons I've yet to find a price per gram, but it's cheaper that Iodine-123. DS.
The reason for the deplorable shortage is that astatine is extremely radioactive. The most stable isotope (Astatine-210) has a half-life of 8.1 hours. This means that, even if you subscribe to the young earth "theory", none of the astatine present at the dawn of the earth remains today. In stead, it's produced by the decay of heavier elements. Actually, the astatine you find now (if you were unlucky) is not the same astatine as the astatine of last week.
BTW: The name "astatine" is derived from greek, "astatos" which means "unstable".
For a long time it existed only as an empty space in the periodic table, but it was finally discovered (from artificial synthesis) in 1940.
Little is known about the physical properties of the element, as we haven't actually seen it. If you (very unlikely, and very dangerous) had a lump of the element in front of you, it would immediately vaporize due to the heat generated by radioactive decay (followed by your decay within the next 48 hours). We can deduce (guess) some of it's properties from it's position in the periodic table (same group as chlorine and iodine). We think it's nearly black, and we think it may behave like a metal (if it did behave, which it clearly doesn't).
It can be produced synthetically, and has found some use i experimental cancer therapy.
pibbur who would rather invest in Grimoire 2 than in astatine mining.
PS. A list of the properties of astatine can be found here: http://periodictable.com/Elements/085/data.html. It's quite illustrating, the most common value is N/A, and as such, what we know about astatine can be compared to what we know about the Heechee. DS.
PPS. Regarding it's value, it turns out it's not as costly as one might expect. Astatine-211 is not prohibitively difficult to produce in "commercial" quantities using high-yield cyclotrons I've yet to find a price per gram, but it's cheaper that Iodine-123. DS.
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