Radium, Texas | |
|---|---|
  Radium  Radium | |
| Coordinates: 32°49′45″N99°59′43″W / 32.82917°N 99.99528°W | |
| Country | United States |
| State | Texas |
| County | Jones |
| Elevation | 1,703 ft (519 m) |
| Time zone | UTC-6 (Central (CST)) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC-5 (CDT) |
| GNIS feature ID | 1378925 [1] |
Radium is an unincorporated community in Jones County, Texas, United States.
Maria Salomea Skłodowska-Curie, known simply as Marie Curie, was a Polish and naturalised-French physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, the first person to win a Nobel Prize twice, and the only person to win a Nobel Prize in two scientific fields. Her husband, Pierre Curie, was a co-winner of her first Nobel Prize, making them the first married couple to win the Nobel Prize and launching the Curie family legacy of five Nobel Prizes. She was, in 1906, the first woman to become a professor at the University of Paris.
Radium is a chemical element; it has symbol Ra and atomic number 88. It is the sixth element in group 2 of the periodic table, also known as the alkaline earth metals. Pure radium is silvery-white, but it readily reacts with nitrogen (rather than oxygen) upon exposure to air, forming a black surface layer of radium nitride (Ra3N2). All isotopes of radium are radioactive, the most stable isotope being radium-226 with a half-life of 1,600 years. When radium decays, it emits ionizing radiation as a by-product, which can excite fluorescent chemicals and cause radioluminescence. For this property, it was widely used in self-luminous paints following its discovery. Of the radioactive elements that occur in quantity, radium is considered particularly toxic, and it is carcinogenic due to the radioactivity of both it and its immediate decay product radon as well as its tendency to accumulate in the bones.
The alkaline earth metals are six chemical elements in group 2 of the periodic table. They are beryllium (Be), magnesium (Mg), calcium (Ca), strontium (Sr), barium (Ba), and radium (Ra). The elements have very similar properties: they are all shiny, silvery-white, somewhat reactive metals at standard temperature and pressure.
Ottawa is a city in and the county seat of LaSalle County, Illinois, United States. It is located at the confluence of the navigable Fox River and Illinois River, the latter being a conduit for river barges and connects Lake Michigan at Chicago, to the Mississippi River, and North America's 25,000 mile river system. The population estimate was 18,668, as of 2022. It is the principal city of the Ottawa, IL Micropolitan Statistical Area.
A period 7 element is one of the chemical elements in the seventh row of the periodic table of the chemical elements. The periodic table is laid out in rows to illustrate recurring (periodic) trends in the chemical behavior of the elements as their atomic number increases: a new row is begun when chemical behavior begins to repeat, meaning that elements with similar behavior fall into the same vertical columns. The seventh period contains 32 elements, tied for the most with period 6, beginning with francium and ending with oganesson, the heaviest element currently discovered. As a rule, period 7 elements fill their 7s shells first, then their 5f, 6d, and 7p shells in that order, but there are exceptions, such as uranium.
Radium chloride is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula RaCl2. It is a radium salt of hydrogen chloride. It was the first radium compound isolated in a pure state. Marie Curie and André-Louis Debierne used it in their original separation of radium from barium. The first preparation of radium metal was by the electrolysis of a solution of this salt using a mercury cathode.
Ebenezer McBurney Byers was an American socialite, sportsman, and industrialist. He won the 1906 U.S. Amateur in golf. He died from jawbone cancer after consuming Radithor, a patent medicine made from radium salts dissolved in water.
The Radium Girls were female factory workers who contracted radiation poisoning from painting radium dials – watch dials and hands with self-luminous paint. The incidents occurred at three factories in the United States: one in Orange, New Jersey, beginning around 1917; one in Ottawa, Illinois, beginning in the early 1920s; and one in Waterbury, Connecticut, also in the 1920s.
Radioluminescence is the phenomenon by which light is produced in a material by bombardment with ionizing radiation such as alpha particles, beta particles, or gamma rays. Radioluminescence is used as a low level light source for night illumination of instruments or signage. Radioluminescent paint is occasionally used for clock hands and instrument dials, enabling them to be read in the dark. Radioluminescence is also sometimes seen around high-power radiation sources, such as nuclear reactors and radioisotopes.
Radium (88Ra) has no stable or nearly stable isotopes, and thus a standard atomic weight cannot be given. The longest lived, and most common, isotope of radium is 226Ra with a half-life of 1600 years. 226Ra occurs in the decay chain of 238U. Radium has 34 known isotopes from 201Ra to 234Ra.
Radium Springs is an unincorporated community located on the southeast outskirts of Albany in Dougherty County, Georgia, United States. It is part of the Albany Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Radium bromide is the bromide salt of radium, with the formula RaBr2. It is produced during the process of separating radium from uranium ore. This inorganic compound was discovered by Pierre and Marie Curie in 1898, and the discovery sparked a huge interest in radiochemistry and radiotherapy. Since elemental radium oxidizes readily in air and water, radium salts are the preferred chemical form of radium to work with. Even though it is more stable than elemental radium, radium bromide is still extremely toxic, and can explode under certain conditions.
The Mesilla Valley is a geographic feature of Southern New Mexico and far West Texas. It was formed by repeated heavy spring floods of the Rio Grande.
Radium jaw, or radium necrosis, is a historic occupational disease brought on by the ingestion and subsequent absorption of radium into the bones of radium dial painters. It also affected those consuming radium-laden patent medicines.
The Radium Beerhall is the oldest surviving bar and grill house in Johannesburg. It is located on the corner of Louis Botha Avenue and 9th Street in Orange Grove. It regularly hosts live music.
Henry Harrington Janeway was an American physician and pioneer of radiation therapy.
Elizabeth Rona was a Hungarian nuclear chemist, known for her work with radioactive isotopes. After developing an enhanced method of preparing polonium samples, she was recognized internationally as the leading expert in isotope separation and polonium preparation. Between 1914 and 1918, during her postdoctoral study with George de Hevesy, she developed a theory that the velocity of diffusion depended on the mass of the nuclides. As only a few atomic elements had been identified, her confirmation of the existence of "Uranium-Y" was a major contribution to nuclear chemistry. She was awarded the Haitinger Prize by the Austrian Academy of Sciences in 1933.
Radium fluoride is an inorganic compound with a chemical formula of RaF2. This salt, like all radium compounds, is highly radioactive. It can be coprecipitated with lanthanide fluorides. Radium fluoride has the same crystal form as calcium fluoride (fluorite). However, calculations suggest that radium fluoride vapor consists of RaF2 molecules, with a bond angle of 118°, due to substantial covalent interaction within the molecule.
Radium sulfate (or radium sulphate) is an inorganic compound with the formula RaSO4 and an average molecular mass of 322.088 g/mol. This white salt is the least soluble of all known sulfate salts. It was formerly used in radiotherapy and smoke detectors, but this has been phased out in favor of less hazardous alternatives.
Municipalities and communities of Jones County, Texas, United States | ||
|---|---|---|
| Cities |  | |
| Unincorporated communities | ||
| Footnotes | ‡This populated place also has portions in an adjacent county or counties | |