Radioactive Lanthanum 138

Today we will take a closer look at another naturally occurring radioactive element, Lanthanum! Lanthanum is a rare earth element and it’s the first element in the lanthanide series. It has an atomic number of 57 and was first discovered by a Swedish chemist, Carl Gustaf Mosander in 1839 but pure Lanthanum wasn’t obtained until […]

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Radioactive Vintage Lenses

In the 1940s, scientists and lens designers at Kodak, a world-famous camera and filmmaker, started experimenting with mixing rare earth elements into their lenses. After a series of tests, they found out that by adding Thorium 232 to lenses they can improve the quality of images produced. Not long after, other companies followed and as […]

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Radioactive Lutetium (176 & 177)

Uranium and Thorium along with Potassium are the most common, naturally occurring radioactive isotopes but there are also many other, lesser-known ones. One of them is Lutetium, which will be today’s main topic. Lutetium is the last element in the Lanthanide series and it has been discovered in 1907 by French scientist Georges Urbain. Today […]

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