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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

When it comes to the periodic table, the United States really blew its chance to make a name for itself. If you look over a map of all the elements named for cities, states, countries, and continents, ...