Californium
⚛️ In Your World
Californium is one of the heaviest elements to have practical applications. The isotope californium-252 is an incredibly powerful neutron source—a single microgram can produce over 100 million neutrons per minute. This makes it useful for starting up nuclear reactors, as a neutron source for detecting gold and silver ores through neutron activation analysis, and in devices that find metal fatigue in aircraft.
📖 The Discovery Story
Californium was first synthesized in 1950 at the University of California, Berkeley, by the team of Glenn T. Seaborg, Stanley G. Thompson, Albert Ghiorso, and Kenneth Street, Jr. They produced it by bombarding a microscopic target of curium-242 with alpha particles in a cyclotron. The element was named in honor of the state and university of California, where the groundbreaking work on transuranic elements was being done.
📊 Properties at a Glance
| Phase at STP | Solid (presumed) |
| Melting Point | 900 °C / 1652 °F |
| Boiling Point | 1470 °C / 2678 °F (estimated) |
| Electron Configuration | [Rn] 5f¹⁰7s² |
| Abundance in Earth's Crust | Essentially zero |
⚠️ Safety & Handling
Californium is intensely radioactive and extremely hazardous. It is a very strong neutron emitter, which poses a severe radiological threat. If ingested, it accumulates in the skeleton and disrupts red blood cell formation. It must only be handled with specialized remote equipment in heavily shielded hot cells.