A team of researchers using the ISOLDE nuclear-physics facility at CERN has measured for the first time the so-called electron affinity of the chemical element astatine, the rarest naturally occurring ...

This week, we meet the element astatine, whose very name tells us almost half of all that we know about it. Astatine's chemical symbol is At and its chemical number is 85. Its name comes from the ...

Astatine is among the world's rarest elements – with a maximum half-life of just eight hours, found in tiny amounts in natural radioactive decay chains, but also produced by bombarding bismuth with ...

Astatine is the rarest naturally occurring element on Earth and one of the least studied within the periodic table, mostly because it lives up to its name, which is the Greek word for "unstable." ...

Studying the infinitesimally rare element astatine can feel like chasing shadows. All of its isotopes are radioactive, the most stable having a half-life of 8 hours, and the estimated stock of ...

The radioactive element astatine, the name of which is derived from the Greek word for 'instability,' is so rare on Earth that it has not yet been investigated to any greater extent and, as a ...

Scientists have carried out ground-breaking experiments to investigate the atomic structure of astatine (atomic number 85), the rarest naturally occurring element on Earth. Through experiments ...

A fundamental property of the rarest element on Earth, astatine, has been discovered for the first time, scientists say. Astatine occurs naturally; however, scientists estimate much less than an ounce ...

Katie has a PhD in maths, specializing in the intersection of dynamical systems and number theory. She reports on topics from maths and history to society and animals. Katie has a PhD in maths, ...

A fundamental property of the rarest element on Earth, astatine, has been discovered for the first time, scientists say. Astatine occurs naturally; however, scientists estimate much less than an ounce ...

Excerpted from A Tale of 7 Elements, by Eric Scerri. Reprinted with permission of Oxford University Press, June 2013. The story surrounding element 85 is one of the most complex and interesting among ...