PO for polonium

Until recently, polonium was a little-known metalloid going by the symbol Po on the periodic table of elements and the atomic number 84. That all changed in late 2006, when the substance was fingered as a possible murder weapon in the

mysterious death of Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko in London. Which of the following is true about this shadowy substance?

A. Polonium was named after Poland.
B. The daughter of polonium’s discoverer was the substance’s first victim.
C. Polonium has a variety of uses in industry.
D. All of the above.

A. Yes, polonium was named after Polonium

Polonium was discovered in 1898 by Marie Curie, the Warsaw-born scientist and recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903 and Chemistry in 1911.

Curie named the substance after Poland in the hope that it would raise the profile of her homeland, which at that time was under Russian, Prussian, and Austrian domination.

B. Yes, the daughter of polonium's discoverer was the substance's first victim.

Irene Joliot Curie, the daughter of polonium's discoverer, Marie Curie, was the first to die because of exposure to it. A sealed capsule of polonium exploded in Curie's laboratory and her death from leukemia a decade later was attributed to the accident.

Polonium 210 is deadly because it emits alpha particles. These particles are easily stopped by the skin, but become hugely damaging if they get inside the human body by swallowing, by inhalation, or through a wound.

C. Yes, polonium has a variety of uses in industry.

Polonium 210 is used for making static eliminators that remove dust from film lenses and laboratory balances, as well as in paper and textile plants.

The substance works by producing an electric charge on nearby air, attracting bits of dust with static and neutralizing them. Once free of static, the dust is easy to brush away. All told, though, the market for polonium is fairly small, with nuclear reactors generating a total of just 100 grams of polonium 210 worldwide each year.

D. All of the above is correct.

Polonium's colorful history includes each fact mentioned above as well as its nefarious use in the Litvinenko killing. With a half-life of 138 days, polonium is relatively easy to use as a poison, compared with other radioactive materials, some of which have a half-life only as long as three minutes.

Specialists believe that as little as 0.1 micrograms of polonium 210 would be enough to kill the equivalent of a single aspirin tablet divided into 10 million pieces.

The Globalist Quiz is produced by The Globalist, a Washington-based research organization that promotes awareness of world affairs. © 2006 The Globalist, www.theglobalist.com.