Einsteinium

A radioactive element named einsteinium was once created by Albert Ghiorso in 1952. Ghiorso was a nuclear researcher at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory. He was one of the many scientists to ever contribute to the discoveries of 12 chemical elements. Some of these elements include Californium or Fermium. Einsteinium is known as part of the actinide series. The actinide series is group 3 of the periodic table that includes elements that are all metal and all radioactive. Einsteinium has very comparable properties to the actinide series, which means that it is, in fact, metal and is radioactive. Actinides are also attacked by the element, oxygen or acids. Einsteinium was first isolated in the year 1952 when it was in leftover residue located in the south pacific after a test explosion. This explosion is known as a thermonuclear explosion which is an explosion that starts with a fission reaction in order to cause a reaction of hydrogen. Other elements relied on Einsteinium in order to arrange the element. For example, Einsteinium was used to arrange an element called mendelevium.

There are 17 known isotopes of Einsteinium and the most stable is Einsteinium-252. Einsteinium has an atomic number of 99 and has an atomic weight of 252 and its atomic symbol is written as Es. This element was the 7th transuranium element to be created.  A transuranium element has an atomic number that is greater than 92. It’s only use is for research about science and nothing else. The element Einsteinium is considered toxic because of its radioactive power. This element is formed when a uranium atom took neutrons and went through a lot of capture and decay which then lead to Einsteinium. This is exactly what happened with the thermonuclear explosion and that was how Einsteinium came to be.

Einsteinium was used to create heavier elements like mendelevium as said before. This was the only use for Einsteinium, which was for scientific research. There were no other uses for it. This was mostly because of its radioactivity as it was hard for scientists to work on the element. The creation of Einsteinium was due to the bombarding of plutonium. Einsteinium is a very unique element in the sense that it is known to decay very fast, in turn, it is very difficult for the scientists who are studying it because isn’t there for very long. This could be costly for scientists if they are trying to experiment with Einsteinium and other substances. For example Californium. Einsteinium decays very fast into that element which then makes it toxic so scientists can’t be near it.

As stated before, Fermium was one of the first 12 chemical elements but coincidentally it was also created in the debris of the explosion. Both Fermium and Einsteinium had similar components and scientists came up with developed methods in order to cleanse the both of them. An example of this is in a paper written by D.E. Ferguson who talked about the elements being in nuclear reactors and those elements enduring radioactive decay. Lastly, though there is very little research that has been done about Einsteinium compared to other elements, Einsteinium is still one of the most unique elements that exist.

 

Information Fluency

I used several questions to research my topic in depth. I had to ask myself about the key features of this element. For example, you start off with the basic questions like “Who created this element” and “What was it used for?” After answering those question you may ask a series of questions that can lead you onto different discoveries. This could mean asking in-depth “How this element was created/discovered?” or even how “Einsteinium could be alike any other element?”. Lastly, my last question was “Is Einsteinium part of a specific group on the periodic table? Which part?”

In this project, I used digital tools like Ebsco host and the world wide web in order to find out key information about my element. Another new tool I also didn’t realize was there for me to use was the Riverside Digital Library as well as the Encylopedia of Britannica. Within these sites, they taught me how to use the information correctly meaning how I can correctly cite my sources.

The process I used to investigate my topic was to firstly, research keywords of my questions about Einsteinium in order to get information about those questions. An example of this is searching “Einsteinium discovery” instead of searching “How was einsteinium created/discovered?”. After that, I used the research to make well thought out paragraphs of my elements information. Lastly, my process included being open-minded of the information I may find and to never stop asking because that is how you gain more knowledge of your project.

I verified and cited my information by always making sure I check if there is a viable author, publication date, if it is outdated and if the site is secure before I use any information from that specific site. Another way I verified my information was to always cite it in APA format in order to keep it consistent.

In my opinion, the process of this project went pretty well due to the fact I had enough information to explain my thoughts thoroughly. I think I also got a lot of information to answer my questions which made me more knowledgeable and excited to learn more about chemistry and elements. In the future, I think I could use different sources of information because a lot of the time I stumbled upon the same information on the same cites. Whereas if I used videos or books that outcome could’ve been different.

Sources

Einsteinium. (2018). Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia, 1; Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=funk&AN=ei020000&site=ehost-live 

Periodic Table of the Elements: Einsteinium. (2019). Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th Edition, 1. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=rch&AN=134487461&site=ehost-live

Actinide series. (2019). Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th Edition, 1. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=rch&AN=134518316&site=ehost-live

 Haynes, W. M. (2011). CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, 91st edition: http://www.hbcponline.com/ Retrieved April 7, 2011 

Schmider, W. Robert (2011). In memorial, Albert Ghiorso, 1915-2010 https://newscenter.lbl.gov/2011/01/03/ghiorso-obit/

The Editors of Encyclopedia Brittannica (2017) Thermonuclear Bomb https://www.britannica.com/technology/thermonuclear-bomb 

Haynes, W. M. (2011). CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, 95th edition: Retrieved from http://www.rsc.org/periodic-table/element/99/einsteinium 

Ross, Rachel (2017) Facts About Einsteinium https://www.livescience.com/40307-einsteinium.html