Francium, Marguerite Perey, and the Periodic Table of DEATH and Mystery

FYI, I just completed a fairy tale course and will attempt to write this article in that style. And remember, Disney fairy tales have happy endings, but the original folk and fairy tales tended to be, Hans (1, 2) down, more Grimm (3, 4).

What to look for in a fairy tale: ‘flatness’ of tone, repetition—especially of numbers, and everyday magic.

Once upon 1909, outside of Paris, a girl—Marguerite—was born into a relatively affluent family. Her father owned a flour mill, and her mother took care of their five children. But when the young girl was five, tragedy struck with a stock market crash, the start of the first World War, and the death of her father. The family fell into financial ruin and the girl’s mother helped support her children by teaching piano lessons. Marguerite gave up her dreams of becoming a doctor, but with a scholarship, she began studies in chemistry at the École Féminine d’Enseignement Technique to become a lab technician (5).

Then something magical happened.

In Paris, at the Institut du Radium, Madame Marie Curie, looked over graduates of the class of 1929 and selected the top student, Marguerite (who was only 19 years old), to come and work as her technician. “Hence you may be reassured on your future (6).”

This promise, O Best Beloved (9), became both the light and the dark of young Marguerite’s life.

Madame Curie was impressed by Marguerite’s skill and eagerness to learn. The great scientist trained her personally, and for five years, Marguerite was Curie’s préparateur. They worked side-by-side on the spectroscopy of a-particles (decay of 2 protons + 2 neutrons) from the element actinium (Ac, atomic weight 89), one of the most dangerous monsters (radioactive elements) known. Unfortunately, their work was interrupted by Madame Curie’s untimely death in 1934 of aplastic anemia, probably helped along by test tubes containing radioactive materials she carried around in her pockets (7).

“Hence you may be reassured on your future.”

Marguerite continued her work on actinium, and in 1939, found a new element (13) produced by its radioactive decay, which she names Francium (Fr), which itself has a half-life of 22 minutes. Fr was a theorized element of the periodic table with an atomic number of 87, and it took the dedicated work of a 29-year-old technician lacking a university degree to make the discovery (8). However, she did not qualify to present her thesis on Fruntil she attended university to obtain her undergraduate degree. She finally defended in 1946 and received a Docteur ès Sciences Physiques degree.

From that point forward, the young woman whose tragic childhood propelled her to the pinnacle of radioactive science broke barriers right and left. She, like her mentor before her, became a beacon for women in science everywhere. But dear Br’er and Sister (10), Fr and the tiny unseeable radioactive particles—like deadly fairy dust of a magic wand—became her body’s downfall. Marguerite was diagnosed with cancer like so many of those before her, and after a valiant fight, died at the age of 65 in 1975.

“Hence you may be reassured on your future.”

Interested in watching a wonderfully cliched chemist with incredibly frizzy hair speak about Marguerite Perey’s story and Francium? I mean, I have frizzy hair, but this guy totally wins. Check out the Periodic Table of Videos link (Fr-12).