Bohrium is a synthetic, radioactive element in the transactinide group with an atomic number of 107. It has a short half-life and no commercial uses. It is produced by bombarding other elements and is potentially dangerous to human health. Researchers hope to learn more about it through continued study.
Bohrium is a chemical element classified in the transactinide group in the periodic table of elements. Little is known about this element, as it can only be produced synthetically, and is of very short duration; the longest-lived isotope has a half-life of about 22 seconds. Due to the expense involved in manufacturing bohrium and the element’s short life span, no commercial uses have been developed for this element, although it is sometimes used in scientific research.
This element is produced by bombarding other elements such as bismuth. Using very precise scientific equipment, researchers can identify even minute traces of bohrium isotopes and learn about their properties before they decay. Like other transactinide elements, bohrium is radioactive and is assumed to be metallic. Bohrium is also sometimes referred to as the transuranium element, meaning that it has a higher atomic number than uranium. Transuranium elements share a number of traits, including radioactivity and extreme instability that make them difficult to study.
This element is identified by the symbol Bh, and has an atomic number of 107. Bohrium is believed to share some traits with rhenium, another metallic chemical element. You may also see bohrium referred to as unnilseptium, a temporary name given to the element by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry during a name dispute.
Researchers in Russia said they isolated the element in 1976; their efforts were confirmed by P. Armbusster and G. Munzenberg of the Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung in West Germany in 1981. German researchers were credited with the discovery of the element, which they initially named nielsbohrium, after Niels Henrik David Bohr. Eventually, this name was determined to be a bit embarrassing, and the element became known as bohrium, although researchers in Dubna, Russia also proposed “nielsbohrium” as the name for element 105, which was later called dubnium.
This element is potentially dangerous to human health, as it is radioactive, but it exists so briefly and in such small traces that its radioactivity isn’t a big deal. Ordinary people are unlikely to encounter bohrium, and scientists who work with it use a number of precautions to minimize radiation exposure. The researchers hope that continued study of this element could yield a more stable isotope and perhaps reveal more about it.
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