The element radium can be found in extremely tiny amounts in the Earth’s crust and oceans, and in its pure form it is a soft silvery metal. To an untrained eye, a small piece of radium may look like a ...

(CBS NEWS) -- More than half of Americans could be drinking tap water tainted with a radioactive element. A new report from the nonprofit Environmental Working Group (EWG) finds more than 170 million ...

Salesmen (and the press) learned that tonics labeled ”radium,” once the most expensive substance on Earth, flew off the shelves. Meanwhile, scientists scrambled to learn what the radioactive material ...

Radium, the most widely publicized of earth’s 92 elements, is now being advertised for sale in the back pages of metallurgical journals. Reason: despite 40 years of hullabaloo, man has found very few ...

Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com. “What is radium and why is it dangerous?” – ...

(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.) Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like ...