Down at the bottom of the periodic table are some elements that I'd like to introduce,
They're artificially made and some are weapons grade but mostly they don't have any use.
Round about 70 years ago, the table only numbered 92,
But we needed some more just to settle the score with Nazis back in World War 2.
So we took us a nucleus of uranium and in the cyclotron we fired a neutron in,
The neutron stayed and then it beta decayed, and then we had neptunium.
But neptunium it was no good for the bomb so they went back to the laborotories,
And when they found plutonium, they made up a ton and then we dropped it on the Japanese.
So when god made the elements he sold us short,
Because he only gave us 92,
But now that we make the element we'll keep making more,
Even if they got no practical use.
Now Americium isotope number 241, they found it only alpha decays.
So to prevent any harm it's in your smoke alarm and it's in your smoke alarm and it's saving your life everyday,
The next one along it is Curium, named after Marie and Pierre,
And it's sitting in the space probes on the Moon and Mars as the alpha source in their spectrometers.
Well Berkelium, it's good for nothing at all but Californium will neutron emit,
So if you're looking for something to start your nuclear reactor, Californium's the metal that fits.
Einsteinium and Fermium the next actinides were discovered in the H bomb debris,
And just like Mendeleevium, Nobelium, Lawrencium, there ain't no use for them we can see.
Chorus
Now the US of A and the USSR were in the middle of the old cold war,
And as a matter of pride both claimed the first transactinides - elements 107 from 104,
Because there's honour and fame in being able to name the elements that you claim to have found,
But the matter wasn't settled until 1997 when the IUPAC shared them out.
Dubnium and Bohrium went to the east and Rutherfordium and Seaborgium west,
And that's a hell of a tryst to name a thing that exists for a minute or ten at the best.
The Germans named Hassium, Meitnerium, Damstadtium, Roentgenium, Copernicium too.
Now there's Flerovium and Livermorium but ununtrium, ununpentium, ununseptium and ununoctium ain't got names, they're just too new.
credits
from Science Songs 2,
released August 21, 2012
Produced by Jay Enitcknap
