This element is named after Marie and Pierre Curie — the married couple who changed our understanding of radioactivity. Curium is a synthetic metal that doesn't exist in nature. It's created inside nuclear reactors by bombarding plutonium with neutrons. Just a few grams cost millions of dollars.
But curium is worth it. It's so radioactive that it glows in the dark and heats itself up. That powerful decay energy powers instruments on Mars rovers and deep-space probes. Think of curium as a tiny nuclear reactor the size of a coin.
Curium was first synthesized in 1944, in the middle of World War II. Glenn Seaborg and his team bombarded plutonium-239 with alpha particles in a cyclotron. The discovery was classified — the world only learned about it after the war ended. Fun fact: Seaborg first revealed curium on a children's radio show.
Today, curium is produced in nuclear reactors. The entire world makes only a few kilograms per year. Most goes to space programs and scientific research on transuranic elements.
Curium is one of the most dangerous materials on Earth. It emits alpha particles, neutrons, and gamma rays. If it enters the body, it accumulates in bones and liver, causing severe radiation damage. It can only be handled remotely, inside special shielded glove boxes with multilayer shielding. Even micrograms require strict dosimetric monitoring.
Curium is named after Marie and Pierre Curie. It's the only element named after a married couple. Marie Curie was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize and the only person to win Nobels in two different sciences.
The APXS instrument on Mars rovers Spirit, Opportunity, and Curiosity used curium-244. It bombarded Martian rocks with alpha particles to determine their chemical composition. Curium helped us study the geology of Mars.
A chunk of curium heats itself to red-hot temperatures. One gram of Cm-242 releases 120 watts of heat — enough to power a light bulb. All that energy comes from alpha decay.
Glenn Seaborg announced the discovery of curium and americium in 1945... on a children's radio show called Quiz Kids. A five-year-old girl asked if any new elements had been found, and he couldn't stay silent.
Metallic curium glows with a purple shimmer in the dark. This isn't phosphorescence — the radiation excites air molecules around the sample, making them emit visible light.
Curium-247 has a half-life of 15.6 million years. But even that's not enough: all curium atoms that could have formed when Earth was born (4.5 billion years ago) would have decayed hundreds of times over.
| Isotope | Mass (u) | Abundance | Half-life | Decay |
|---|---|---|---|---|
243Cm☢ | 243.061389 | synthetic | 29.1 years | α |
244Cm☢ | 244.062753 | synthetic | 18.1 years | α |
245Cm☢ | 245.065491 | synthetic | 8500 years | α |
246Cm☢ | 246.067224 | synthetic | 4730 years | α |
247Cm☢ | 247.070354 | synthetic | 1.56×10⁷ years | α |
248Cm☢ | 248.072349 | synthetic | 3.48×10⁵ years | α |
Cyclotron bombardment of plutonium