Actinides are a group of 15 elements found in the periodic table 7, with atomic numbers from 89 to 103. They share similar characteristics called internal transition elements, just as the lanthanides belong to the group called rare earths, they are from times of short lives and are radioactive. They are heavy, toxic due to their radioactivity, destroying tissues in the human body and producing cancerous tumors. Some of these elements reach the bones, modifying the red cells or reducing their production. These elements are:
Thorium: Symbol Th, 90 is its atomic number, it is a silvery white metal of slow oxidation, it is radioactive making it very unstable, when heat and being dust it flashes with a white light that dazzles the eye, used in aircraft engines and is development that in the future will be used as nuclear fuel. Investigated in the year 1828 by Jons Jakob Berzelius of Sweden.
Protactinium: it is highly reactive and toxic, it has no other use than scientific research, it is scarce in the environment, it has an intense silver-colored metallic luster, first identified in 1913 when Kasimir Fajans and OH Göhring, its atomic number is 91 and its symbol is Pa.
Uranium: In 1789 this metal was called Uranium by the planet Uranus that was discovered in 1781, discovered by Martin Heinrich Klaproth, it is used in nuclear reactors, its symbol is the U, with a metallic grayish appearance, with very little concentration in the environment such as water, rocks, extracted from some minerals such as urantia, a characteristic of this metal is that it is used in the manufacture of bullets that become very polluting after being fired, contaminating the wounds leading to the person to death, an example of this is the Hiroshima bomb that was made of uranium and radioactive contamination still wreaks havoc affecting crops reaching living beings causing cancer. Atomic number 92.
Neptunium: with the symbol Np and its atomic number is 93, it is solid, silvery white and synthetic of crystalline diversity and is mixed with several elements of this periodic table, like all the others it is equally radioactive, it is found with the exploitation of Uranium. It is harmful to humans when exposed to it, affecting the kidneys, heart and brain. In 1940 it was found by MacMillan and Abelson and its name is due to the planet Neptune.
Plutonium: Powerful for being used as fuel for nuclear reactors, its power is such that it was made in the atomic bomb that the United States dropped on Japan, Nagasaki, this bomb caused unfair havoc since it was made of Plutonium. It can be obtained artificially by disintegrating neptunium, its symbol is Pu and its atomic number is 94, it is very toxic and harmful to health, its name is due to the planet Pluto,
Americium: Atomic number 95, symbol Am, of certain usefulness in the home and in factories for smoke detectors because it has a slight amount of this chemical element, it owes its name to the American continent, soft, malleable, silver-white, metallic, emits gamma rays used as a portable source for X-ray equipment, a group of researchers under the command of Glenn Seaborg discovered it in the year 1944.
Curio: In honor of the scientists Pierre and Marie Curie it was given its name, who discovered the radius, with the symbol Cm and atomic number 96, as well as its companion element is bright silver white, it has been elaborated in laboratories since the years 1944, that is why it is synthetic, due to its strength and heat in its expression in atomic degradation it can make a solution in portable thermoelectric plants.
Berkelium: it is produced in laboratories despite being very scarce, it is used to study radioactivity, discovered in the mid-1949s, it is the fifth element discovered after Neptunium, with the symbol Bk, atomic number 97.
Californium: With symbol Cf and atomic number 98, it is heavy with a silver-white color and metallic appearance, it is used for other elements due to its atomic mass, it is highly dangerous because it is explosive and its exposure accumulates in the bones, it limits the reproduction of red blood cells are used for nuclear ignition of reactors. It was obtained for the first time in the year 1950 in Berkeley, California; hence its name.
Einsteinium: It was named in honor of Albert Einstein, although it was discovered in December 1952 in the remains of the first thermonuclear explosion in the Pacific, with the symbol Es and atomic number 99, it was created in a laboratory used for research.
