Americium - a radioactive, domestic do-gooder

Invented during war, radioactive americium has become a bit of a do-gooder that is in most homes. Find out more with AUT's Allan Blackman in episode 3 of Elemental.

Invented during war, radioactive americium has become a bit of a do-gooder that is - surprisingly - in most homes.

Professor Allan Blackman from AUT tells us how the heavy element 95 was discovered during the Manhattan Project and named geographically - after America - because it sits near the bottom of the periodic table below Europium, which is named after Europe.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details