30 June: Strontium

On 30 June 1808 Davy reported to the Royal Society that he had successfully isolated strontium metal for the first time. 10 facts about this element.

1. The chemical symbol for strontium is Sr and its atomic number is 38.

2. It’s a soft silver-white yellowish metallic element which is highly chemically reactive. It is softer than Calcium and harder than Barium.

3. Its melting point is 777 °C and its boiling point is 1377 °C.

4. It was first discovered in 1790 by Adair Crawford and William Cruickshank, who were scientists working on the production of barium, and noticed that an ore found in Lead mines was similar, but also had different properties. Crawford therefore concluded it must be “a new species of earth which has not hitherto been sufficiently examined."

5. The new element was named for Strontian, a village in Scotland close to the lead mines where it was first discovered.

6. Strontium is the 15th most abundant element on Earth.

7. In the 19^th century, its main use was to extract Sugar from sugar beets, using a now obsolete method called the strontian process. In the 20^th century, it was used in the manufacture of cathode ray tubes for Televisions, which has now declined in favour of other display methods. Today, alloys of it have various uses: Strontium aluminate is used in glow in the dark toys; strontium carbonate and other strontium salts are added to Fireworks to give a deep red colour; strontium chloride is sometimes used in Toothpastes for sensitive teeth.

8. Due to its similarities to calcium, the human body can absorb it in a similar way so it can be found in bone. Naturally occurring isotopes are not hazardous to heath at low levels.

9. The same is not true of strontium-90, which is synthetic and highly radioactive, one of the most dangerous components of nuclear fallout, because the body takes it in like calcium.

10. Strontium Dog is a British comics series starring a character called Johnny Alpha, a mutant bounty hunter in Earth's future, after a nuclear war. The series was created in 1978 by writer John Wagner and artist Carlos Ezquerra for Starlord, a short-lived weekly science fiction comic. When Starlord was cancelled, the series transferred to the British science fiction weekly 2000 AD.

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