What is Francium?
Francium is a radioactive chemical element which is classified among the alkaline earth metals on the periodic table. It is extremely unstable, with a very short half life — approximately 20 minutes — and, as a result, it has few applications outside the realm of scientific research. The bulk of the world’s francium is synthesized in labs; it only appears in nature in very small trace amounts, and it is an extremely rare element. Due to its rarity, consumers are unlikely to interact with francium. In nature, francium is found in small amounts in uranium ores. As it breaks down, it decays into radium, astatine, or radon. It can also be artificially created in a lab from actinium or thorium. Because the element is so short lived, little is known about it physical properties, although it presumably shares traits with other alkaline earth metals. On the periodic table of elements, francium is identified with the symbol Fr, and it has an atomic number of 87. The existence of this element wa
