Hazardous Radioactive Diamond

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A bit of a mystery with this article from the Winter 1958-59 edition of "Gems & Gemmology." What is radium-X ?

So, looking for an isotope with a half life of 12.5 years in the radium decay series -

by Tosaka

There isn't anything with that half life. It's a mistake and they mean lead 210, with a half life shown above as 22.3 years. Its historic name is radium D, not radium X. Wikipedia says the half life of Pb²¹⁰ is 22.2 years. This Stanford RSDS states 20.4 years. Then there's 21.4+/-0.5 years found by Eckelmann et al, this 1960 work published in the Physical Review - "Half-Life of Pb²¹⁰"

Whatever the half life, the actual damage to the ring finger wouldn't be caused by lead 210 decay, but rather the 1.16 MeV betas produced by its daughter, bismuth 210.

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Unrelated to this post, below is an example of

eclectic science esoterica 

Lavoisier Lab 1775

photo Jorge Royan

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