Why Is the Rarest Element on Earth Also a Cancer Treatment? — The History of Astatine

Subscribe to ⁨‪@VEIN.Materials‬ ⏱️ If this documentary was worth your time, consider buying me a coffee. Every coffee goes directly toward researching, writing, and producing the next story, so I can keep making documentaries like this. Thanks for watching, and for supporting independent storytelling. https://buymeacoffee.com/VEIN.Material This video tells the story of astatine, the rarest element on Earth, and explains why a substance so scarce that less than a gram exists in the entire planet's crust is now being used to treat cancer patients in hospitals in Japan and the United States. From its accidental creation at Berkeley in 1940 to its current role in cutting-edge cancer trials, this is a deep dive into the physics, chemistry, and medical history of element 85. It traces the decades-long gap in the periodic table, the failed claims to have discovered it, and the strange combination of properties that make it both nearly impossible to study and uniquely suited to killing tumor cells with almost surgical precision. Along the way it explains why, despite being discovered over 80 years ago, astatine still isn't an approved drug. What's covered in this video: How Dale Corson, Kenneth MacKenzie, and Emilio Segrè created element 85 at the Berkeley Radiation Laboratory in 1940 by firing alpha particles at bismuth using the sixty-inch cyclotron. Why earlier claimed discoveries like "alabamine" and "helvetium" turned out to be false, and how astatine finally got its name at a 1949 Amsterdam chemistry conference. How astatine's position in the halogen column, just below iodine, tricks the thyroid's sodium iodide symporter into absorbing it as if it were nutrition. Why astatine's alpha particle decay makes it so effective at destroying cancer cells within a two- to three-cell radius while sparing surrounding tissue. Why iodine-131, discovered by John Livingood and Glenn Seaborg, became the dominant thyroid treatment instead of astatine, thanks to its much longer eight-day half-life. How other alpha emitters like bismuth-213, actinium-225, and radium-223 compare to astatine-211 and why each falls short. The controversial 1954 human experiments at Berkeley's Crocker Laboratory led by Joseph Hamilton, including their ties to the wartime plutonium injection program. Why Berta Karlik's 1943 discovery of natural astatine in uranium and thorium decay chains in Vienna shows just how vanishingly rare the element truly is on Earth. Why astatine-211's seven hour twelve minute half-life makes it a logistical nightmare, requiring production and use within hours rather than days. How only around 30 cyclotrons worldwide, including facilities at Osaka University, Duke University, Sichuan University, Nantes, and Copenhagen, can even produce astatine-211. The chemistry problem of "deastatination," where enzymes called deiodinases strip astatine from its carrier molecules before it reaches its target. The landmark 2008 Duke University Medical Center clinical trial led by Michael Zalutsky using astatine-tagged antibodies to treat recurrent malignant brain tumors. ▶️ Watch Next: Why Did We Choose Plutonium Over Americium for Space Probes? — The History of Plutonium Why Did We Choose Plutonium Over Americium... Why Did We Choose Plutonium Over Uranium for the Bomb? — The History of Uranium Why Did We Choose Plutonium Over Uranium f... Why Did We Choose Uranium Over Thorium? — The History of Thorium Why Did We Choose Uranium Over Thorium? — ... Mentioned in this video: astatine, element 85, Dale Corson, Kenneth MacKenzie, Emilio Segrè, Berkeley Radiation Laboratory, University of California Berkeley, bismuth, sixty-inch cyclotron, eka-iodine, alabamine, helvetium, anglohelvetium, Amsterdam chemistry conference, thyroid, sodium iodide symporter, iodine-131, John Livingood, Glenn Seaborg, Saul Hertz, Massachusetts General Hospital, bismuth-213, actinium-225, radium-223, astatine-211, Joseph Hamilton, Crocker Laboratory, plutonium injection program, Berta Karlik, Traude Bernert, Institute for Radium Research Vienna, francium, deastatination, deiodinases, Michael Zalutsky, Duke University Medical Center, tenascin, glioma, Osaka University, Sichuan University, Nantes, Copenhagen, Argonne, Brookhaven