Most people obtain a bachelor’s degree before getting their masters, and even that is a prerequisite for a doctorate. Most people, however, don’t discover a new chemical element. Marguerite Perey ...

There is about an ounce of francium in the Earth’s crust. It’s the most unstable of the first 101 elements. It lasts only 45 seconds longer than an episode of Archer. So how did anyone discover it?

Mlle. Marguerite Perey of the Curie Institute, Paris, discovered francium in 1939. It is the heaviest known member of the alkali metal series and occurs as a result of an alpha disintegration of ...