"Curium (
/ˈkjʊəriəm/ kewr-ee-əm) is a transuranic radioactive chemical element with the symbol Cm and atomic
number 96. This element of the actinide series was named after Marie Skłodowska-Curie and her husband Pierre Curie - both were known for their research on radioactivity. Curium was first intentionally produced and identified in July 1944 by the group of Glenn T. Seaborg at the University of California, Berkeley. The discovery was kept secret and only released to the public in November 1945. Most curium is produced by bombarding uranium orplutonium with neutrons in nuclear reactors – one tonne of spent nuclear fuel contains about 20 grams of curium."
"Curium is a hard, dense, silvery metal with a relatively high melting point and boiling point for an actinide. Whereas it is paramagnetic at ambient conditions, it becomes antiferromagnetic upon cooling, and other magnetic transitions are also observed for many curium compounds. In compounds, curium usually exhibits valence +3 and sometimes +4, and the +3 valence is predominant in solutions. Curium readily oxidizes, and its oxides are a dominant form of this element. It forms strongly fluorescent complexes with various organic compounds, but there is no evidence of its incorporation into bacteria and archaea. When introduced into the human body, curium accumulates in the bones, lungs and liver, where it promotes cancer."