Astatine’s rarity may
save us from cancer
Janet Kuypers
1/15/22 Twitter-length Periodic Table poem
for element #85, Astatine (At), and isotope Astatine-211 (211At)
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You come from the decay of others,
radioactive destruction in your wake.
One of the rarest elements on earth,
you’re so unstable, but a part of you,
Astatine-211, may weakly penetrate
cancer cells. Could this rare element
have saved my mother, before cancer
took her away forever—
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