Alkaline earth metal · element 88
Radium
Glowed on watch dials. Cost more than diamonds.
Only 1.3% of people are Radium. (estimated)
If you're Radium
You glow, people are drawn to you, and it's not always good for them. Radiant, valuable, and best admired from a safe distance.
Radium once painted watch dials and was sold in tonics; in the 1920s it cost more per gram than any other substance on Earth.
How to get along with Radium
Do
- Admire the glow from a safe distance.
- Keep the exposure short and the memories long.
- Remember that it was once the most valuable thing on Earth.
Don't
- Don't paint yourself with them.
- Don't drink the tonic.
When it goes wrong: The glow is the warning. It's beautiful and it's a dose.
Atomic profile
Every element is placed on six personality dimensions derived from its chemistry. Your answers are placed on the same six, and the closest element wins. How the scoring works
- Reactivity
- 8
- Sociability
- 5
- Stability
- 1
- Energy
- 3
- Rarity
- 9
- Warmth
- 7
Radium in literature
- Daisy Buchanan — The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald (1925)
- Sibyl Vane — The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde (1890)
- Don Juan — Dom Juan, Molière (1665)
Characters from public-domain works, chosen for the same traits. Company, not a verdict.
Closest personalities
The elements whose profiles sit nearest to Radium's. If you got Radium, one of these was probably your runner-up.