Periodic Trends

Dale R. Corson, Kenneth R. Mackenzie, and Emilio G. Sergè joined forces to make the ultimate superhero on a bright day in 1940 at the University of California, Berkeley. On the 85th trial, they did it, they brought their superhero to life, but rather they formed something they never meant to, they formed something evil. As he rose from the bombardment chamber, his toxic stench filled the air, prompting Astatine’s creators to cover their noses. As is routine, they took his weight, 210; group, halogen; half-life, at most 8 hours; and finally gave him a number, 85. They knew he was rare, the rarest on earth; it was decided that Astatine should be studied further. His creators received Nobel Prizes for his discovery, but he felt so out of place; he was happy that those around him were accepting him. However, when it came time to take note of all his isotopes, his creators noticed… Astatine could never be stable. They shunned him when they realized this, causing him to grow a deep hatred for anything stable. His only goal? To make the world just as unstable as he was. He thought he was living proof that the universe could be forced into chaos.

From birth, Astatine, from the Greek name astatos, meaning unstable, caused people around him to become unruly. Instability was all he had ever known; he didn’t know how to reach out for help or for something he needed, too ashamed of reliving his past. So instead, he caused financial collapse, mental breakdown, political uprising, and powerful earthquakes meant to rattle the world. He was born from the bombardment of bismuth with alpha particles and a little bit of magic to make him come alive. He grew up watching the Powerpuff Girls, relating to their creation and pretending to be like them until he realized he was spice and everything nice, the villain in his favorite episode. He realized this when he could never fit into a category of metal or nonmetal; he was bullied and tortured into a deep hatred for the Noble Gases, a group representing pure stability. They became his arch nemesis, his true hatred, and his one love.

In 1960, Astatine wanders the streets of Chile, leaving a wake of destruction in his path. Wherever he wanders couple of fights, sudden bankruptcy, and mental corruption show his path to his arch nemesis. The noble gasses quicky track him down, searching and scanning an area until they find Astatine. A massive fight breaks out, the noble gases slam Astatine from side to side, playing soccer in the air. Astatine’s vision blurs as tears of pain well in his eyes, and he gets slammed side to side, whiplash paining his neck as hard feet push into his back and stomach. The torture seems to never end until Argon misses a kick, and Astatine’s body falls to the ground, causing a massive explosion of his power. Unstability rattles Chile in a 9.5 magnitude earthquake, the most powerful earthquake ever recorded, lasting 10 minutes and causing mass destruction. The earthquake, called the Valdivia earthquake, killed 1000 to 6000 people, and it caused tsunamis in other Pacific areas like Hawaii, Japan, and the Philippines. The tsunami that followed in Chile is 8m or 26 feet tall, resulting in thousands of deaths that would have been prevented if the fight hadn’t happened. This disaster cost up to $4.3 to 8.5 billion dollars today. A universal and elemental hatred of Astatine as the blame gets shoved onto him. He escapes in shame back into the shadows of his lair, back home in the abandoned labs from which he came. They don’t ever judge his outbursts, although the deep shadows offer physical shelter, they cannot protect him from the guilt that consumes Astatine.

His mental health spirals as Astatine became obsessed with becoming stable, to be like the noble gases, to be perfect and loved by his creators. He wishes desperately to become invisible, never to have been made or blamed for his intense bullying. To achieve this, he decides to become stable through covalent bonding, the sharing of electrons between two elements. He tends to bond with the alkali metals since they have one valence electron. Waiting in an alleyway, his dark black color and metallic sheen made him blend perfectly into the shadows. He waits for a friend to form a bond with him, to become like the noble gases, stable. Hydrogen sneaks away into the dark, dim alleyway. Astatine’s highly reactive state quickly forms a covalent bond with the other atom. Together, they form the acid Astatine Hydride, a chemical compound that is soluble in water to form the strongest of the binary acids. Binary acids are certain compounds where hydrogen is bound to another non-metallic element; binary doesn’t refer to the number of molecules but rather the number of elements. This bond is extra special since it forms a really cool type of bond called hydrohalic acid, which is what happens when the non-metal the hydrogen bonds to happens to be a halogen. This makes Astatine way more stable, and he learns what it feels like to not leave a path of total instability behind him. Being stable means being accepted in his mind, so becoming accepted felt only right to him.

Having a taste of the good life, Astatine craves it again, becoming more and more reactive and trying his hardest to become stable. In recent years, something Astatine couldn’t dream of happened: he began being asked to be studied again! With better tools for analysis and computations, researchers gained more insight into Astatine’s chemical behavior. They find he is chemically similar to Iodine, they have similar structure, properties, characteristics, and properties. They also form similar bonds with similar elements. In this way, he becomes useful as researchers discover that certain isotopes of Astatine could be controlled and he could be directed with precision.

Lately, he has been feeling less alone, since more research has been coming out in the last decade than since his discovery. He has become a sort of anti-hero. Researchers now have a better understanding of his chemical and radiochemical properties. You can now find him in traces left by some targeted cancer therapies. For the first time, Astatine felt useful and good, his power used for saving lives instead of destroying them. Scientists adapted to some isotopes’ short half-life and are able to study the element’s properties. This renewed admiration and interest only made Astatine feel better about being so unusual. He felt so accepted and understood as he had never before.

Works Cited:

“Astatine: Element Properties and Uses.” Stanford Advanced Materials, 31 October 2025, https://www.samaterials.com/blog/astatine-element-properties-and-uses.html. Accessed 20 January 2026.

Liu, Lu. “Advances in the Chemistry of Astatine and Implications for the Development of Radiopharmaceuticals.” ACS Publications, 05 August 2021, https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.accounts.1c00327. Accessed 20 January 2026.

“1960 Valdivia earthquake.” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1960_Valdivia_earthquake. Accessed 20 January 2026.

Rasmussen, John O. “Astatine | Radioactive Halogen, Uses in Medicine & Research.” Britannica, 6 December 2025, https://www.britannica.com/science/astatine. Accessed 20 January 2026.

Stewart, Doug. “Astatine Element Facts.” The Periodic Table, 8 November 2012, https://www.chemicool.com/elements/astatine.html. Accessed 20 January 2026.

Wikipedia. “Hydrogen astatide.” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_astatide. Accessed 20 January 2026.