Its existence was predicted in the 1800s and confirmed in 1940 when physicists Dale R. Corson, Kenneth Ross MacKenzie, and Emilio G. Segrè produced Astatine synthetically at the University of California. Yet, decades after its discovery, very little is known about this element.

Given it has no stable isotopes, that’s understandable. Between the time you leave for work and the time you get home, Astatine’s most stable isotopes have already decayed. Astatine is also extremely rare: it’s estimated that there is less than one gram of astatine in the Earth's crust at any given time.

In fact, a sample of the pure element has never been assembled, because any macroscopic specimen would be immediately vaporised by the heat of its radioactivity.

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