a radioactive transuranic metallic element; produced by bombarding plutonium with helium nuclei
A highly fissile transuranic chemical element (symbol Cm) with an atomic number of 96.
The name curium comes from the suffix -ium added to "Curie," honoring physicists Pierre and Marie Curie. American scientists Glenn Seaborg, Ralph James, and Albert Ghiorso coined the term in 1944 after synthesizing the element.