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Stories filed under: "elements"

DailyDirt: Living In A Material World

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

At a fundamental level, everything is made of the same stuff. But thanks to the countless ways that matter can be combined and recombined at every level from the macro down to the subatomic, the material universe is one of infinite variety with lots of unexplored territory. Here are some recent developments that remind us how big the universe’s Lego set really is:

• Researchers have combined nickel with an organic compound to create a self-assembling material that is extremely similar to graphene but with fewer limitations. The material shares graphene’s high conductivity, but is also potentially more suited to applications like computer chips and solar cells. [url]
• Not all new materials are created in a lab — a mining company has discovered a new mineral that is unlike any known mineral or artificial compound. “Putnisite” is composed of strontium, calcium, chromium, sulphur, carbon, oxygen and hydrogen in the form of purple crystals with pink streaks. [url]
• The periodic table is about to grow following the successful synthesis of the superheavy Element 117. There’s still some review to be done, after which the discoverers will propose a name for the new element. [url]

If you’d like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.

Filed Under: elements, materials

DailyDirt: Better Living Via Chemistry… Just Got A Bit More Complicated

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Almost no one liked chemistry class in high school, and on top of that, colleges use chem classes to weed out pre-med students. So the subject gets a bum rap a lot, and things aren’t about to get any better. The periodic table just officially changed. Merry Christmas to chemistry teachers everywhere! Here are a few more quick links about this news and some chemistry-related stories:

• The atomic weights of ten elements will now be expressed as intervals. And I’m looking forward to how They Might Be Giants will explain this in a song. [url]
• There’s a very boring answer to the question of what would happen if you threw every element together at the same time. It would reach equilibrium after creating a cloud of smoke. [url]
• Do you know where your elements come from? Are they conflict-free? Blood diamonds get a movie, but when will they make a movie about “blood tantalum”? [url]
• Have you noticed that your dish detergent is phosphate-free now? Procter & Gamble says it had no choice but to remove phosphate compounds from its products — because it’s better for the environment. Unfortunately, dishes everywhere aren’t getting as clean as they used to be. [url]
• Gold is not a gas, doesn’t burn and won’t kill you — are those good enough reasons for you? I’ll take: “Reasons why an element is precious for $200, Alex.” [url]

Filed Under: chemistry, elements, gold, periodic table
Companies: p&g