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What's your favourite element of the periodic table(if you have one)?


goldenpeach

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My favorite is (Fe) iron ! it's very classic, classy, you can make some fun experiments with it (Fe2+,Fe3+ and NaOH make some very nice colours), its in our blood, at the center of the Earth, Jupiter and most planets, and it's the most stable thing in the universe ! yay !

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Silicone. But not because it's a basis of pretty much any electronic device in existence, but because it's a chief candidate for being a basis of non-carbon-based life forms.

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Thorium.

A most useful nuclear material that we as humans refuse to use, because we are afraid of dirt cheap endless energy and what it might do to our fossil fuel based economies. Did you know that it can be used to make a sub-critical reactor with laser bombardment? That is right. Theoretically, all of your energy needs until the end of time could be met with a half ton reactor in your garage that can be turned on and off with the flip of a switch. The real kicker is, we have known all of this since the 1960s and still advancement of this technology has been brushed aside for dangerous, wasteful, and inferior pressurized water cooled nuclear reactors. Why, you might ask? Because a thorium reactor cannot be used to enrich materials for nuclear weapons. In fact, it can be used to burn the waste fuel that we have been stock piling for the last 50+ years. There was once a project funded by the US for the testing of molten salt cooled reactors that would all but trivialize the safety of nuclear reactors of all types. The project, even though it was a resounding success, was shut down by politicians that had other agendas. I don't like to name names, but the major culprits name rhymes with Nixon. Combining that technology with thorium reactors would usher in a new age of energy abundance on this planet. We could have had this thirty years ago.

That is why I laugh at all the money that has been spent on fusion reactor technology that is far more costly and complex. I believe nuclear fusion reactors are in our future. However, they are totally unnecessary when thorium could power our society for the next million or so years with a lot less effort and expenditure. Only now that other countries have begun projects based on this technology, is there a push for it's advancement here in the states.

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I said nearly this same thing way back in 2013...on page two of this thread :D

Rofl! I swear, I didn't see that. I noticed the thread (just joined last year) and jumped right to the end to add my own two cents. The similarity is crazy.

It speaks volumes on the coolness of mercury. :P

I couldn't agree more! Mercury, for the win!

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I'm a big fan of Hg myself. Liquid metal at room temperature? Very cool!

Gallium melts in your hand (~30°C) and is much safer to handle (touching not recommended because it will irritate your skin, but that's about it).

If you allow alloys, then there are many Hg-free ones that are liquid even around the freezing point of water.

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Ytterbium.

Once we played a game where each player has to say a word that starts with the last letter of the word before.

Somebody: Baby. Haha!

Me: Ytterbium.

Everybody: What?

:)

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I like Nitrogen! Its so under appreciated - even though it doesn't do much on its own, its necessary for life on Earth, its a key component of DNA, it appears in the fun volatile ammonia, it makes the very useful storable hypergolics, hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide, and the most efficient solid fuel APCP.

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