JamesSavik

Not one of my favorite elements. Fluorine is nasty and not easily handled. It is very corrosive and quite reactive. Compounds of Fluorine were experimented with as explosives, but they proved to be too unstable for military or commercial applications and were hard on chemical labs and researchers. It was one of the first poison gases Germany experimented with in WWI. It was not very effective because it was too light and dissipated too quickly. They quickly moved on to Chlorine, Phosphine, and eventually Mustard Gas.

Oxygen is so reactive, chemists have given the process a special name: oxidation. Earth is a terrible place for a laboratory to understand the universe. The majority of the universe exists as a vacuum without gravity nor does it possess an oxidizing atmosphere. We humans are only now beginning to grasp how ignorant we actually are.

Y'all can't make this without tasting New Orleans.

Nitrogen is the Mr. Hyde of the chemical world. In its most familiar form, it is diatomic (or N-N). In this configuration, all of its electrons are occupied and it is remarkably non-reactive. In Nitrogen's Dr. Jekyll form of nitrides, nitrites, and nitrates, it is part of some of the most powerful explosives known: TNT, Nitroglycerin, Cordite, Torpex, C4, Simtex, Octal, and others. Nitrogen is also a key ingredient in fertilizers. What makes non-reactive diatomic Nitrogen morph into high explosives and fertilizers? It's a process called Nitrogen fixation where its diatomic configuration is broken and placed into a new compound. This process occurs either organically in plants, animals and microbes or facilitated by industrial chemical reactions. The ions of Nitrogen are chemically nothing at all like diatomic Nitrogen. In the immortal word of Corbin Dallas in the Fifth Element: "Big bada BOOM."

Strictly speaking, almost anything can be "organic" as long as it contains carbon, oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen. The whole of organic chemistry is these four atoms arranged in different numbers and structures.

Big Enough to Eat Back in the 1920s, my grandmother had a super-mouser she named Champion. He was a huge yellow tabby little kids feared because at twenty-two pounds, he was bigger than some wildcats. He was the undisputed King of the cats in that part of Holmes County. Unless you were a mouse, rat or were messing with him, Champion was remarkably good-natured and would leave my grandmother two or three mice a day on her kitchen step. At that time, cats were considered working animals. Their job was pest control and Champion was the best in the business. His kittens were highly sought after. When word got out that he had sired kittens, my grandmother had plenty of requests. One lady asked when she could get her future mouse eradicator, my grandmother replied, "Oh, just as soon as they are big enough to eat."

Boron is a good illustration of why it took so long for many elements to be identified. It never appears in its elemental form in a terrestrial environment but as part of a naturally occurring mineral (Colemanite, Rasorite, Tincal & Ulexite account for 90% of Boron's abundance on earth). Elemental Boron is found in small amounts in meteors, but never in pure deposits on earth.

When I was little, I was a touch dyslexic, which was troublesome but good for a few laughs. My older brother was considerably older than me. The family occasionally packed everything up, and we went to see a football game on campus in Starkville (Mississippi State University). Once, my brother was showing me around campus there was a building that made me stop in my tracks. The sign on the building read, Department of Fine Arts. That's not what my treacherous brain read. I asked my brother, "What does the Department of Fine Rats do?" https://i.postimg.cc/L6v0CYQZ/fine-rat.jpg

Eighty-seven percent of the world's supply of beryllium is mined in Utah. It's an important additive in alloys of copper and steel, used in reactors and nuclear weapons, X-ray tubes and the magnetrons of microwave ovens. It is a listed carcinogen, so use appropriate measures when handling or working with beryllium. Fun story: As a young nerd, I built a collection of element samples. I had small amounts of various elements in glass vials. Some idiot told the Resident Ass...sistant in the dorm I had dangerous, possible bomb making chemicals in my dorm room. On the way back from my networks class, I was tackled and arrested by a couple of deputy sheriffs. After viewing what I had, one of the chemistry professors told the cops that what I had was harmless and stored appropriately. No bombs or nefarious things could be done with the small samples I had. It was a false alarm and no terrorist bombs could be made with it. They were still a little freaked out by the uranium ore and thorianite being slightly radioactive. Thankfully, they let the bong slide. What's a few alpha particles among friends?

There are two notable properties of Helium that make it interesting. Helium is a noble gas. Noble gasses have unique electron shell configurations which bind their electrons in tight and refuse to form bonds with other elements. Chemically, they simply refuse to react with anything. They appear along the right side of the periodic table and refuse to associate themselves with other elemental riffraff. All known Helium on earth is the product of nuclear decay. It can be extracted from natural gas, but its concentrations vary, and it is a difficult and expensive task. Alpha particles, the nuclei of Helium, are emitted by naturally occurring radioactive isotopes.

I was wrong. Alpha particles are stripped Helium nuclei. Doh!

Hydrogen sits at the top of the periodic table as the lightest and simplest element with one proton, neutron and electron (typically). Indeed, in its ionized state, it is called an alpha particle and is released as a product of nuclear decay of unstable isotopes. Hydrogen is one of the most chemically active elements and form ionic and covalent bonds with ease. In 2011, the explosions at the Fukushima nuclear plants were hydrogen gas. Water used to cool the cores was denatured by the heat of the runaway fission reactions into its basic components, oxygen and hydrogen, creating the fuel for massive explosions. https://i.postimg.cc/J7GdtWWk/fukashima-explosion.jpg

I don't circumvent the authorities because I'm doing anything illegal. I circumvent the authorities because they expect bribes.

I had a friend who used to do chirography. I think my Mum liked him better than me because he actually had talent.

It is phenomenal how relieved you feel when something you have been dreading is finally over. 🦷 👨‍⚕️ 🏘️🔨