#chemical element

[borianag]

Custom Carbon Element Ring – Handcrafted Stainless Steel Cabochon with Glass Dome

Custom Carbon Element Ring – Handcrafted Stainless Steel Cabochon with Glass Dome

Custom Carbon Element Ring – Handcrafted Stainless Steel Cabochon with Glass Dome

[cannedels]

Been slow on art outside of comic stuff, sorry bout that. Anyway here’s a humanised Bismuth I did for a medibang contest a month ago. Never stand a chance of winning those but I like to keep trying lmao

[dokokade]

Chrome拡張「めたたろ元素」をリリース

英語を覚えるだけでもさまざまなパターンがありますが、せっかくならばと元素一覧もウェブアプリにしました。 元素記号と元素名を暗記するにも辛いとき、アプリで英字やその音声を聞いて暗記もアクセントをつけて覚えやすくしよう！

Google ウェブストア - めたたろ元素 https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/gaipcjfdnpbfhlflinlldabagnikcplf

株式会社Dokokade https://dokokade.co.jp/

[globalhappenings]

Fluorine discovered in a galaxy 12 billion light years away

Fluorine discovered in a galaxy 12 billion light years away

Fluorine has been found in a galaxy so far away that its light takes 12 billion years to reach us: it was discovered by the Alma radio telescope (Atacama Large Millimeter Array) of the Southern European Observatory (Eso), in the Chilean Andes. The result, which allows us to tighten the circle around the stars that forge this chemical element in the Universe, is published in Nature Astronomy by an…

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[hysteric-town]

Study Notes for Chemical Elements part 2/112 (Helium)

[hysteric-town]

Study Notes for Chemical Elements part 1/112 (Hydrogen)

[earthtonathalia]

Helium Balloons?

So, my birthday was September 3rd (if you want to wish me a belated happy birthday, I’ll accept it) and my roommate -and one of my best friends- gave me a beautiful helium balloon that said “Make a Wish” on it and I loved it! So cute! (Love you roomie). Until she herself told me that we are currently undergoing a helium shortage! I screamed. Not even kidding. I said WHAT? And searched about it.

A little bit of history, helium was discovered by mistake by Georges Rayet (and a couple other people) when they were studying a solar eclipse back in the 1800’s. They saw this yellow fog around the sun and they thought “hum… interesting…” but never really focused on it (why oh why). A couple years later, two humans named Norman Lockyer and Jules Janssen were doing the same thing -studying a solar eclipse- and saw the same yellow fog. But they actually took it into account and named the gas helium -after Helios, the Greek God of the sun. Pretty cool.

Now, the universe has an ABUNDANCE of helium. Earth, not so much. It’s mostly found in underground chambers just like a fossil fuel. Its production is given by the radioactive decay of Uranium over millions of years. Translating, an atom is composed of a positive nucleus that is filled with protons and a negative “cloud” where the electrons are. A radioactive decay means the breakdown of the atomic nucleus by the release of energy, matter and radiation. So, it means that depending on what kind of radioactive decay the atom is undergoing, its nucleus is going to lose protons. Now, the number of protons -or its atomic number- is what makes an element THAT element. For example, if we have an atom that has 6 protons in its nucleus, we automatically know that it is a carbon atom because only carbon has 6 protons. So going back to Uranium, over millions of years it undergoes such a decay that it “transforms” into Helium (Uranium has an atomic number of 92; Helium has an atomic number of 2. So Uranium loses 90 protons. I did say “millions of years”).

Remember how it is found just like a fossil fuel? So oil companies are the ones who extract Helium from the underground chambers through a process called “fractional distillation”. They collect the natural gases and are able to separate each individual one by their physical properties, such as boiling point. So, they isolate the helium but it is almost impossible to store it without leaking and once it is out in the atmosphere, it is OUT in the atmosphere. Meaning, out of Earth. Universe is full of helium, Earth not so much, remember? It is such a light gas that it cannot exist above surface on Earth.

Now, this is not our first helium shortage. In the late 1900’s, we experienced something very similar to what is happening right now. The problem is not the high demand, it is the low supply! It literally takes MILLIONS of years for that radioactive decay to happen! Just like a fossil fuel (and many many other things found in the environment), we have a limited supply of helium, and this gas isn’t only used in balloons. Since it is nonreactive and nonflammable, it is used in fuel tanks on rockets; its liquid form can reach very low temperatures without freezing, so it is used as a cooling device for the superconducting magnets present in MRI machines; and it is also used on optical fibers to bring internet to our electronic devices. It is a VERY important gas, let me tell you that.

Scientist and researchers are trying to discover new ways to find helium underground, searching new areas and whatnot, and they (we) are very hopeful that our helium supply will go back up in the 2020’s. For now though, be conscious of your party balloons (and please don’t waste the helium by “eating” it just because your voice will sound funny afterwards. Thank you).

[myart]

Uranium (Uranium, U)