Carbon, as the compound carbon dioxide, gets some bad press for its effects on climate – and so it should! But that is pretty harsh on the element carbon (and the element oxygen for that point). Carbon is the fifteenth most abundant element in the Earth’s crust, and the fourth most abundant in the Universe. …
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Series:Elements
Copper…
After iron and aluminium, copper is probably the third most important industrial metal. It is used in electrical wiring and for printed circuit boards (PCB). The board is completely coated in copper then copper is etched away to leave the path that the electricity needs to follow. Copper is also used for plumbing although it is …
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Gold Part Two…
[This is follow up to Gold Part One.] A pupil asked… Will the earth naturally produce more gold for us to extract? How long will this take? How long is the half-life of gold and what does it decompose into? Would it be possible to industrially produce gold from different atoms? A. Pupil Esq. When …
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Lithium…
Lithium is the third element on the periodic table and first metal. It sits in Group I with the other reactive metals such as sodium and potassium. It is soft, low density and highly reactive – although the least so of the alkali metals. Apparently they used to put lithium citrate into 7-Up although they no …
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