Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/09/20/what-is-dubnium-and-why-is-it.html
…
8 Likes
It is the fundamental particle of reggae.
22 Likes
It’s Unnilpentium to me and it always will be. Stop renaming things for no reason.
4 Likes
Good overview of the Transfermium Wars (spat, really).
IUPAC kind of took a little bit of the fun out of element naming with their decision in 2002. Elements are supposed to be as consistent as possible between languages on the one hand (meaning what, exactly?), but are all supposed to end in “ium” (a Latin suffix that has no meaning outside languages that have Romance influences) on the other hand.
2 Likes
I find this process highly doubtful.
1 Like
FTFY
/9chars
6 Likes
It’s what gives dubstep it’s growl.
6 Likes
Un… nil… fivium?
1 Like
Not since that Intel® sponsorship fell through.
11 Likes
here’s cooking it…
2 Likes
I love this guy, but I think he gets an important part wrong in this video. That Db behaves more like Nb than it does Ta shows the Periodic Table breaking down. The periods of the table are the rows, not the columns (the columns are “groups.”) For the kinds of reactions they are looking at, as you move from period-to-period down a group you expect things to change in a consistent way—e.g., the atom sticks to glass more and more as you get heavier and heavier . But once you get superheavy, around Z=105 like this, those relativistic speeds of the innermost electron shells make them experience Loretz contractions and effectively “shrink” to a smaller size around the nucleus. This shields the protons from the chemically active orbitals (here, d orbitals), making them “larger” and thus more like the Nb d-orbitals than the Ta d-orbitals.
The periodicity actually switches: Va sticks less than Nb sticks less then Ta sticks MORE than Db.
10 Likes
Maybe I have really bad ears, but I thought the nearly inaudible sound effects accompanying the animation were amusing.
1 Like
Indubitably!
1 Like
And, all together now:
7 Likes
When did you ever have a chance hold up your tie to underline a point? I really need to step up my tie game.
2 Likes
Dubnium be good to me
2 Likes
1 Like
It’s not Intel’s fault that IUPAC wouldn’t accept calling it i5ium
1 Like
I have that song on a Spotify list but never knew the video was in Seattle.
1 Like
