please empty your brain below
Okay, working out which group you're in is easy enough but how do work out which specific element you are?

I know I'm a metal and my better half is either a metalloid or a weak alkaline earth metal (though I'm not sure which). To what extent does the reaction depend on which element you are?

Aarrgh! I wish I'd paid more attention in chemistry classes.

Good theory, though.

Dave | 29.07.03 - 10:54 a.m. | #

Are you going to categorise other bloggers tomorrow?

Blue Witch | Homepage | 29.07.03 - 11:03 a.m. | #

A clever and interesting post. Good combination.

I'd probably be a metal. Tin. Or lead.

Jon | Homepage | 29.07.03 - 1:01 p.m. | #

Did you know the last of the noble gases were discovered in the 70's.

What makes me laugh is before then, presumably, they thought they'd discovered all of them. So what makes us think we discovered the last noble gas 30 years ago?

Matt | Homepage | 29.07.03 - 1:12 p.m. | #

That's the whole point about science, Matt - it's *always* wrong. Sadly the scientists are too damn thick to realise that.

Peter | Homepage | 29.07.03 - 4:20 p.m. | #

I think there are other ways to predict how many elements there can be and what properties they'll have so scientists know there are no more noble gases.

However, I'll qualify that statement by referring to my earlier comment about not paying attention in chemistry.

Dave | 29.07.03 - 5:22 p.m. | #

how often, in the science cupboard of life, have we reached for the metalloids, and unwittingly dropped a badly labelled flask of halogens all over the prep room floor, causing untold chaos?

scott | 29.07.03 - 7:09 p.m. | #

Great post. In Bruce Sterlings' 'The Artificial Kid' there's a similar theory - parties fail or succeed depending on the analogous chemical properties of those involved, and the bonds they form: "It might have gone on indefinitely if one of my carbons had not eloped with someone else's hydrogen, breaking the structure into a mere cannabinoid."

christophe | 29.07.03 - 7:53 p.m. | #

I'm Hydrogen i'm afraid. And as ever, i'm woefully misrepresented here. The very fact that i do combine with allsorts means that i give hope to all the ugly munters of the world. And i'm not as selfish and thin-shelled as my lowly atomic mass might suggest either: I'm generally very giving, forming that very special 'hydrogen bond' that holds so many tenuous relationships together in this life.

sabon | 29.07.03 - 9:30 p.m. | #

i'm feeling like mercanium.... a hybrid of mercury and titanium.

rickster | 30.07.03 - 8:58 a.m. | #

errrr - have i missed something very important ?

zed | Homepage | 30.07.03 - 9:58 a.m. | #

I'd like to be 112ium.

Alan | Homepage | 30.07.03 - 5:10 p.m. | #

mh would be bore-on because, let's face it, he's a bore, a crashing one at that. over and out.

stevie wayne: top of the world | 18.06.04 - 12:52 a.m. | #

Simply brilliant - it should be taught this way in every school. Hydrogen is clearly the star of the show....!

Cau1khead | 23.06.20 - 1:18 p.m. | #











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