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July 11, 2011

Book Review

Filed under: Chemistry — Tags: , , , — David @ 9:00 am

Uncle Tungsten, written by Oliver Sacks is a great read (further details regarding publisher, ISBN, etc can be found at the end of this posting).

It is an autobiographical account of Sacks childhood days and how from a very early age he became intrigued by science, in particular chemistry. Sacks is a neurologist, living in London but who was born in the UK and grew up around world war 2. His work was brought to the public attention in the film ‘Awakenings’.

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July 5, 2011

Rare Earth’s (3)

Filed under: Chemistry — Tags: , , , — David @ 8:22 am

Over the past twelve months or so I have mentioned the rare earth elements – the ‘black gold’ of the 21st century.

Japan has recently discovered huge deposits of some of the rare earth elements ……. unfortunately they are between 4000 – 6000m below the surface of the sea. However, the demand for these elements is so great that I would speculate sometime (I am not sure when) in the future they will become economically viable to be mined.

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November 26, 2010

The Rare Earths – Neodymium

Filed under: Chemistry — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , — David @ 10:25 pm

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Another unusully named element – Neodymium, Nd, atomic number 60.

Used as an additive to glass, lasers and magnets (the strongest permanent magnets known).

Found in ores such as Monazite.


April 5, 2010

Colour Chemistry

Filed under: Chemistry — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , — David @ 11:34 am


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We all love the beautiful solutions that transition metals produce but why do the produce such colours (or why do non transition metals not produce colours?)

Well, it’s all to do with the d-orbitals and electrons gaining and losing energy

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