View allAll Photos Tagged Periodictable
Copyright © 2013 by Ian J MacDonald. Permission required for any use. All rights reserved
The entire set: www.flickr.com/photos/ianmacdonald/sets/72157636356726526/
These illustrations are meant to represent the elements of the periodic table. The drawings are influenced by the Art Deco friezes seen on buildings of the 1920s and 30s - deities were used to represent the essence of the ideas being represented; such as industries, scientific ideas, civic ideals etc...
While the Art Deco style is an influence I did not want to directly copy what has been already been done or hang slavishly onto examples of Art Deco. I am endeavoring to work in the style, imagining creating something new in that moment when Art Deco was current.
Each element is represented by a goddess embedded in a representational background. The deities are purposely done in a sketchy manner - opposite to the solid background - to represent the quantum mechanical nature of atoms and particles. In quantum mechanics particles have no meaning as solid defined units of matter but are statistical entities described by complex (literally and mathematically) wave functions that provide us with the probable positions and energies of particles and systems of particles - an unsettling prospect for many people.
I represent the essence of the elements by goddesses for several reasons. One, they are more interesting, complex, beautiful to draw than males. Secondly it is more challenging to represent the essence of the elements in a feminine rather than a male manner. Unfortunately, science and chemistry has been male dominated and as such so has the naming and descriptions of the elements. These are meant to somewhat challenge the viewer by juxtaposing the female essence with male dominance in science. It would be too simple and cliche to represent iron, for example, as a Mars-like God. Some of the elements are quite dangerous to living creatures and it is far more challenging to express that in a feminine manner.
I was asked if people would get past the nudity. The answer is "No". But that is OK. I want the beauty and vulnerability to attract attention. Science is after all quite beautiful if one takes the time to stop fighting the math and difficulties in understanding, and immerse themselves in it to appreciate just how weird and strange nature really is be - far beyond anything humans could come up with. The nudity somewhat represents the primal, elemental nature of the different atoms. Clothing, such as suit of armor for iron, is a distraction and again too simple and cliche.
But all in all the representation is not direct. Some influence comes from the elements' names - often from properties of the elements, literary references, where they were isolated, political rivalries, honors for discoverers etc... Some influence comes from the bulk properties of the elements such as harness, conductivity, toxicity, density, etc.... Some of the pieces are inspired by the major uses for the element - in industrial processes, in natural biological processes, nuclear reactions, nucleosynthesis, in everyday objects, and so on.
This is a work in progress and my second go at it. I have been tinkering at this for some time and I think these are closer to the vision in my head than what I have done earlier. Enjoy.
Copyright © 2013 by Ian J MacDonald. Permission required for any use. All rights reserved
The entire set: www.flickr.com/photos/ianmacdonald/sets/72157636356726526/
These illustrations are meant to represent the elements of the periodic table. The drawings are influenced by the Art Deco friezes seen on buildings of the 1920s and 30s - deities were used to represent the essence of the ideas being represented; such as industries, scientific ideas, civic ideals etc...
While the Art Deco style is an influence I did not want to directly copy what has been already been done or hang slavishly onto examples of Art Deco. I am endeavoring to work in the style, imagining creating something new in that moment when Art Deco was current.
Each element is represented by a goddess embedded in a representational background. The deities are purposely done in a sketchy manner - opposite to the solid background - to represent the quantum mechanical nature of atoms and particles. In quantum mechanics particles have no meaning as solid defined units of matter but are statistical entities described by complex (literally and mathematically) wave functions that provide us with the probable positions and energies of particles and systems of particles - an unsettling prospect for many people.
I represent the essence of the elements by goddesses for several reasons. One, they are more interesting, complex, beautiful to draw than males. Secondly it is more challenging to represent the essence of the elements in a feminine rather than a male manner. Unfortunately, science and chemistry has been male dominated and as such so has the naming and descriptions of the elements. These are meant to somewhat challenge the viewer by juxtaposing the female essence with male dominance in science. It would be too simple and cliche to represent iron, for example, as a Mars-like God. Some of the elements are quite dangerous to living creatures and it is far more challenging to express that in a feminine manner.
I was asked if people would get past the nudity. The answer is "No". But that is OK. I want the beauty and vulnerability to attract attention. Science is after all quite beautiful if one takes the time to stop fighting the math and difficulties in understanding, and immerse themselves in it to appreciate just how weird and strange nature really is be - far beyond anything humans could come up with. The nudity somewhat represents the primal, elemental nature of the different atoms. Clothing, such as suit of armor for iron, is a distraction and again too simple and cliche.
But all in all the representation is not direct. Some influence comes from the elements' names - often from properties of the elements, literary references, where they were isolated, political rivalries, honors for discoverers etc... Some influence comes from the bulk properties of the elements such as harness, conductivity, toxicity, density, etc.... Some of the pieces are inspired by the major uses for the element - in industrial processes, in natural biological processes, nuclear reactions, nucleosynthesis, in everyday objects, and so on.
This is a work in progress and my second go at it. I have been tinkering at this for some time and I think these are closer to the vision in my head than what I have done earlier. Enjoy.
Copyright © 2014 by Ian J MacDonald. Permission required for any use. All rights reserved
The entire set: www.flickr.com/photos/ianmacdonald/sets/72157636356726526/
These illustrations are meant to represent the elements of the periodic table. The drawings are influenced by the Art Deco friezes seen on buildings of the 1920s and 30s - deities were used to represent the essence of the ideas being represented; such as industries, scientific ideas, civic ideals etc...
While the Art Deco style is an influence I did not want to directly copy what has been already been done or hang slavishly onto examples of Art Deco. I am endeavoring to work in the style, imagining creating something new in that moment when Art Deco was current.
Each element is represented by a goddess embedded in a representational background. The deities are purposely done in a sketchy manner - opposite to the solid background - to represent the quantum mechanical nature of atoms and particles. In quantum mechanics particles have no meaning as solid defined units of matter but are statistical entities described by complex (literally and mathematically) wave functions that provide us with the probable positions and energies of particles and systems of particles - an unsettling prospect for many people.
I represent the essence of the elements by goddesses for several reasons. One, they are more interesting, complex, beautiful to draw than males. Secondly it is more challenging to represent the essence of the elements in a feminine rather than a male manner. Unfortunately, science and chemistry has been male dominated and as such so has the naming and descriptions of the elements. These are meant to somewhat challenge the viewer by juxtaposing the female essence with male dominance in science. It would be too simple and cliche to represent iron, for example, as a Mars-like God. Some of the elements are quite dangerous to living creatures and it is far more challenging to express that in a feminine manner.
I was asked if people would get past the nudity. The answer is "No". But that is OK. I want the beauty and vulnerability to attract attention. Science is after all quite beautiful if one takes the time to stop fighting the math and difficulties in understanding, and immerse themselves in it to appreciate just how weird and strange nature really is be - far beyond anything humans could come up with. The nudity somewhat represents the primal, elemental nature of the different atoms. Clothing, such as suit of armor for iron, is a distraction and again too simple and cliche.
But all in all the representation is not direct. Some influence comes from the elements' names - often from properties of the elements, literary references, where they were isolated, political rivalries, honors for discoverers etc... Some influence comes from the bulk properties of the elements such as harness, conductivity, toxicity, density, etc.... Some of the pieces are inspired by the major uses for the element - in industrial processes, in natural biological processes, nuclear reactions, nucleosynthesis, in everyday objects, and so on.
This is a work in progress and my second go at it. I have been tinkering at this for some time and I think these are closer to the vision in my head than what I have done earlier. Enjoy.
Iron spells death, and death deliverance. The iron core grows like a cancer in the heart of the star, damping nuclear reactions in all that it touches, until the star becomes fatally imbalanced and falls victim to a general collapse. If the mass of the core is a tenth to two or three times that of the sun — here we draw on research by Gamow, Baade, Robert Oppenheimer, Fritz Zwicky, and others — the core rapidly crystallizes into a steely sphere, a "neutron star." Smooth as a ball bearing and smaller than a city but as massive as the sun, a neutron star spins rapidly on its axis and emits pulses of radio energy as it spins, creating a beacon of the sort that betrayed the locations of Tycho's and Kepler's supernovae. It resembles nothing so much as a giant atomic nucleus — as if the real business of the star, the conjuring of nuclei, was now at last monumentalized as a colossal nuclear tombstone.
—Timothy Ferris, Chapter 14, "The Evolution of Atoms and Stars" from Coming of Age in the Milky Way
Copyright © 2014 by Ian J MacDonald. Permission required for any use. All rights reserved
The entire set: www.flickr.com/photos/ianmacdonald/sets/72157636356726526/
These illustrations are meant to represent the elements of the periodic table. The drawings are influenced by the Art Deco friezes seen on buildings of the 1920s and 30s - deities were used to represent the essence of the ideas being represented; such as industries, scientific ideas, civic ideals etc...
While the Art Deco style is an influence I did not want to directly copy what has been already been done or hang slavishly onto examples of Art Deco. I am endeavoring to work in the style, imagining creating something new in that moment when Art Deco was current.
Each element is represented by a goddess embedded in a representational background. The deities are purposely done in a sketchy manner - opposite to the solid background - to represent the quantum mechanical nature of atoms and particles. In quantum mechanics particles have no meaning as solid defined units of matter but are statistical entities described by complex (literally and mathematically) wave functions that provide us with the probable positions and energies of particles and systems of particles - an unsettling prospect for many people.
I represent the essence of the elements by goddesses for several reasons. One, they are more interesting, complex, beautiful to draw than males. Secondly it is more challenging to represent the essence of the elements in a feminine rather than a male manner. Unfortunately, science and chemistry has been male dominated and as such so has the naming and descriptions of the elements. These are meant to somewhat challenge the viewer by juxtaposing the female essence with male dominance in science. It would be too simple and cliche to represent iron, for example, as a Mars-like God. Some of the elements are quite dangerous to living creatures and it is far more challenging to express that in a feminine manner.
I was asked if people would get past the nudity. The answer is "No". But that is OK. I want the beauty and vulnerability to attract attention. Science is after all quite beautiful if one takes the time to stop fighting the math and difficulties in understanding, and immerse themselves in it to appreciate just how weird and strange nature really is be - far beyond anything humans could come up with. The nudity somewhat represents the primal, elemental nature of the different atoms. Clothing, such as suit of armor for iron, is a distraction and again too simple and cliche.
But all in all the representation is not direct. Some influence comes from the elements' names - often from properties of the elements, literary references, where they were isolated, political rivalries, honors for discoverers etc... Some influence comes from the bulk properties of the elements such as harness, conductivity, toxicity, density, etc.... Some of the pieces are inspired by the major uses for the element - in industrial processes, in natural biological processes, nuclear reactions, nucleosynthesis, in everyday objects, and so on.
This is a work in progress and my second go at it. I have been tinkering at this for some time and I think these are closer to the vision in my head than what I have done earlier. Enjoy.
From back of photo: "The Chemistry lecture room is one of the ampitheaters on the campus for mass lectures and demonstrations."
Repository: Duke University Archives. Durham, North Carolina, USA. library.duke.edu/uarchives
Trying to locate this photo at the Duke University Archives? You’ll find it in the University Archives Photograph Collection, box 87 (UAPC-087-018-004).
Small world or what, eh? I had an enquiry for a cake - the customer had found my details on Google. She wanted a cake for her husband's 30th birthday... and as he is a science teacher, she wanted it themed to reflect that. So we discussed various options etc... then I had a thought... and asked her "Does your husband teach at 'X' school?" And she confirmed her does. HE'S MY SON'S BIOLOGY TEACHER!!! LOL! I do love a nice coincidence!! Big thumbs up to my son for keeping it secret - my boys are well trained and have previously kept cake secrets from friends and family, so no need to worry on that count! So happy birthdy 'Sir'. Edible bunsen burner, beaker, test tube and a couple of text books, with a periodic table-inspired inscription (and for those scientifically-inclined, yes, artistic licence was used for the J!)
Periodic Table wall mosaic at University of Jaén, Andalucia, Spain. Adapted from photo taken by Wikimedia Commons user Kordas, released under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
I did not take the original photo. I have taken Kordas's photo and applied some image distortion corrections and histogram adjustments. Please see the Wikimedia Commons page for original photo details.
Copyright © 2014 by Ian J MacDonald. Permission required for any use. All rights reserved
The entire set: www.flickr.com/photos/ianmacdonald/sets/72157636356726526/
These illustrations are meant to represent the elements of the periodic table. The drawings are influenced by the Art Deco friezes seen on buildings of the 1920s and 30s - deities were used to represent the essence of the ideas being represented; such as industries, scientific ideas, civic ideals etc...
While the Art Deco style is an influence I did not want to directly copy what has been already been done or hang slavishly onto examples of Art Deco. I am endeavoring to work in the style, imagining creating something new in that moment when Art Deco was current.
Each element is represented by a goddess embedded in a representational background. The deities are purposely done in a sketchy manner - opposite to the solid background - to represent the quantum mechanical nature of atoms and particles. In quantum mechanics particles have no meaning as solid defined units of matter but are statistical entities described by complex (literally and mathematically) wave functions that provide us with the probable positions and energies of particles and systems of particles - an unsettling prospect for many people.
I represent the essence of the elements by goddesses for several reasons. One, they are more interesting, complex, beautiful to draw than males. Secondly it is more challenging to represent the essence of the elements in a feminine rather than a male manner. Unfortunately, science and chemistry has been male dominated and as such so has the naming and descriptions of the elements. These are meant to somewhat challenge the viewer by juxtaposing the female essence with male dominance in science. It would be too simple and cliche to represent iron, for example, as a Mars-like God. Some of the elements are quite dangerous to living creatures and it is far more challenging to express that in a feminine manner.
I was asked if people would get past the nudity. The answer is "No". But that is OK. I want the beauty and vulnerability to attract attention. Science is after all quite beautiful if one takes the time to stop fighting the math and difficulties in understanding, and immerse themselves in it to appreciate just how weird and strange nature really is be - far beyond anything humans could come up with. The nudity somewhat represents the primal, elemental nature of the different atoms. Clothing, such as suit of armor for iron, is a distraction and again too simple and cliche.
But all in all the representation is not direct. Some influence comes from the elements' names - often from properties of the elements, literary references, where they were isolated, political rivalries, honors for discoverers etc... Some influence comes from the bulk properties of the elements such as harness, conductivity, toxicity, density, etc.... Some of the pieces are inspired by the major uses for the element - in industrial processes, in natural biological processes, nuclear reactions, nucleosynthesis, in everyday objects, and so on.
This is a work in progress and my second go at it. I have been tinkering at this for some time and I think these are closer to the vision in my head than what I have done earlier. Enjoy.
This is where it all happens - all of our chemsitry work anyway. If you'd like some free practice Chem questions to do, or you'd like to check out our Video Lessons, visit us at http://www.primeeducation.com.au/VideoMain.aspx
Copyright © 2015 by Ian J MacDonald. Permission required for any use. All rights reserved
The entire set: www.flickr.com/photos/ianmacdonald/sets/72157636356726526/
These illustrations are meant to represent the elements of the periodic table. The drawings are influenced by the Art Deco friezes seen on buildings of the 1920s and 30s - deities were used to represent the essence of the ideas being represented; such as industries, scientific ideas, civic ideals etc...
While the Art Deco style is an influence I did not want to directly copy what has been already been done or hang slavishly onto examples of Art Deco. I am endeavoring to work in the style, imagining creating something new in that moment when Art Deco was current.
Each element is represented by a goddess embedded in a representational background. The deities are purposely done in a sketchy manner - opposite to the solid background - to represent the quantum mechanical nature of atoms and particles. In quantum mechanics particles have no meaning as solid defined units of matter but are statistical entities described by complex (literally and mathematically) wave functions that provide us with the probable positions and energies of particles and systems of particles - an unsettling prospect for many people.
I represent the essence of the elements by goddesses for several reasons. One, they are more interesting, complex, beautiful to draw than males. Secondly it is more challenging to represent the essence of the elements in a feminine rather than a male manner. Unfortunately, science and chemistry has been male dominated and as such so has the naming and descriptions of the elements. These are meant to somewhat challenge the viewer by juxtaposing the female essence with male dominance in science. It would be too simple and cliche to represent iron, for example, as a Mars-like God. Some of the elements are quite dangerous to living creatures and it is far more challenging to express that in a feminine manner.
I was asked if people would get past the nudity. The answer is "No". But that is OK. I want the beauty and vulnerability to attract attention. Science is after all quite beautiful if one takes the time to stop fighting the math and difficulties in understanding, and immerse themselves in it to appreciate just how weird and strange nature really is be - far beyond anything humans could come up with. The nudity somewhat represents the primal, elemental nature of the different atoms. Clothing, such as suit of armor for iron, is a distraction and again too simple and cliche.
But all in all the representation is not direct. Some influence comes from the elements' names - often from properties of the elements, literary references, where they were isolated, political rivalries, honors for discoverers etc... Some influence comes from the bulk properties of the elements such as harness, conductivity, toxicity, density, etc.... Some of the pieces are inspired by the major uses for the element - in industrial processes, in natural biological processes, nuclear reactions, nucleosynthesis, in everyday objects, and so on.
This is a work in progress and my second go at it. I have been tinkering at this for some time and I think these are closer to the vision in my head than what I have done earlier. Enjoy.
An informative display at the Royal Selangor Pewter Factory in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. One of the forced shopping trips on the tour, but at least this one was kind of cool.
Uranium ( /jʊˈreɪniəm/ yew-ray-nee-əm) is a silvery-white metallic chemical element in the actinide series of the periodic table, with atomic number 92. It is assigned the chemical symbol U. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons. The uranium nucleus binds between 141 and 146 neutrons, establishing six isotopes (U-233 through U-238), the most common of which are uranium-238 (146 neutrons) and uranium-235 (143 neutrons). All isotopes are unstable and uranium is weakly radioactive. Uranium has the second highest atomic weight of the naturally occurring elements, lighter only than plutonium-244. Its density is about 70% higher than that of lead, but not as dense as gold or tungsten. It occurs naturally in low concentrations of a few parts per million in soil, rock and water, and is commercially extracted from uranium-bearing minerals such as uraninite.
In nature, uranium is found as uranium-238 (99.2742%), uranium-235 (0.7204%), and a very small amount of uranium-234 (0.0054%). Uranium decays slowly by emitting an alpha particle. The half-life of uranium-238 is about 4.47 billion years and that of uranium-235 is 704 million years, making them useful in dating the age of the Earth.
Many contemporary uses of uranium exploit its unique nuclear properties. Uranium-235 has the distinction of being the only naturally occurring fissile isotope. Uranium-238 is fissionable by fast neutrons, and is fertile, meaning it can be transmuted to fissile plutonium-239 in a nuclear reactor. Another fissile isotope, uranium-233, can be produced from natural thorium and is also important in nuclear technology. While uranium-238 has a small probability for spontaneous fission or even induced fission with fast neutrons, uranium-235 and to a lesser degree uranium-233 have a much higher fission cross-section for slow neutrons. In sufficient concentration, these isotopes maintain a sustained nuclear chain reaction. This generates the heat in nuclear power reactors, and produces the fissile material for nuclear weapons. Depleted uranium (238U) is used in kinetic energy penetrators and armor plating.
Uranium is used as a colorant in uranium glass, producing orange-red to lemon yellow hues. It was also used for tinting and shading in early photography. The 1789 discovery of uranium in the mineral pitchblende is credited to Martin Heinrich Klaproth, who named the new element after the planet Uranus. Eugène-Melchior Péligot was the first person to isolate the metal and its radioactive properties were discovered in 1896 by Antoine Becquerel. Research by Enrico Fermi and others starting in 1934 led to its use as a fuel in the nuclear power industry and in Little Boy, the first nuclear weapon used in war. An ensuing arms race during the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union produced tens of thousands of nuclear weapons that used uranium metal and uranium-derived plutonium-239. The security of those weapons and their fissile material following the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991 is an ongoing concern for public health and safety. See Nuclear proliferation.
My 6" x 6" tile for the Periodic Printmaking Project. www.flickr.com/groups/periodictable/
Californium was first synthesized at the University of California, Berkeley by researchers Stanley G. Thompson, Kenneth Street, Jr., Albert Ghiorso and Glenn T. Seaborg in 1950.
I wanted my print to convey movement and seismic activity. I created the background texture to represent ocean currents. The blue box has linework I created from a USGS map which shows the Liquefaction Hazard and Shaking Amplification Maps of the Berkeley area (doesn't that sound scary?).
Print was silkscreened in two ink colors. I will be mailing it this week.
A Bar Mitzvah cake for a young man whose party theme was science! All decorations - Bunsen burner, test tube, books, flask/beaker - hand-made and completely edible.
Chemistry class in Venable Hall at the University of North Carolina, 1958. From the UNC Photo Lab Collection (20-14602), North Carolina Collection, Wilson Library, UNC-Chapel Hill.
Samarium ( /səˈmɛəriəm/ sə-mair-ee-əm) is a chemical element with the symbol Sm, atomic number 62 and atomic weight 150.36. It is a moderately hard silvery metal which readily oxidizes in air. Being a typical member of the lanthanide series, samarium usually assumes the oxidation state +3. Compounds of samarium(II) are also known, most notably monoxide SmO, monochalcogenides SmS, SmSe and SmTe, as well as samarium(II) iodide. The last compound is a common reducing agent in chemical synthesis. Samarium has no significant biological role and is only slightly toxic.
Samarium was discovered in 1879 by the French chemist Paul Émile Lecoq de Boisbaudran and named after the mineral samarskite from which it was isolated. The mineral itself was earlier named after a Russian mine official, Colonel Vasili Samarsky-Bykhovets, who thereby became the first person to have a chemical element named after him, albeit indirectly. Although classified as a rare earth element, samarium is the 40th most abundant element in the Earth's crust and is more common than such metals as tin. Samarium occurs with concentration up to 2.8% in several minerals including cerite, gadolinite, samarskite, monazite and bastnäsite, the last two being the most common commercial sources of the element. These minerals are mostly found in China, the USA, Brazil, India, Sri Lanka and Australia; China is by far the world leader in samarium mining and production.
The major commercial application of samarium is in samarium-cobalt magnets which have permanent magnetization second only to neodymium magnets; however, samarium compounds can withstand significantly higher temperatures, above 700 °C, without losing their magnetic properties. Radioactive isotope samarium-153 is the major component of the drug samarium (153Sm) lexidronam (Quadramet) which kills cancer cells in the treatment of lung cancer, prostate cancer, breast cancer and osteosarcoma. Another isotope, samarium-149, is a strong neutron absorber and is therefore added to the control rods of nuclear reactors. It is also formed as a decay product during the reactor operation and is one of the important factors considered in the reactor design and operation. Other applications of samarium include catalysis of chemical reactions, radioactive dating and an X-ray laser.
Boron ( /ˈbɔərɒn/) is the chemical element with atomic number 5 and the chemical symbol B. The atomic mass is 10.81. Boron is a metalloid. Because boron is produced entirely by cosmic ray spallation and not by stellar nucleosynthesis, it is a low-abundance element in both the solar system and the Earth's crust. However, boron is concentrated on Earth by the water-solubility of its more common naturally occurring compounds, the borate minerals. These are mined industrially as evaporate ores, such as borax and kernite.
Chemically uncombined boron is not found naturally on Earth. Industrially, very pure boron is produced with difficulty, as boron tends to form refractory materials containing small amounts of carbon or other elements. Several allotropes of boron exist: amorphous boron is a brown powder and crystalline boron is black, extremely hard (about 9.5 on Mohs' scale), and a poor conductor at room temperature. Elemental boron is used as a dopant in the semiconductor industry.
The major industrial-scale uses of boron compounds are in sodium perborate bleaches, and the borax component of fiberglass insulation. Boron polymers and ceramics play specialized roles as high-strength lightweight structural and refractory materials. Boron compounds are used in silica-based glasses and ceramics to give them resistance to thermal shock. Boron-containing reagents are used for as intermediates in the synthesis of organic fine chemicals. A few boron-containing organic pharmaceuticals are used, or are in study. Natural boron is composed of two stable isotopes, one of which (boron-10) has a number of uses as a neutron-capturing agent.
In biology, borates have low toxicity in mammals (similar to table salt), but are more toxic to arthropods and are used as insecticides. Boric acid is mildly antimicrobial, and a natural boron-containing organic antibiotic is known. Boron is essential to life. Small amounts of boron compounds play a strengthening role in the cell walls of all plants, making boron necessary in soils. Experiments indicate a role for boron as an ultratrace element in animals, but the nature of its role in animal physiology is unknown.
Neodymium ( /ˌniːɵˈdɪmiəm/ nee-o-dim-ee-əm) is a chemical element with the symbol Nd and atomic number 60. It is a soft silvery metal that tarnishes in air. Neodymium was discovered in 1885 by the Austrian chemist Carl Auer von Welsbach. It is present in significant quantities in the ore minerals monazite and bastnäsite. Neodymium is not found naturally in metallic form or unmixed with other lanthanides, and it is usually refined for general use. Although neodymium is classed as a "rare earth", it is no rarer than cobalt, nickel, and copper ore, and is widely distributed in the Earth's crust. Most of the world's neodymium is mined in China.
Neodymium compounds were first commercially used as glass dyes in 1927, and they remain a popular additive in glasses. The color of neodymium compounds—due to the Nd(III) ion—is often a reddish-purple but it changes with the type of lighting, due to fluorescent effects. Some neodymium-doped glasses are also used in lasers that emit infrared light with wavelengths between 1047 and 1062 nanometers. These have been used in extremely high power applications, such as experiments in inertial confinement fusion.
Neodymium is also used with various other substrate crystals, such as yttrium aluminum garnet in the Nd:YAG laser. This laser usually emits infrared waves at a wavelength of about 1064 nanometers. The Nd:YAG laser is one of the most commonly used solid-state lasers.
Another chief use of neodymium is as the free pure element. It is used as a component in the alloys used to make high-strength neodymium magnets – the most powerful permanent magnets known. These magnets are widely used in such products as microphones, professional loudspeakers, in-ear headphones, and computer hard disks, where low magnet mass or volume, or strong magnetic fields are required. Larger neodymium magnets are used in high power versus weight electric motors (for example in hybrid cars) and generators (for example aircraft and wind turbine electric generators).
Our challenge: the periodic table. Yes, it's a bit of a cheat, since this is actually silicon dioxide. Or maybe not, since the challenge was "any element or combination of elements"...what's a combination of elements? A molecule! So there you are. Lots and lots of molecules of SiO2 crystals. ;)
This was my favorite because of the texture and how well the detail came out in the shell. You wouldn't believe how tiny this shell was! It was probably no bigger than the tip of a pencil eraser, maybe a little smaller!
I did two others; they are in the comments. Since this was my favorite I chose to officially submit this one.
Photo taken of sand from Holden Beach, North Carolina.
My cousin, who's still in high school, has been having some trouble in his chemistry class. No, school hasn't ended in Venezuela yet. So, I offered to help him out and we were working on some of that today. Chemistry can get really messy with some people (especially after a few hours).
Two local shop signs (Broca and Bang), combine to make this representation of one of the best, if not the best TV show ever.
Garnet Johnson displayed the best periodic tables in the library. We hung them on the circulation desk.
Garnet Johnson displayed the best periodic tables in the library. We hung them on the circulation desk.
Typographic Portrait of Breaking Bad's Walter White made up of some his best lines from the series. The beard is every element of the periodic table. The image includes some of the best quotes from the show. There were some crackers.
No photography or layering present in final image.
Check out my design website too: www.ashleywilliamsondesigner.com
Carbon /ˈkɑrbən/ (from Latin: carbo "coal") is the chemical element with symbol C and atomic number 6. As a member of group 14 on the periodic table, it is nonmetallic and tetravalent—making four electrons available to form covalent chemical bonds. There are three naturally occurring isotopes, with 12C and 13C being stable, while 14C is radioactive, decaying with a half-life of about 5,730 years. Carbon is one of the few elements known since antiquity.
There are several allotropes of carbon of which the best known are graphite, diamond, and amorphous carbon. The physical properties of carbon vary widely with the allotropic form. For example, diamond is highly transparent, while graphite is opaque and black. Diamond is among the hardest materials known, while graphite is soft enough to form a streak on paper (hence its name, from the Greek word "to write"). Diamond has a very low electrical conductivity, while graphite is a very good conductor. Under normal conditions, diamond has the highest thermal conductivity of all known materials.
All carbon allotropes are solids under normal conditions with graphite being the most thermodynamically stable form. They are chemically resistant and require high temperature to react even with oxygen. The most common oxidation state of carbon in inorganic compounds is +4, while +2 is found in carbon monoxide and other transition metal carbonyl complexes. The largest sources of inorganic carbon are limestones, dolomites and carbon dioxide, but significant quantities occur in organic deposits of coal, peat, oil and methane clathrates. Carbon forms more compounds than any other element, with almost ten million pure organic compounds described to date, which in turn are a tiny fraction of such compounds that are theoretically possible under standard conditions.
Carbon is the 15th most abundant element in the Earth's crust, and the fourth most abundant element in the universe by mass after hydrogen, helium, and oxygen. It is present in all known life forms, and in the human body carbon is the second most abundant element by mass (about 18.5%) after oxygen. This abundance, together with the unique diversity of organic compounds and their unusual polymer-forming ability at the temperatures commonly encountered on Earth, make this element the chemical basis of all known life.