• Question: What is your favourite element and why?

    Asked by Thebrainybeast to Andy, Chris, Harriet, Jess, Nikki on 16 Mar 2016.
    • Photo: Christopher Blanford

      Christopher Blanford answered on 16 Mar 2016:

      Hi Thebrainybeast

      I was tempted to write “the element … of surprise” and just leave it, but that’s such a dad joke!

      Anyway, I have two: silicon and copper. I love the blue I get from my copper proteins. Silicon looks cool as an element, and does all sorts of cool chemistry. Almost all the petrol we use today exists because of silicon-containing compounds called zeolites.

      Chris

    • Photo: Harriet Reid

      Harriet Reid answered on 16 Mar 2016:

      Hi Thebrainybeast,

      Great name! My favourite element is carbon no contest! Its vital to all living things. And I does some other really cool stuff. It makes the worlds thinest material graphene, and one of the hardest diamond, as well as these cool atomic size footballs! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckminsterfullerene

    • Photo: andy chapman

      andy chapman answered on 17 Mar 2016:

      Mine is probably Bismuth but I do hate to choose. Have a look at Bismuth metal:

      This is just how it crystallises when it is cooled from molten liquid Bismuth. So cool

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