Flerovium and livermorium have a nice ring, yeah? Chemistry’s governing body thinks so and wants to name two new elements with them. If you disagree, you’ve only got five months to come up with something better. More »
Dropbox is our favourite way to keep files synced across multiple machines, bar none, but its apps sadly don’t do text editing. The universal app Elements fills that role, letting you cleanly edit text and quietly keep it in sync. More »
Science nerds and fans of British accents rejoice! University of Nottingham scientist/professor Martyn Poliakoff and video journalist Brady Haran have put together what they’ve dubbed The Periodic Table of Videos, where each square contains a link to a video showing some fascinating facts about its element. Who knew Bismuth was so pretty (quite honestly, who knew what Bismuth was in the first place)? Best of all, the project is continually updated, so even after you’re done with the 117 videos currently on the site, you can come back later to check for newer ones. The introductory clip gives you a taste of what you’ll find on their site. [
Gadgets are using up the earth’s elements. Like, the basic elements that make up all chemical matter according Armin Reller, a materials chemist at Germany’s University of Augsburg. Gallium is apparently critical for making LCDs. We’ll be out of it in a few years. Hafnium (part of Intel’s breakthrough with Penryn) will be gone by 2017 says Dr. Reller. We’re also blowing through our supplies of zinc and copper, even though we have a shitload of it. Obviously, it would seriously cramp our gadget style, since copper is in like, everything. Oh yeah, and an element going extinct might not be good for the environment. [Asimovs via Valleywag]
