From Mars to Washington, D.C., to Chicago area curbs, this has been a busy week for substances:
– Hematite. A mineral that has been found on Mars by the rover Opportunity. Hematite, an iron oxide, can be formed in two ways: by sediments at low temperatures resting at the bottom of bodies of water and by hot lava from volcanoes. Preliminary readings from Opportunity indicate that the hematite found on the Red Planet — one deposit of the substance is said to be the size of Oklahoma — was most likely the kind formed by water.
– Uut and Uup. No, these are not the names of characters on the new PBS kids show “Boobah.” The two new likely additions to the periodic table of elements, Unutrium (Uut) and Ununpentium (Uup) were artificially created — for 1.2 seconds — by Russian and American physicists with too much time on their hands, who stuck extra protons into nuclei (113 for Uut, 115 for Uup) (this sentence as published has been corrected in this text). “It’s just incredibly exciting,” nuclear chemist Walt Loveland said this week. “It seems to open up the possibility of synthesizing more elements beyond this.” Not to mention what it will do for Scrabble players.
– Ricin. Found in Sen. Bill Frist’s Capitol Hill office, this is a natural byproduct of the process of making castor oil from castor beans. It can be put into powder, mist, pellet or liquid form, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Ricin kills through its ability to get inside a person’s cells and prevent them from creating the proteins that their bodies need. Though a 500-milligram dose of ricin would be enough to kill someone (that’s about the size of the head of a pin), much more would be needed if the ricin were inhaled. “If death has not occurred in three to five days, the victim usually recovers,” the CDC said.
– Slush. Commonly found near curbs, this is a potent mixture of melted snow, motor oil, soil, cigarette butts and road salt (40 percent sodium and 60 percent chloride; in Chicago the salt comes from a mine either in Detroit or Hutchinson, Kan.). Although slush is not toxic, it is widely considered to be annoying.