week seven

alkali earth metal of the week:

barium.

i mean, they use it in enemas. what can i say? there's not whole lot else that interests me about this soft, silvery metal with an atomic number of 56 and  atomic mass of 137. i do like the numbers  1, 3, and 7, but is that reason enough for anyone to put a metal in their derriere?

barium is highly reactive with both air and water, so it's rarely found in it's pure form in nature. it's also never found in it's pure form in a barium enema. those are actually done with barium sulfate.  and although barium is a heavy metal with a high level of toxicity, fortunately barium sulfate is highly insoluble, and is not absorbed by the body in the time it takes to pass through the gastrointestinal tract. the barium sulfate particles are "suspended in water" and then either flushed in from the lower end or drunk from the upper end - a "barium meal." yum. maybe i'll have that instead of a happy meal next time... then the barium sulfate serves as a radiocontrast agent for making x-rays of the food tube.

i guess anything is better than thorotrast, the thorium dioxide they used for the same purpose in the 1930's - 50's. that stuff was one of the most potent human carcinogens yet found. yikes!

avogadro's hypothesis:

it's really amazing how the work or mental processes of one person can instigate such great changes in generally accepted reality. and, that it many times takes everyone else a long while to get around to accepting the new ideas. well, actually, maybe 50 years is short for such a major leap in understanding. maybe my mind's on internet time.... anyway, look what has happened since 1860 and the manic (maniacal?) explosion of chemistry. a little idea goes a long way...

what is a mole?:

i thought a mole was a cute little brown furry animal that digs underground and can't see very well. now i find this has nothing to do with that mole. unless we're talking about measuring a mole of a mole. that would be an avogadro's number (6.022136 x 10^+23) of the furry mammal people. look out earthworms! anyway, i guess it works better with atoms and molecules. in their case, a mole is used to help figure out grams of a substance, or the number of atoms or molecules in a sample, and other fun stuff.