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Enhancing Your Brain As You Age
“The juvenile sea squirt wanders through the sea searching for a suitable rock or hunk of coral to cling to and make its home for life. For this task, it has a rudimentary nervous system. When it finds its spot and takes root, it doesn’t need its...
Evolution and Intelligent Design
What about evolution creates such a fuss in our society? We do
not see people getting exercised about Quantum Mechanics, String
Theory or the Theory of Relativity. But mention evolution and
you invoke an immediate and visceral reaction. Local...
Staffing Software Bolsters Earth Sciences Staffing Firm Growth
For almost 20 years, Geotemps, a Reno, NV-based earth sciences
staffing firm, has focused on a range of career levels in earth
sciences, mining and minerals. Whether it's a geologist or an
executive looking for placement, Geotemps handles it -...
The Astrologer, the King and the Fool: When will Astrologers be Invited to the Party?
A recent article raised the question, why are the presence and opinions of people like the Dalai Lama, Eckhart Tolle, Nelson Mandela and Deepok Chopra regularly included in important world conferences on peace and global community while Rob Hand,...
The New Old Wonders of Electrodes
Unless you are paid attention during science class or are
mainstay of science fairs, the term electrode will seem fairly
faraway to you. Some people even think that electrodes belong
only in science fiction as some sort of name for a weapon or...
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A cluster of atoms
Imagine a new variety of compounds; compounds that have properties never seen before or simply compounds that have properties more pronounced than those which we already know of at present. It would be really cool. No, in fact it is really cool! Indeed, an entirely new class of compound is on the verge of getting everybody’s attention.
Only some times back, it has been shown that a new division of compounds could exist. A new study now confirms the idea that a cluster of atom of an element, behaves differently from a single atom of the element. It is as if, a new element is being created.
For example, a cluster of 13 aluminium atoms behaves like a halogen (chlorine, bromine, iodine, etc). In addition, the aluminium cluster can react with halogens to form halogen compounds with novel properties!
However a cluster of one more aluminium atom, that is to say, 14 aluminium atoms, will act not like a halogen but rather like an alkaline earth (calcium, barium, etc) atom. And the ions that are hence formed are in fact totally new types of salts! For instance, when the 14 aluminium
atom cluster reacts with 3 iodine atoms, an ion with an absolute charge of –3 is formed. Surprisingly this resulting ion is very stable.
The atom cluster thing has also been a source of debate in the scientific community. According to Shiv Khanna, co-leader of the study, the periodic table must be altered to accommodate the clusters or ‘superatoms,’ as he calls them.
How? Simple. Just add a 3rd dimension to the periodic table. The 13 aluminium atom cluster will then be in the same row and column as iodine since it acts more or less like the latter. Only difference is that it will be in a new plane. Same thing for the 14 aluminium atom cluster in the alkaline earth group and for the other ‘superatoms.’
As if the periodic table wasn’t complicated enough! But I guess that it will be even more so if the additions are made. So don’t you dare think that your generation’s college chemistry was hard!
About the Author
Khalil A. Cassimally is currently Senior Columnist at BackWash.com and Columnist for bbc.co.uk h2g2 The Post where he writes 'Not Scientific Science' column.
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