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Animus Mundi and Intelligent Design
Animus Mundi: The World Mind or Critical Mass of intellectual and spiritual energy was called Animus Mundi by the spiritually aware revivalists of the turn of the century. The spirit or ‘anima’ (Aristotle) in all that is includes things not alive...
ERP Software Encompix Profiled in InMFG Magazine
Technology solutions are designed to help these manufacturing heroes, yet the results are mixed. Selecting the correct technology can be tantamount to an adding a group of employees; selecting the wrong technology can bring the enterprise to a...
It's a Quantum Thing
We don't need to understand quantum physics entirely in order to appreciate it. Even those who have devoted their lives to the study of the universe and its atomic structure will admit that many mysteries remain. Well, I love mysteries, so let's...
Kenya Inches Close to Food Sustainability
Kenya has begun a countdown to commercializing genetically
modified maize(corn). Scientists at the Kenya Agricultural
Research Institute (KARI), International Maize and Wheat
Improvement Centre (CIMMYT) and Insect Resistant Maize for
Africa...
XM vs Sirius Satellite Radio
So you want to switch to satellite radio, but you aren't sure with which service to go with? Two of the biggest names in satellite radio today, XM and Sirius, both offer a large variety of music stations that you would never hear on regular...
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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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