Gilded

If you want to do something memorable with your cold dead body, have the carbon in it compressed into a diamond. And insist on your will that your relatives won't cut too much glass with you.

Hmm, that's a good question. Since the carbon diamonds inside a diamond share their electrons with four other carbon atoms, does it keep the electrons in place so well that the diamond A) doesn't conduit electricity B) let's light through? I know A and B are true but I'm not sure why. :|

I wonder if diamond loses it's excellent clarity if it's melted. Probably it does. :/

Hg2Sb2O7 is rather easy to make, but if there is such thing as "red mercury", it's probably irradiated red mercury antimony oxide or something else that we don't know squat about.

In my elementary school chemistry book, it says that the melting point is 4500 Celsius, and it's probably the amount needed to actually liquify it. Or then it's the same as with coal and such (a bit above 700 C).

It would be terribly dangerous for the maker to make properly irradiated red mercury. And the transportation wouldn't be that easy either. As I have said about three times already, I don't think it can be used as a substitute for the plutonium charge in a fusion/neutron bomb, but if it can, then we're all screwed. >:/

"speaking of aluminum powder...i'm getting some of the ultrafine 2 micron particle sized german imported dark aluminum dust among other chems from unitednuclear in a few weeks. order went out with the mail today :)" Now I have to cry myself to sleep again.

Right'o, chap. Or something. While normal graphite may be easy to make, pyrolytic graphite is a real pain to manufacture since the layer forms like 1/1000 inch an hour. Btw, anyone got a picture showing the structure of pyrolytic graphite?

"Argon is only known to participate in inter-stitial compounds. It is not involving any chemical change but only a physical change as far as compound formation is concerned. Helium does not form anything. Xenon that way is very nice because of its stable flourides." Summary: Only noble gases that can form a compound with another element are krypton and xenon... ?

Some time ago, some Finnish kids did the drain cleaner/Al-foil/bottle thing... With a glass bottle. I think one or two of them were in hospital condition after that. :<

Mmm... Perfect combination of 2/3 H and 1/3 O inside a balloon. It indeed goes BOOM! Unless it's a balloon filled with H2O, which is good for wetting your neighbour when he heads to work.

I don't think there's a proper answer for the anti-matter and matter not being balanced. At least not yet. The theory is still going on though. "ANd can some one tell me more about anti-matter" Well, basically it's anti-particles of particles (duh). For example, a positron is the antiparticle of an electron (it has an opposite charge). The CERN has made anti-hydrogen atoms, that compose of an antiproton and a positron. And whenever anti-matter and matter collide, an annihilation happens that transforms both particles to energy (the E=mc2 thingie is useful here ). If there was a large natural source of anti-matter, it would be a tremendous source of energy, but since there isn't, making anti-matter for energy creating purposes is not worth it (as you can probably imagine). It could be used in a weapon though... YES! A BIG WEAPON THAT WILL SMITE ALL PINE TABLES! ...Ahem. That's about it.

Aaargh, I tried it again with a butane lighter so I could notice the shades better since the lighter's flame is rather colorless (its the one where the copper thingie broke off). But nothing, it just burned with a yellow flame. I'm starting to wonder if it's copper wire at all. Or then it's the damn carbon.

Go jdurg! Chemist approach on explosions: If you manufacture something unstable that explodes violently, you must repeat the experiment! And about the red mercury... I believe that it's the red mercury antimony oxide. Its chemical composition is Hg2Sb2O7. I found an isotope composition for atleast one substance called "red mercury antimony oxide": Hg196-0,16 Hg198-10,2 Hg199-18,8 Hg200-23,1 Hg201-13,22 Hg202-29,8 Hg204-6,8 O16-99,76 O17-0,037 O18-0,2 Sb121-57,25 Sb123-42,7 Sb125-0,04 As you can see, no radioactive elements are present, except the 125 isotope of antimony (a very small amount of it), which is rather odd, since its decay is double beta-, and its half-life isn't even two years. However, usually red mercury is referred to as a highly radioactive compound, which the disappearingly small trace of Sb-125 doesn't make it. Anyway, I'm still not convinced that even with further irradiating procedures you could make it suitable for an explosive that could provide enough heat for a deuterium-deuterium or deuterium-tritium fusion. I also found info about it at http://www.scorecard.org/chemical-profiles/summary.tcl?edf_substance_id=20720%2d76%2d7 . Or actually, no info; no data listed whatsoever. It was just on the list of compounds dangerous to the environment. Beats me.

Those are Nick's drawings. He has drawn a LOT of science related (I especially like the element-related ones), check them out at http://www.nearingzero.net . They even sell shirts of some of the drawings (such as these: http://www.cafepress.com/cp/store.aspx?s=nearingzero4 ).

I can't imagine how I have lived my life without the magic of TinyURL! Yay! ... Yeah. And I of course meant that I would pay for the gem. Like I have with all my gemstones, except the ones I stole. Whoops, don't tell anyone. *Hears sirens and jumps out the window*

I think ionizing radiation is such a wonderful thing, not for cells though. Sorry if I offended you with the Chernobyl-idea. Here's a few to cheer you up: "Hey, I heard your momma is so fat, she turned into a black hole last weekend!" "I'm with a carbon based idiot ->" "Trinitrotoluene - helping people to get rid of their limbs since 1863!" "Breathing ozone is not good for you? Bah! I've breathed a lot of ozone in my childhood and I turned out ozone." "When I said I'd like a coke with my BigMac, I didn't want benzoylethylecgonine!"

http://www.thaigem.com/shopping/wholesale/fulldetails.asp?productid=3DJ03492&SORT=start_date&ORDER=desc&CH_PAGENO=1&shape=all&color=&sale_type=1&gemtype=ncs287&pt=&sale_date=&cutadeal=n&healing=&bg_pj= That's one long URL. Go and order two pieces and send the other one to me.

I tried it with vinegar this time. Didn't work either. :<

I tried to burn a very thin cord of copper with a candle, but after a while it just melted and didn't provide a green/blue flame.

Depends on the emerald, and the diamond. The totally transparent, VVS-grade ones are the kind that cost like hell and the ones Kobe buys for his wife. It seems also that a good grade alexandrite is rather expensive, too. I'd like to have one to my collection because they seem violet under incandescent light, and green under fluorescent light. http://picture.thaigem.com/pics/smallpic/3e/3e1696700.jpg (10x7mm, same gem, different lighting) Price: $12,222.99 at Thaigem. Yipes.

Hey, don't copper salts make a blue flame? Does it have something to do with ions?

"Who said igniting a blasting cap in an army grade C-4 directly with a lighter can kill you?!"

5614, the same thing was in a Finnish newspaper like two months ago, perhaps it came through a rift in time-space. Or then it was another case, though I don't think so such procedure is too common. Either way, it's nice to cut glass with your brother or other relative. "Diamond occures in nature, but only under extrordinary conditions, hence it rarity and value" It's the goddamn DeBeers that makes up the price. "Looky looky, nice stones! Let's raise their price to crazy numbers even though they are quite common!" Rhodium is way rarer than diamonds, and even though it has a price of over 1000$/troy ounce, it can't compete with the diamond price. I'm almost certain that within a couple of decades, the diamond price will decrease rapidly.

Some of us don't have 100$/piece Cuban cigars to ignite our explosives with.