Need a list of any unique substance you can think of....

[MWresearch]

For a specific project where I seem to have exhausted most possibilities, any relevant suggestions would be appreciated. I need a list of substances or substance-like things which need to be particularly unique in some way, likely more general than specific. The substances could be anything from wood, rock, halogens, oxides, plasma, magnetic monopoles, neutronium, alcohol to anything with noteworthy properties. However, I cannot use substances that are purely fantasy or created out of thin air in movies and games. At the least they must be accepted as scientifically plausible. It also would not help to be overly specific. It wouldn't be worth mentioning acetic acid since the general term "acid" would suffice unless acetic acid has exceptionally interesting properties that separates it from all other acids. I can also accept particularly mysterious adjectives that can arouse curiosity, such as the words "old, futuristic, dream, cybernetic..."

 

The substances and unique things I have are...

 

Acid (or corroded substances)

Air

Alcohols

Alkaline-Earth metals

Alkali metals

Amber

Ash

Asteroid

Blood

Bone

Bose-Einstein Condensate

Carbides

Carbon (includes coal, graphite, diamond, nanotubes and C4)

Chalcogens (oxygen group)

Chitin (makes up bug exoskeletons and squid beaks)

Chlorophyll

Clouds

Comet

Crystal

Degenerate Matter

Dust

Egg

Electricity

Energy

Fat

Ferrofluid

Fiber (bread)

Flint

Foam

Fractal

Fruit (and vegetables)

Gas

Glass (includes obsidian and fulgurite)

Glitter

Ground (dirt, clay)

Gun Powder

Halides

Halogens (fluorine group)

Ice

Keratin (includes hair, fur, feathers and bird beaks)

Lanthanides

Lava (or magma)

Leaf

Light

Liquid

Magnetic Material

Magnetic Monopole (magnet with only a north or a south)

Mercury (liquid metal)

Metallic Hydrogen (hydrogen under enough pressure to act like a metal)

Metal

Mineral

Mollusk Shell

Mountain

Mud

Neutronium (neutrally charged degenerate matter)

Noble Gases

Oil

Opal

Ophiolite Crust

Ore

Oxides (materials with specific nonmetal oxygen bonds which Rust would fall under)

Paper

Photonic Matter

Plasma (includes lightning)

Plastic

Poison (which pesticides and things like cyanide fall into)

Pnictogens (nitrogen group)

Radioactive Material (or actinides)

Rare-Earth Metals

Rock

Latex (also rubber and gum)

Sand

Semimetals

Shale

Skin (includes leather, muscle tissue and organ tissue)

Slime (synonym of goo and sludge)

Snot

Sound Waves

Snowball

Solid

Storm

Strange-matter

Super-fluid

Super-solid

Taons

Tar

Treasure (precious metals)

Ultraviolet Light

Ununoctium

Urea

Waste

Water
Waves

Wax

Wood

 

Adjectives that can describe very unique substances, structures and events

Amorphous

Ancient

Aristocratic (rich)

Atomic

Barren

Bent

Bombarded

Bright

Bulging

Cavernous

Changing

Cimmerian (gloomy)

Cold

Corroded

Cracked

Cybernetic

Dark

Dead

Dented

Digital

Docile

Dreamy

Dry

Dying

Ejected (includes marooned, castaway and jettisoned)

Entangled

Eroded

Evil

Exhausted

Flat

Forested

Frozen

Futuristic

Good

Graceful

Heavy

Hollow

Hot

Impoverished (poor)

Invisible

Igneous

Large

Light

Living

Loud

Molten

Monstrous

Peaceful

Phased

Plentiful

Pollen

Primordial

Quiet

Rainbow

Rainy

Rejuvenated

Rough

Scarred

Shattered

Slowed

Small

Smooth

Soluble

Sped

Superficial

Temporal

Terraformed

Transformed

Vampiric

Violent

Windy

Undiscovered

Undulating

Edited April 18, 2015 by MWresearch

[Acme]

Seed

Pollen

Tooth

Paper

 

Shell (mollusk, turtle)

 

Beak (bird, octopus, squid)

Edited April 18, 2015 by Acme

[pavelcherepan]

Didn't see water in the list. That one is quite amazing.

 

Sorry, my bad. See it now

 

How about wax then?

Edited April 18, 2015 by pavelcherepan

[Acme]

Egg

[pavelcherepan]

No bacon in the list?

[Acme]

Fire

No bacon in the list?

Yes; he wrote: "Skin (includes leather muscle tissue)". Arguably though, bacon has unique properties.
Clay
Stars
Snot

Adjectives:
Manufactured (nests, fabrics, etc.)
Camouflaged (Cuttlefish, insects, etc.)
Spiraled

[pavelcherepan]

Nouns:

 

Bose-Einstein condensate

Neutrino

Solution

Mineral

Gunpowder

Atom

Nucleus

Isotope

Flint

Foam

Leaf

 

 

Adjectives:

 

Soluble

Crystalline

Amorphous

Atomic

Molecular

Toxic

Edited April 18, 2015 by pavelcherepan

[Acme]

Fossils

Fulgurite

Cell

Wings

Polymer

[MWresearch]

Thanks for those. Some of them I added like pollen which was a good one, snot, foam, egg, bose-einstein, flint. However, polymers are what plastic is made of. As for tooth and shell, those very closely resemble regular bones, a turtle shell is just a bunch of bones fused together. A squid beak is made of chitin, already on the list. I'm not exactly sure what to with bird beaks, because they are made of keratin which hair and fur and feathers are already made of. So I will just made a general keratin category. Leaf is part of my general plant category that includes chlorophyll because when people think of plants they think of green colors and leaves. Fulgurite I will leave under the obsidian/glass category since it is specific physical alteration of glass that is not outside of the typical capacity of glass, especially when you see all the glass blowing that people do. Fossiles are rocks in the shape of left over bones, I am not sure if I should create a category for them. Cells I am also unsure about, it seems too general because I already have plants (leaves), wood and skin and blood. With keratin it is only the arrangement or formation of molecules that changes between its sub-categories like different types of glass. Between plant tissue and animal tissue it is a combination of changes in the fundamental chemical composition as well as the structure and variety of functions. So, I think I should keep them separate. Amorphous and Soluble I will add, I like amorphous. As for wings...not sure if I can work in a specific piece of an animal like that, but I will put it on the list for the sake of having something.

Edited April 18, 2015 by MWresearch

[Acme]

Thanks for those. Some of them I added like pollen which was a good one, snot, foam, egg, bose-einstein, flint. However, polymers are what plastic is made of. As for tooth and shell goes those very closely resemble regular bones, a turtle shell is just a bunch of bones fused together. A squid beak is made of chitin, already on the list. I'm not exactly sure what to with bird beaks, because they are made of keratin which hair and fur and feathers are already made of. So I will just made a general keratin category. Leaf is part of my general plant category that includes chlorophyll because when people think of plants they think of green colors and leaves. Fulgurite I will leave under the obsidian/glass category since it is specific physical alteration of glass that is not outside of the typical capacity of glass, especially when you see all the glass blowing that people do.

Roger; glad to help. I would argue that mollusk shell is not like bone insomuch as bone is not solid, it entraps cells, and has collagen as a constituent, whereas a mollusk's shell is solid, does not entrap cells, and has no collagen.

 

As to chlorophyll, it also occurs in algae which have no leaves, xylem, or phloem.

 

Another adjective: Cracked, as in dried mud, faults, etcetera.

[MWresearch]

Alright then, I will add those.

[Acme]

10-4. Just came back to argue for fulgurite, or at least lightning. I meant to add lightning but got distracted. While lightning is electric and can occur in storms (both already in your list), storms are not necessary and lightning emits x-rays, EMP's, and possibly (according to recent research) gamma rays which is not the case for all electric phenomena.

 

Off to do some gaming and ponder your list & criteria.

[MWresearch]

Lightning is an electrical discharge that creates plasma, specifically, I think it is fine as a subcategory. As for fulgurite, it is a physical alteration of general glass minerals, I think I can keep it in a sub-category. I wouldn't make a separate category for beach glass.

Edited April 18, 2015 by MWresearch

[Acme]

Amber

Tears (as of eyes, not as in rip or rend)

[pavelcherepan]

Latex (while similar to rubber latex is natural)

Ore

Coal

Chondrite (one of material types of meteorites but specifically is important for understanding of Solar System formation)

Bolide (Not Formula 1 bolide. It's similar to meteorite again, but it doesn't reach the surface and so is different)

Air (I know you have gas already, but air is very specific and keep us alive so I'd include it too)

Asteroid

 

EDIT: Just went out for a smoke and thought of these things that I was inhaling:

 

Tar

Ash

Edited April 18, 2015 by pavelcherepan

[MWresearch]

Completely forgot Rare-Earth metals. Surprising no one caught it in the chemistry section. Oh wait nvm I did get that already, lanthanides.

Edited April 18, 2015 by MWresearch

[Danijel Gorupec]

No dark mater?

No sacramental bread?

[John Cuthber]

There are something like 100 million different chemical compounds known, and they are all uniquely identifiable.

It's going to be a long list.

[MWresearch]

There are something like 100 million different chemical compounds known, and they are all uniquely identifiable.

It's going to be a long list.

Not all of them are particularly interesting though.

[John Cuthber]

Not all of them are particularly interesting though.

They were interesting enough that someone synthesised and documented them.

How do you define "interesting"?

[MWresearch]

Something doesn't have to be anywhere near interesting to merely be documented, it just has to be different in the slightest possible way from something else that is already discovered. Interesting would be anything that has captured the public's interest, has been used in commonly known manufacturing, had science fiction or fantasy stories written about it, so versatile throughout history it is taught in middle and high schools, those sorts of things. Glass, water, wood, rock, dark matter, "are there magnets with only one pole (magnetic monopoles)?" "what is a neutron star made of (neutronium)?" "does Jupiter have a surface (metallic hydrogen)?" all fall under those conditions. But the thousands of compounds you're talking about (for instance any molybdenum compounds) usually don't meet those conditions.

Edited April 18, 2015 by MWresearch

[swansont]

Not all of them are particularly interesting though.

But wouldn't the property of being unique and not interesting make them interesting?

[MWresearch]

I have made it reasonably clear what the standards are and furthermore this is not the philosophy section. If you can think of a popular story about Molybdenum Trioxide and many of the other esoteric compounds and explain how it has captured the interest of the public around the world, you are free to explain. If you are honestly confused about the parameters, then use if whether or not the substance is esoteric as a rule of thumb. Generally, compounds for which you need more than a year of college to learn the existence of will not meet any of the conditions I've specified.

Edited April 19, 2015 by MWresearch

[John Cuthber]

It depends on your point of view.

I once used some Mo foil as an impromptu crucible for something but overheated it. the MO3 that was produced formed rather beautiful crystals round the edges of the furnace where it condensed.

You are right: this isn't in philosophy; it's chemistry.

So, the fact that iron gave rise to the industrial revolution (or whatever) isn't relevant.

It's also barely science, so what's it doing here?

[studiot]

Can't see why anyone is arguing about molybdenum.

 

Any toolroom monkey or motor mechanic should be able to tell you about the unique worth of molybdenum disulphide in mechanical engineering.