Page 70 - Where the Dream Ends ebook

Marc Erdrich

new element after the town in which he discovered it. On the
other hand, Jean de Marignac, who discovered ytterbium, has
nothing named after him. What’s going on here? Why isn’t
there a marignacium? Who’s in charge of this naming thing?
And why are they so flip about who gets what named after
them? What’s such a big deal about the village of Ytterbia any-
way that it got to have two elements named after it. America,
the world’s greatest super power only has one element named
after it. I personally think we should have three elements
named after us.

In 1907, ytterbia was separated into two components called
neoytterbia and lutecia. Don’t ask. Even odder, those two el-
ements are identical with aldebaranium and cassiopeium, dis-
covered independently and at about the same time. Would
someone tell me how you can have two fundamental, essential,
irreducible particles that are identical?
Yttrium and ytterbium are actually used in many electron-
ic components, including televisions, lasers and microwaves.
Would you believe there’s five times as much yttrium and yt-
terbium on the earth as there is in the universe overall, and that
moon rock returned by the Apollo mission showed elevated
levels of yttrium. Also, there are 0.0000008 parts per million
of yttrium in streams. Is that every stream? How many streams
do you suppose have been tested? Why are they telling us this?
Is there cause for concern?
If you’re planning to make anything with yttrium or yt-
terbium, no problem. Just be sure you keep the material in a
closed container to protect it from air and moisture because
yttrium and ytterbium can explode all by themselves with con-
tact to air.

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