DailyDirt: Better Living Via Chemistry... Just Got A Bit More Complicated

Almost no one liked chemistry class in high school, and on top of that, colleges use chem classes to weed out pre-med students. So the subject gets a bum rap a lot, and things aren't about to get any better. The periodic table just officially changed. Merry Christmas to chemistry teachers everywhere! Here are a few more quick links about this news and some chemistry-related stories:

The atomic weights of ten elements will now be expressed as intervals. And I'm looking forward to how They Might Be Giants will explain this in a song. [url]

There's a very boring answer to the question of what would happen if you threw every element together at the same time. It would reach equilibrium after creating a cloud of smoke. [url]

Do you know where your elements come from? Are they conflict-free? Blood diamonds get a movie, but when will they make a movie about "blood tantalum"? [url]

Have you noticed that your dish detergent is phosphate-free now? Procter & Gamble says it had no choice but to remove phosphate compounds from its products -- because it's better for the environment. Unfortunately, dishes everywhere aren't getting as clean as they used to be. [url]

Gold is not a gas, doesn't burn and won't kill you -- are those good enough reasons for you? I'll take: "Reasons why an element is precious for $200, Alex." [url]

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