The world’s oldest water?

Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council ^ | February 19, 2011 | Unknown

[muawiyah]

Some of it is not good to play with ~ gives off too much radiation.

Earth contains an element called Thorium. It is slightly radioactive and has a half life of over 14 billion years. That means that pretty much all of it is still around.

It breaks down into what are called rare earths.

What you are imagining is that the ATOM is a fixed item. It's not. It has electrons, protons and neutrons. Those objects, in turn, are made up of quarks.

We use the term "element" to refer to combinations of electrons, protons and neutrons that react in certain ways "chemically".

As you have guessed we can have an element that has billions of years of stability and another that has only days of stability, yet they are chemically reactive in the same way.

Do not confuse the term "element" with the term "atom" ~

[LuvFreeRepublic]

Elements are the same age. COMPOUNDS come and go.

Good discussing going on. Just wanted to add one slightly philosophical comment. You are correct in that All elements are the same age, as in they are of "no age". Think infinity.

[aruanan]

They cannot. The exist and maybe they reemerge from stars or whatever. But they exist. If they don’t exist, you and I don’t exist. Think it through... Forget about what the Lefties taught you at the University. Think it through.

Stars are forming all the time. Different elements are created in stars at different stages of stellar development. Elements are being created all the time. Furthermore, most "elements" are composed of many different isotopes, some of them decay into different elements. Uranium 238 decays into lead 206 and uranium 235 decays into lead 207. So not all lead is as old as all uranium.

[aruanan]

I hate to rain on your parade but reading in English is important. Elements are the same age. COMPOUNDS come and go.

Dear April, elements are not all the same age. You're about as fundamentally wrong as it is possible to be.

[aruanan]

I hate to rain on your parade but reading in English is important. Elements are the same age. COMPOUNDS come and go.

And as far as reading is concerned, I was responding to the first sentence of your post that was responding to the article about the "world's oldest water." Were you referring to something other than water? Then you should have quoted, as I have, exactly what in the article you were responding to and then followed it up with something that was factual. Maintaining that all elements are the same age is not factual.

[April Lexington]

Classic proof that someone has no argument. Instead of proffering facts, attack the proposer. Please share with us one fact. One simple fact that proves elements are being made today. From where do they come? New gold being made today? You and Mickey Mouse the Apprentice should get together and call Warren Buffett. I'm sure he'd be interested in investing in your gold from nothing machine.

[April Lexington]

Stars are forming all the time. Different elements are created in stars at different stages of stellar development. Elements are being created all the time.

Created from WHAT? Come from WHERE? Nowhere to somewhere? Plus, nobody has ever been to a star. It is all hypothesis and I submit it is wrong. Stuff doesn't just show up from nowhere. It is either somewhere or nowhere at all. To posit otherwise is to chase Alice down the rabbit hole. Nonsense. Isotopes. Show me an isotope. Just one. Just one little isotope. If the nuclear content of an element changes it can't be the same element. But that never happens except in theory. Elements can't be destroyed unless you have invented an anti-matter machine. Gold is gold. Silver is silver and Hydrogen is hydrogen. They can all combine to form compounds but, in the end, its still gold. It is still Hydrogen.

[April Lexington]

We use the term "element" to refer to combinations of electrons, protons and neutrons that react in certain ways "chemically".

Elements are made of atomic particles and forces. I agree. If anyone on this forum has figured out how to turn lead into gold, please email me immediately. I will fund that venture and, together, we will make Bill Gates and Warren Buffet look like paupers. All we need to do is move some electrons and protons around and... voila! We's rich!

[April Lexington]

Gold (Au) has one stable isotope, 197Au, and 18 radioisotopes with 195Au being the most stable with a half-life of 186 days.

Help me here. so... after 186 days, its not gold anymore? If that is true, please send me at your earliest convenience all gold over 186 days old. I promise to take good care of it until it changes, yet again, into something else...

[muawiyah]

Yup, there are gold nuggets (certainly small ones) out there that can pass all the assay tests for real gold but in just a short time they’ll become something else ~ and maybe something else again ~ but I don’t know what.

[muawiyah]

Try looking up SUPER ATOMS. It seems that it may be possible to easily shift two atomic nuclei inside the same valence shell and come up with "new" elements ~ or with "fake" copies of existing elements.

One product they're talking about is an aluminum super atom made from phosphorous atoms. It's transparent and also stronger than ordinary aluminum.

[April Lexington]

It seems that it may be possible

[colorado tanker]

This thread is getting hairy. Must be something in the water . . . .

[SunkenCiv]

I’ll try to follicle long.

[decimon]

I’ll try to follicle long.

While astrand on the shore.

There do seem to be a good number of epic threads lately.

[colorado tanker]

Don’t wig out.

[SunkenCiv]

If I do, someone will upbraid me.

[aruanan]

Classic proof that someone has no argument. Instead of proffering facts, attack the proposer. Please share with us one fact. One simple fact that proves elements are being made today. From where do they come? New gold being made today? You and Mickey Mouse the Apprentice should get together and call Warren Buffett. I'm sure he'd be interested in investing in your gold from nothing machine.

You're pretty good at being recursive.

[April Lexington]

Ok. I was wrong. Everything is nothing and nothing is everything! Who knew!