Not sure exactly where this would fit, but not exactly "Off Topic".

Have you heard?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6584229.stm

So it's white? Maybe it's a new kind that no one knew about. Wonder how it would react with Superman's power.

malu

I've moved it into Lois and Clark, malu, as it's related to the show.

LabRat

hang on... is this a joke? or is that true? I'm all consufed... (granted, I am without coffee this morning..)

My second question would be... if it's true and this matches what we know to be Kryptonite, does that mean there's a kid out there with super powers?

...eh, one can dream...

No, it's true, apparently. They found the mineral in Serbia and it's now in a London museum.

I read this last night on teletext and was quite tickled by it, I'll confess.

Pity it's not green and shiny though. White and powdery just doesn't have the same ring to it.

Nor does Jaderite, come to that.

LabRat

Yeah, but I'm confused!!!!!!!!


I thought there already was an element called Kryptonite
although this is one of the inert gasses, so would not be a mineral...


I sort of get the reference as the structure was first proposed as a fictional mineral... but to me it does not mean much, newswise, as you could have invented anything for lutor's script

There is an element called krypton .

Thanks, LabRat. I wasn't really sure of the place, since it relates in general to the Superman myth (especially the movie Superman Returns, where the information for the element comes from).

malu

By the way, remember that the article mentions that it is not exactly what was mentioned in the movie, since it does not have fluorine, and so who knows if "mixed" with fluorine, it will acquire a greenish color and a glow? (As you can see, I'm terrible in Chemistry).

malu

http://blog.wired.com/tableofmalcontents/2007/04/kryptonite_disc.html

I was just about to post about the same thing. LOL

According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kryptonite#Variations
White Kryptonite kills all plant life, whether Kryptonian or not. Induces decay immediately upon exposure, with a range of about 25 yards. The most prominent use of this variety in the comics was to destroy Virus X, which was revealed in a storyline in 1968's Action Comics #362-366 to actually be a form of plant life.

Not to hijack this thread, but some of the variations of kryptonite are wild, like pink kryptonite, which causes Kryptonians to become "not straight", if you get my drift.

Pink kryptonite was introduced once as a throwaway gag mocking all the different weird and random effects they used to come up with. It hasn't appeared on more than that single page, and I don't think it was even on more than one panel.

Fluorine is a halogen. Highly chemically reactive, but not especially radioactive.

From what I understand of the article, the writers of Superman Returns wanted to describe the chemical makeup of kryptonite. So they threw together a bunch of random elements. Then this guy was digging around and happened to find a rock that just happened to contain most of those elements.

It's not even the same recipe given in Superman III :

Not the best movie, granted (though it was fun in its own way), but at least that recipe includes some radioactive elements (plutonium and promethium). A good percentage of the makeup, too. (Of course, that radiation is dangerous to humans, not just kryptonians. But still...)

It is funny that this rock happened to have the elemental composition mentioned in the most recent movie, and that it happened to show up now (less than a year after the release), but that's about it. I don't understand the fuss.

Paul

It's called PR and using the media and popular culture to get attention for your scientific efforts, Paul.

Want publicity for something you've done/found? Just link it to a recent, popular movie, send out a press release and the press will oblige with all the hype you require.

LabRat

I don't know anything about the supposed composition of kryptonite. But if you want to find a green, translucent "meteor" rock, google "moldavite." I brought home a piece from a rock and mineral show (just because I thought it was pretty) and my family of Smallville fans nearly fell on the floor laughing.

It does look like kryptonite is said to look.