#dilithium oxide

[edge-oftheworld]

hiii my friend just told me that if I sent you the 5sos member i think I'm most like, and permission to look at my blog you would psychoanalyze me? i thought that might be fun.

I'm not a huge 5sos fan, but I think I'm most like Calum. I think Michael is my favorite.

omg! i saw your dilithium post too and I hope that's going well, senior (?) chemistry can be brutal. and yeah absolutely!

you're naturally curious and easygoing, and you love novelty and diversity and learning about different ways to do things, different ways to exist, until you find something that comfortably fits you and then the peace you feel about that is so much better than trying to conform with what people say you should be. you get bored and start to feel uncomfortable when things are all the same all the time or when the same handful of people are telling everyone else what to do. part of that comes from being in a minority group, but part of it is just who you naturally are and even if you were white, cis and straight you think you'd still be drawn to people who break the mold.

you're drawn to anyone who's unashamedly themselves, and that's not because you're not yourself but sometimes you're quiet and people overlook you, or you're overlooked because you're well behaved according to their standards, but their standards are made up anyway, so who gave them the authority to judge you using things that don't even exist? it's a common aspec experience--people find reasons to judge who people are with, but when you're not with anyone they scramble for reasons to accuse you of wrongdoing, only to find none and infantilise you instead, focusing instead on the things you're good at, calling you 'career oriented' for not having a partner, not realising that binary is just as false as everything else.

there are things you're good at that you don't really care for, and things you love that you could be good at, and probably will be because you love them, so you're automatically going to spend more time on them. it's common sense, you don't understand why people don't get it.

you're observant and you notice a lot of trends as well as the ways that the world COULD be if people didn't just go through the same motions that this colonial society recommends. you're a dreamer and an idealist. you love philosophy, but only to a point, when it stops having practical applications it starts to go over your head sometimes because when it does that, it stops opening the doors to building community and family and instead starts to feel exclusionary, like that age-old trolley argument that totally disregards ANY sort of creativity and creates a false binary, something you hate.

your curiosity and love for complexity is one reason you're studying chemistry, and you're in so many fandoms! don't let people take that away from you: these things can be wonderous and joyful and you can look at ionic and covalent bonds and think to yourself: I'm most drawn to people who some say are opposite to me (loud, sometimes 'rude' but who makes these social rules anyway) but in other ways are exactly the same. lithium and oxygen are opposites, or are they? how about sodium and chlorine? aren't they more alike than you think? you don't appear like an outcast on the surface but you're committed to authenticity and you're going to go wherever that is, and it sure isn't with the mainstream people trying to hide their whole selves to be cool. they'll learn eventually. you already have.

[andietries]

Why did they choose Lithium to create the futuristic fuel? It’s absolutely impossible to create dilithium crystals due to the electronic configuration. They could have literally choose any other compound, even Lithium Oxide which could have made a pretty good pun, but noo they had to choose the first element on the periodic table

[denor2000]

The dilithium per oxid .at the gardrobe

[steenpaal]

List of Star Trek materials - Wikipedia

This is a list of notable fictional materials from the science fiction universe of Star Trek. Like other aspects of stories in the franchise, some were recurring plot elements from one episode or series to another.

Metals for starship construction

The fictional metals duranium and tritanium were referred to in many episodes as extremely hard alloys used in starship hulls and hand-held tools. The planet-killer in "The Doomsday Machine" had a hull made of solid neutronium, which is capable of withstanding a starship's phasers. Neutronium is considered to be virtually indestructible; the only known way of stopping the planet-killer is to destroy it from the inside via the explosion of a starship's warp core.

Transparent aluminum

Star Trek technical manuals indicate that transparent aluminum is used in various fittings in starships, including exterior ship portals and windows. It was notably mentioned in the 1986 film Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. Ultra-strong transparent panels were needed to construct water tanks within their ship's cargo bay for containing two humpback whales and hundreds of tons of water. However, the Enterprise crew, without money appropriate to the period, found it necessary to barter for the required materials. Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott exchanges the chemical formula for transparent aluminum for the needed material. When Dr. Leonard McCoy informs Scott that giving Dr. Nichols (Alex Henteloff) the formula is altering the future, the engineer responds, "Why? How do we know he didn't invent the thing?" (In the novelization of the film, Scott is aware that Dr. Marcus "Mark" Nichols, the Plexicorp scientist with whom he and McCoy deal, was its "inventor," and concludes that his giving of the formula is a predestination paradox/bootstrap paradox.) The substance is described as being as transparent as glass while possessing the strength and density of high-grade aluminum. It was also mentioned in Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "In Theory".

The series' science consultant André Bormanis has concluded that the material would not be a good conductor of electricity.

Real-life transparent substances composed of some aluminum

An aluminum window pane, "of glasslike transparency" was reported from Germany in 1933.[1]

Sapphire (Al2O3) is transparent and is widely used in commercial and industrial settings. It has a hardness of 9 Mohs, making it the third hardest mineral after diamond and moissanite.

Aluminum oxynitride ((AlN)x·(Al2O3)1−x) is a transparent ceramic which has a hardness of 7.7 Mohs, and has military applications as bullet-resistant armour, but is too expensive for widespread use.[2][3] It was patented in 1986.[4]

Pure transparent aluminum was created as a new state of matter by a team of scientists in 2009. A laser pulse removed an electron from every atom without disrupting the crystalline structure.[5] However, the transparent state lasted for only 40 femtoseconds, until electrons returned to the material.

A group of scientists led by Ralf Röhlsberger at Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), Hamburg, Germany, succeeded in turning iron transparent during research in 2012 to create quantum computers.[6][7]

Trellium-D

Trellium-D, shown in Star Trek: Enterprise, was an alloy used in the Delphic Expanse as a protection against spatial anomalies there. It had unusual effects on Vulcan physiology, and became a recurring plot element in the third season of Star Trek: Enterprise, exploring the theme of drug addiction.

Other materials were occasionally mentioned in the scripts, such as nitrium, a radiation-resistant material.

Energy sources

Dilithium

Dilithium crystals, in all Star Trek series, were shown to be an essential component for a starship's faster than light drive, or warp drive, since they were necessary to regulate the matter-antimatter reactions needed to generate the required energy. Dilithium was frequently featured in the original series as a scarce resource. By the time in which the later series were set, dilithium could be synthesized.

Real-life dilithium (Li2) materials

Real-world dilithium (Li2) is a gas composed of two lithium atoms covalently bonded together, and is a strongly electrophilic, diatomic molecule.[8]

Dilithium oxide (Li2O) is white cubic crystal with ionic bonds between the lithium and the oxygen. This material must be kept dry however as it will react strongly with water to form lithium hydroxide.

Trilithium

Trilithium is a material used in a star-destroying weapon in Star Trek Generations, and an explosive in Star Trek: Voyager Season 3: The Chute. This is due to the fact that Trilithium is termed as a "nuclear inhibitor", which is believed to be any substance that interferes with nuclear reactions. In the film, Trilithium is known to be capable, when used to its full potential, of stopping all fusion within a star, thereby collapsing the star and destroying everything within its solar system via a shock wave. Trilithium resin is a toxic byproduct of warp engines, and can be used as a powerful, and quite unstable, explosive (see "Starship Mine", the 18th episode of the sixth season). It is not known whether this is related to the nuclear inhibitor.

Precious materials

Latinum featured in many episodes of Deep Space Nine as a medium of exchange used by Ferengi and others. For convenience's sake (Jadzia Dax joked "probably someone got tired of making change with an eyedropper") the actual currency consisted of the latinum, which is a liquid in its natural state, enclosed in gold casings of standardized size (called slips, strips, bars, and bricks) and was referred to as "gold-pressed latinum". Latinum was useful as a medium of exchange, unlike the (worthless) gold in which it was enclosed, because it is impossible to replicate.

Tholian silk was a valuable fabric mentioned in multiple series.

Bio-mimetic gel is a volatile substance with medical applications. It is also highly sought after for use in illegal activities, such as genetic experimentation and biological weapons development. As such, its use is strictly regulated by the United Federation of Planets, and sale of the substance is prohibited. The substance was first mentioned in an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and was used as a plot element in several episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

Propulsion

Verterium cortenide is a usually synthetically generated compound, the only known substance to be capable of generating warp fields, when supplied with energy, in form of plasma, from the warp core. Warp coils are made of this material.

Minerals

Kironide is a mineral by which, upon consuming plants containing the mineral, the Platonians (the inhabitants of the planet Platonius) acquire telekinetic powers, including the ability to levitate, in the original series episode "Plato's Stepchildren".[9]

Pergium is a substance mined in "The Devil in the Dark", and fictionally given the atomic number 112 as a chemical element in a non-canon Star Trek medical manual publication.

Cordrazine, introduced in "The City on the Edge of Forever" is a powerful stimulant used to revive patients in an emergency. Overdoses cause hallucinations, madness and death.

Venus drug, introduced in "Mudd's Women", causes women to appear much lovelier and more exciting.

Inaprovaline, Introduced in "Transfigurations". Helps resuscitate the neurological and cardiovascular systems by reinforcing the cell membranes. It is also frequently used as an analgesic.

Ketracel-White, introduced in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, is a narcotic stimulant drug intravenously taken among the Jem'Hadar soldiers of The Dominion. The Jem'Hadar were created by the Founders- a shape-shifting species in the Gamma Quadrant- with a genetic predisposition for addiction to the drug. This was done to ensure their loyalty to the Founders. The drug is synthetically manufactured and refined at guarded facilities throughout Dominion space. Ketracel-White is stored as a liquid in glass vials locked in portable cases held by Vorta field supervisors. A Vorta must dispense the drug among the unit he/she commands at regular hourly intervals, otherwise the Jem'Hadar will suffer withdrawal leading to death. A vial of White is inserted into a dispensing mechanism embedded in the soldier's chest armor, and automatically pumped through a tube inserted into the common carotid artery.

Retinax-5, introduced in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, a drug that corrects vision problems.

Unstable substances

Protomatter is a key component of the Genesis Device prototype—an experimental terraformation device introduced in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Protomatter is presented as an unstable substance that, due to its instability, is considered unethical for usage in scientific research. The substance is used as a plot device to compare David Marcus with his father, James T. Kirk, both of whom, in Lieutenant Saavik's words, "changed the rules"—David Marcus by using the forbidden protomatter, and James T. Kirk by "cheating" to win the Kobayashi Maru test. The inclusion of protomatter ultimately results in both the accelerated maturation of the regenerated Spock during his stay on the Genesis planet, and the planet's subsequent explosion into an asteroid belt.

In the Deep Space Nine episode "By Inferno's Light", Protomatter was used by a Dominion changeling in a bomb plot that, if successful, would have destroyed the Bajoran sun and the forces of the Alpha Quadrant.

Protomatter is also mentioned in the Star Trek Voyager episode "Mortal Coil", where it is said, "Protomatter's one of the most sought-after commodities. The best energy source in the quadrant."[10]

The Omega Molecule is a highly unstable molecule believed to be the most powerful substance known to exist. If not properly disposed of, it may destroy subspace and render warp travel impossible. In Star Trek: Voyager, during the episode The Omega Directive, Voyager encounters Omega particles and Captain Janeway must comply with the Omega Directive and destroy the particles. Later in the episode, they spontaneously stabilize for a brief moment before they are destroyed.

Red matter is a red liquid material introduced in Star Trek (the 2009 film) that is able to create a black hole when not properly contained. Spock attempts to use it to stop a massive, galaxy-threatening supernova, but the resulting black hole causes his own ship and a Romulan mining vessel to travel back in time. Later in the film, the antagonist Nero uses it to destroy the planet Vulcan. Shortly after, the future Spock's ship containing the red matter is used to destroy Nero's Romulan mining vessel.

Fictional substances within Star Trek

Corbomite was named by Captain Kirk in a bluff in "The Corbomite Maneuver" as a material and a device that prevents attack, because if any destructive energy touches the vessel, a reverse reaction of equal strength is created, destroying the attacker.

Archerite was named by Commander Shran also in a bluff in "Proving Ground" as a material that his ship was looking to mine, during an encounter at the test site of the Xindi planet killer weapon.

See also

References

External links

[chemical-compounds-en-blog]

Lithium carbonate

Lithium carbonate Names IUPAC name Lithium carbonate Other names Dilithium carbonate, Carbolith, Cibalith-S, Duralith, Eskalith, Lithane, Lithizine, Lithobid, Lithonate, Lithotabs Priadel, Zabuyelite Identifiers CAS Number 554-13-2 Y ChEBI CHEBI:6504 Y ChEMBL ChEMBL1200826 N ChemSpider 10654 Y Jmol 3D model Interactive image KEGG D00801 Y PubChem 11125 RTECS number OJ5800000 UNII 2BMD2GNA4V Y InChI SMILES Properties Chemical formula Li 2CO 3 Molar mass 73.89 Appearance Odorless white powder Density 2.11 g/cm3 Melting point 723 °C (1,333 °F; 996 K) Boiling point 1,310 °C (2,390 °F; 1,580 K) decomposes from ~1300 °C Solubility in water 1.54 g/100 mL (0 °C) 1.43 g/100 mL (10 °C) 1.29 g/100 mL (25 °C) 1.08 g/100 mL (40 °C) 0.69 g/100 mL (100 °C) Solubility Insoluble in acetone, ammonia, alcohol Refractive index (nD) 1.428 Viscosity 4.64 cP (777 °C) 3.36 cP (817 °C) Thermochemistry Specific heat capacity (C) 97.4 J/mol·K Std molar entropy (S o298) 90.37 J/mol·K Std enthalpy of formation (ΔfH o298) -1215.6 kJ/mol Gibbs free energy (ΔfG˚) -1132.4 kJ/mol Hazards Main hazards Irritant Safety data sheet ICSC 1109 GHS pictograms GHS signal word Warning GHS hazard statements H302, H319 GHS precautionary statements P305+351+338 EU classification (DSD) Xn Xi R-phrases R22, R36 S-phrases S26, S36/37 Flash point Non-flammable Lethal dose or concentration (LD, LC): LD50 (median dose) 525 mg/kg (oral, rat) Related compounds Other cations Sodium carbonate Potassium carbonate Rubidium carbonate Caesium carbonate Except where otherwise noted, data are given for materials in their standard state (at 25 °C [77 °F], 100 kPa). N verify (what is YN ?) Infobox references Lithium carbonate is an inorganic compound, the lithium salt of carbonate with the formula Li 2CO 3. This white salt is widely used in the processing of metal oxides. For the treatment of bipolar disorder, it is on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines, the most important medication needed in a basic health system. More details Android, Windows

[badbackgroundscience]

The possibility of successfully navigating an asteroid field is no where near as low as 3,720 to 1

Episode of the Week: Mudd’s Women

Planet of the Week: Rigel 12 Villain of the Week: Harcourt Fenton Mudd. Redshirt Death Count: 0

TL;DR: If you think you’re a pretty lady, then other people think you’re a pretty lady. At least as long as you’re already played by a conventionally pretty lady. Also, McCoy doesn’t know where Spock’s heart actually is - only that it’s not where it’s supposed to be.

So, I’m re-watching TOS on Netflix, which unfortunately uses the re-mastered version with updated visual effects. In this episode’s open, said effects involve a cargo ship trying and failing to evade the Enterprise in an asteroid belt.

What was once this (The middle glowing thing is the ship; the other one’s a rock):

Became this (Less glowing, more rocks...):

In my own humble opinion, the new VFX look completely out of place with the rest of the 1960′s aesthetic (i.e. the typical set decoration...); I wish Netflix gave me the option of watching a remastered version that just tried to clean up the overall visual quality of the episodes.

But no matter the version I’m watching, I get to bring up the fact that asteroid belts - or at least the only space debris belts we’ve observed - aren’t all that dangerous to travel through. 

Our “Asteroid Belt” - the collection of space potatoes orbiting the Sun between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter - has a collective mass of about 3 sextillion kg, which is only 4% that of our Moon.* But the largest object - dwarf planet Ceres - accounts for roughly a third of that. So, you might look at an image like this:

and think it’s a miracle we’ve managed to get anything through that death trap. But those dots aren’t to scale at all...

Pioneer 10 was the first spacecraft to traverse the Belt, back in ‘72 - it’s estimated that the closest it got to an asteroid was 8.8 billion meters (5.5 million miles, or roughly 23 times the space between the Earth and the Moon). As this report states, the satellite failed to detect any particles larger than 1 millimeter during its passage through the region. 

[Note that super tiny bits of rock can be dangerous if they’re traveling at super high speeds relative to the craft they hit. As the ESA puts it, 

The consequences of meteoroid and debris impacts on spacecraft can range from small surface pits due to micrometre-size impactors and clear-hole penetrations for millimetre­-size objects, to mission-­critical damage for projectiles larger than 1 cm.

Any impact of a 10 cm catalogue object on a spacecraft or orbital stage will most likely entail a catastrophic disintegration of the target.

This is what a 1.2-cm ball traveling at 6.8 km/s (15,211 mph) does to a solid sheet of aluminum:

This is also why the Enterprise (and any other space-faring vessel) should have their deflector screens up way more frequently when zooming through the galaxy, and not - like Kirk instructs his team in this episode - just before entering an asteroid belt. They’re usually traveling way faster than any of our current craft go, which makes even less massive space bits just as bad for the hull...]

The first of our satellites to actually get close enough to an asteroid for a photograph was Galileo, in 1991.** And Galileo had to be specifically aimed toward it; it was part of the mission to fly by the rock - Galileo didn’t just come across it by accident.

None of the spacecraft we’ve sent through the asteroid belt have suffered sufficient damage from debris to threaten the mission. Neither have they suffered sufficient damage from traveling through the Kuiper Belt, when applicable; the KB’s the other space potato-’filled’ ring in our Solar System (It’s where the rest of the dwarf planets reside, including Pluto***). It’s even less dense than our asteroid belt.

Rotten luck, that cargo ship had, to be hit by two large hunks of rock...

Stepping back a minute or so, the cargo vessel’s engines burn out in its escape attempt, so the Enterprise has to extend its deflector shields around it while Scotty beams aboard the crew. This burns out three “lithium crystals”, which are a crucial power source to keep the ship running. Miracle worker that he is, Scotty gets both the cargo ship’s captain (self identifying as “Leo Walsh”)

and his ‘cargo’...

...just before the cargo ship’s hit by the afore-mentioned large space potatoes.

These women - Eve, Ruth, and Magda (respectively) - were bound for Ophiucus III to become settlers’ wives.**** While it’s difficult to tell from the above still, they’re abnormally beautiful. Of course they’re played by attractive actresses (what TOS woman isn’t...), but Kirk notes in his log, “These women have a mysterious magnetic effect on the male members of my crew, including myself.” Bones’s medical scanner does some weird bleeping when one of the girls stands next to it, but he can’t explain why. Later in the episode it’s revealed that the cargo captain - not Leo Walsh, but the smuggler Harry Mudd - has them hooked on some sort of illegal “Venus drug”. There’s withdrawal symptoms and everything, but they basically just get grumpy and ‘ugly’ (wherein ugly just means no makeup and messy hair):

As for the lithium crystals, the Enterprise only has one working after saving Mudd and the women. (It soon fails, leaving the ship and its life support system on battery power.) This is what one of the broken ones looks like:

In the real world, lithium is element number 3 on the Periodic Table, following Hydrogen and Helium. Hearing the term, you’re probably either thinking of lithium-ion batteries or medication. The former is more applicable to the Enterprise’s scenario, but - as the name implies - the batteries have lots of individual lithium ions (an Li atom with two electrons) floating around to conduct a charge, rather than having lots of atoms fixed in a crystalline structure.

In its pure state, lithium is a shiny silver metal, not a crystal. It reacts easily with oxygen (producing lithium oxide) and with water (producing flammable hydrogen gas), so it’s stored in oil.

The most abundant Li-containing mineral (which looks more "crystal"-y than pure lithium) is the (often) lilac-gray/rose-colored Lepidolite, which has the chemical formula K(Li,Al,Rb)2(Al,Si)4O10(F,OH)2.***** 

For those of you wondering about dilithium crystals - what the series eventually renamed the power source - those don’t exist, either. Two lithium atoms can bond together, and make what one could call “dilithium”, but these units don’t form crystals in the real world.

The Enterprise heads to Rigel XII to pick up new lithium crystals, and Mudd sees this as an opportunity to unload his cargo on those “lonely, isolated, overworked, rich lithium miners!”`* He uses a communicator Magda gets from a crewman to contact the miners; they, in turn, refuse to give Kirk the crystals unless they get to trade for the women.

Everyone ends up paired off, but Eve and the lead miner Childress aren’t fond of one another, mostly because Eve’s not feeling the whole situation. The next day(ish), after rescuing her from running away into some sort of sandstorm, Childress complains she’s not pretty anymore (calling her “plain as an old bucket”).

Kirk (still not having acquired his precious lithium crystals) shows up with Mudd in tow and forces the smuggler to confess to giving the women Venus drugs. The other two miners have already married their women via subspace radio ceremonies, and Childress naturally complains. With their wealth, he claims, they could have easily bought the most beautiful women in the galaxy (Because what beautiful woman wouldn’t want to spend the rest of her days on a basically uninhabited mining colony planet in the middle of nowhere?).

Eve chides him while grabbing the pills from Mudd’s box and downing them once again, and turns back into her beautiful self. 

Kirk then reveals he gave her a placebo, saying “You either believe in yourself, or you don't.” [McCoy does ask, about halfway through the episode, “Are they actually more lovely...than any other women you've known? Or is it that they just, well, act beautiful?” which foreshadows the placebo twist, but a placebo somehow capable of putting on eyeshadow, etc. and doing her hair...I mean...really?]

The episode ends with Childress and Eve deciding to give it a try - we never find out what the other two men think of their deceitful wives - and the Enterprise dragging Mudd back to civilization to stand trial. But don’t worry - he’ll pop back up in season 2.`**

* This is actually much less mass than astronomers estimate existed in the region when the Solar System started forming - gravitational jostling from (mostly) Jupiter interacting with all of the smaller masses threw a lot of rocks and dust out of the region, either hurtling them into the Sun or out of the System entirely. It also involves the planets (specifically the non-terrestrial ones) moving in/out in terms of their orbital distances. 

** I was taught the first asteroid imaged by a spacecraft was Ida (by Galileo, in 1993). Mike Brown (yes, that Mike Brown) lied to me.

*** Apparently, certain astronomers distinguish the Kuiper Belt from something else called the “Scattered Disc”, whose inner region overlaps with the Kuiper Belt and would contain Eris and Sedna. Objects in the SD have way more elliptical orbits than those in the KB, and they can be angled more steeply relative to the Solar System’s ecliptic. What sorts an astronomical body into the KB or the SD is whether or not it can be disturbed (i.e. scattered) by Neptune.

But in that class I took from Mike Brown (who, I’d argue, is one of the lead researchers studying this area of space), he never even made this distinction, so I’m still going to refer to the whole thing as the Kuiper Belt. But you can make your own choices.

**** Eve says she’s from “a farm planet with automated machines for company and two brothers to cook for, mend their clothes, canal mud a foot thick on their boots every time they walked in.” Because she’s definitely not going to be doing that for whatever settler she’s sold to...

***** Fun fact: the element Rubidium (Rb) was discovered by isolating it from a Lepidolite crystal

`* Mudd orders the women to flirt with the men on the ship to gather intel about the miners; why Kirk doesn’t restrict them to quarters like he does Mudd I don’t know. Eve is supposed to seduce Kirk, but when that scene comes up it’s obvious he’s not into it (and neither is she). Yes, canon!Kirk is not the sex-fiend he’s portrayed as outside the original series (I’m looking at you, JJ...)

`** According to Memory Alpha, Mudd is the only adversary - other than Khan - to face Kirk more than once in a live-action Star Trek production. 

TOS s1e06 - Teleplay: Stephen Kandel, Story: Gene Roddenberry, Directed By: Harvey Hart

Photo Credits:

Asteroid locations By Mdf, Public Domain

Hypervelocity Impact Copyright ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

pure lithium By Tomihahndorf, Public Domain

[ancienthero]

nicholas this chemistry shit is so GHEY

-Lol it's so funny

no its dumb

-I love it.