The universe is a material world. Whether it is planets, stars, or other celestial bodies, they are made of various materials, and in what we think of as a vacuum, they are not really empty. There are also a small amount of various materials.
After entering the age of science and technology, mankind began to continuously explore and study this material world. In the process of research, we didn’t discover any of the elements and substances, and formed a table, which is the periodic table that everyone is very familiar with.
We all know that there are currently 118 elements in the periodic table, and the difficulty of obtaining each element is also different. Someone once wanted to collect all the elements, but in the end they found it impossible. Some people may think that although money is not everything, but for these elements, as long as there is money can be collected, is this really the case?
If you think so, you are wrong. If you ask who is the richest in the world, many people will think of Bill Gates, the richest man in the world. Bill Gates is an entrepreneur who loves science very much. He often collects some technological products, and even spends a lot of money to buy some ancient technological manuscripts at some auctions.
Bill Gates loves science so much and has a hobby of collecting scientific objects, so he is naturally very interested in these elements in the periodic table. He has a collection cabinet with 118 element collection slots. Even such a rich entrepreneur did not collect all 118 elements. It can be seen how difficult it is to collect these elements. It is no longer easy for money. Things to solve.
Why are these 118 elements so difficult to collect, even with money? To unravel this mystery, we need to have a simple understanding of these 118 elements. Some friends may think that these 118 elements are all products of nature, but in fact, only 94 species are found in nature, and the other 24 are realized through artificial synthesis.
If it is an element that exists in nature, it is not difficult to obtain it. For example, the collection of hydrogen and oxygen is not difficult, and we ordinary people can easily do it. Even if some natural elements are more expensive, as long as they are willing to spend money, they are not difficult to collect. For example, precious metals such as gold and platinum are common precious metals in our daily lives. The price of gold is around 400 yuan per gram.
Platinum is one of the rarer elements in the earth’s crust, and the price is more expensive. If these precious metal elements are only collected for one gram, I believe most friends can do it. These are just ordinary precious metal elements, the price is not very expensive, and the price of 91 element praseodymium is as high as 2,000 yuan per gram, which is more than 5 times that of gold.
The price of element 95 americium is 5,000 yuan per gram, which is equivalent to a good smartphone. And 86 element radon, the price is as high as 10,000 yuan per gram, this price can buy a good Apple mobile phone. The price of element 94 plutonium is as high as 30,000 yuan per gram. If your monthly income is 3,000 yuan, only one gram can be bought with that year’s salary.
The above elements can still be tolerated as long as you bite your teeth, but the following elements are not affordable for ordinary people. For example, the price of No.88 element radium per gram is 200,000 yuan, which ordinary people can’t afford. I believe many friends know that this element was discovered by Madame Curie, and it is a radioactive element.
No. 97 element berkelium is more expensive, the price per gram is as high as 1 million yuan. If you think this is the most expensive element in the periodic table, you are very wrong. It can only be regarded as medium, and there are more on top of it. More expensive elements beyond our imagination, such as the 98 artificial element californium, whose main use is a strong neutron source, and its radioactivity is extremely strong. , The cost per gram is as high as 27 million US dollars.
Of course, this is not the most expensive element. There is also an element in nature that is more expensive, the 87 element francium, which is an element with a very fast decay rate and a very short half-life. Its isotope Francium-223 is the most stable, but its half-life is less than half an hour. Therefore, Francium is very difficult to produce, the output is very low, the manufacturing cost is very high, the cost per gram is as high as one billion US dollars.
So is this Francium element the most expensive element? Of course not. In fact, the most expensive element currently known is hydrogen. Of course, it is not ordinary hydrogen but anti-hydrogen. It is estimated that the cost of producing one gram of anti-hydrogen is nearly 63 trillion US dollars. Seeing this number is beyond our imagination.
Of course, all of the above elements can be collected as long as you have enough money, even though the price is unaffordable even for the powerful United States. However, the following two elements are difficult to obtain even if you have enough money. The first element is polonium, which is a highly toxic element that can glow in the dark.
How toxic is polonium? It is said that one gram of polonium can poison humans all over the world. Such a terrifying element is impossible to obtain even if you have money. No one dares to let this element be in the hands of one person. It is really terrifying.
The other element is Og, which is the 118th element and the last element found so far. This is an artificially synthesized rare gas element. It is currently the heaviest element synthesized by humans. The atom of this element is very unstable and can only exist for one ten-thousandth of a second, and then it will decay. Element 116 continues to decay to 114. Number element. The existence of such elements is too short, and you can’t collect them no matter how rich you are.
Through the above understanding, I believe that many friends have already understood how difficult these 118 elements are to collect. Of course, this is for the current state of human technology. With the continuous advancement of human technology, those elements that are difficult to synthesize or are very unstable may become easier in the future. At that time, it is possible that you want to collect these elements.
Of course, 118 kinds of elements are not all the collections of elements in the universe. Although there are only 94 natural elements that we have discovered so far, the universe is vast and vast. We understand that even 1% is not counted. In the unknown universe, there may be others. More mysterious and complex natural elements. With the continuous advancement of science and technology, we may be able to synthesize heavier elements through technology in the future. At that time, the periodic table of elements was not only 118, but will continue to increase.
