Moving on: I've always found helium to be among the sexiest of the elements, particularly considering that it's forced to hang out with those other tiresome bores, the inert gases. Here's an excellent case in point (pictured), and a good example of what creative marketing people can do with monatomic chemical elements. (The stunt was part of an ad campaign in which this model walked around a mall.) Helium doesn't get enough respect, really -- it's good for a lot of stuff, actually, including superconduction and cryogenics.

Speaking of which, did you know that several high-end facilities are attempting to protect endangered species by cryogenically freezing various biological materials? (Sperm, oocytes, cell lines -- this sort of thing.). They're called frozen zoos, and there are less than a dozen of them worldwide. The idea is that, if a species goes extinct, it may be possible to revive the line with future reproductive technologies.

Finally, I'd like to take a moment to salute a singularly brilliant Internet browser add-on, for Mozilla Firefox. The Abe Vigoda Status Bar is (or was) a tiny little display that lets you know whether actor Abe Vigoda, at any given time, is alive or dead. (Details on this odd pop culture phenomenon here.) Unfortunately, recent googling indicates the add-on is no longer available. Anyone knows the story there, let me know. Meanwhile, this will have to do.

Let it never be said that these posts lack variety. I probably should have skipped that double-mocha after lunch. Caffeine is our friend, but we must respect her power.

---

Bookmark this article:

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (0)

Show/Hide comments

Show/Hide comment form

Name

Title

Comment

Add Comment