Bit of Discourse: Chemistry

[Ahriman238]

Hello all, trying to do a more interactive, less series-specific series of analysis threads.

One thing about speculative fiction is you can imagine any substance you want, with any qualities you want, and people will generally accept it as face value. Most of which is to be effectively indestructible or much harder than any know metal. I had wondered, idly, what I'd do with a sample of each of these fantastic materials. Or if we could produce one of these things in worthwhile quantities, what could we do with them? So let's have a look at some of this future metallurgy and chemistry.



Let's start with a classic, H.G Wells' cavorite from the First Men on the Moon. Cavorite is a "complex alloy infused with helium" which reflects gravity and "all other forms of radiant energy." In fact, the spaceship which carries Cavor and Bedford to the moon is a sphere of cavorite coated panels so they can repel gravity in any direction they please. It was written in a very different time, the question is what non-obvious uses could we have for an antigravity paste?

Element Zero or eezo from Mass Effect generates a field that reduces effective mass or increases it depending on what electric charge you give it. Used in the Mass Relays, so hopefully we might be able to someday duplicate them. Oh, and can sort of give you telekinetic powers, or your kids but there can be terrible side-effects.

Stygium, from the Discworld (Making Money) is a metal so black it absorbs all light and heats rapidly. In fact, it superheats or occasionally explodes when exposed to direct sunlight. A man in the story has a ring of stygium made in imitation of one Vetinari is rumored to possess, the ring is too small for his finger and causes serious health problems, but when exposed to the sun burns through his finger and drops to the ground in an instant. The man is removed to a mental hospital, which seems to have many patients who believe they are Vetinari, but does that really surprise you?

Transparent aluminum (Star Trek IV) it's aluminum, only see-through. And part of a minor paradox, just where did the idea come from originally?

Adamantium (Marvel) is apparently indestructible once it's mixed and allowed to solidify.

Vibranium (Wakandan) from the Marvel Universe, absorbs all energy, especially kinetic and just gets stronger.

Vibranium (Anti-Metal) gives off a "vibrational wave" that liquefies any other metal exposed to it.

[CyrilsScribe]

Transparent aluminum (Star Trek IV) it's aluminum, only see-through. And part of a minor paradox, just where did the idea come from originally?

Transparent Aluminum (Aluminum Oxynitride) actually is a real life material, mostly used in amour glass, IR Seekers, laser windows and various other specialty applications. Talk about Science Fiction becoming Science Fact.

[krakonfour]

Machine vs substance:

Let's take Element Zero for example.
If the creators had used a machine/technique that affected mass, the obvious question would be: how would it work?
If the creators use mysterious substance Xtraordinary Coolnameium, they can answer any question with 'this just is like this', just the same way you would try to explain the existence of Ununpentium to a lay man.

Owait.
It was actually used in CoD games...

[Ahriman238]

Transparent aluminum (Star Trek IV) it's aluminum, only see-through. And part of a minor paradox, just where did the idea come from originally?

Transparent Aluminum (Aluminum Oxynitride) actually is a real life material, mostly used in amour glass, IR Seekers, laser windows and various other specialty applications. Talk about Science Fiction becoming Science Fact.

I didn't know that. At all. Thanks, Cyril!

Machine vs substance:

Let's take Element Zero for example.
If the creators had used a machine/technique that affected mass, the obvious question would be: how would it work?
If the creators use mysterious substance Xtraordinary Coolnameium, they can answer any question with 'this just is like this', just the same way you would try to explain the existence of Ununpentium to a lay man.

Owait.
It was actually used in CoD games...

That is very likely the reason, I haven't thought about it like that before. So as far as I'm concerned this thread already paid the price of admission with a new fact and idea. But let's see if there's more to be had.

Unobtanium from Avatar (movie, not the cartoon. And yes, it's really called that.) is a room-temperature superconductor with interesting magnetic properties that somehow translate into natural floating mountains. Used for mag-levs and antimatter reactors, but mostly it's there for the Evil Humans TM to get greedy over land/mining rights.

Plasteel (Dune, Star Wars, every Baen book, how many others?) is a plastic that's as tough and strong as steel. I suppose there are some applications where where steel-equivalent plastic would be superior to plain steel (say, you're fighting a dude named Magneto) but I don't think there are that many.

Transparisteel is transparent steel. Also from Star Wars, it's what the windows on starships are made of, which would make windows on a starship a lot less silly, except it's still a lot weaker than the "durasteel" hulls.

Durasteel is an "ultralightweight" steel variant that's also a lot more resistant to mechanical stresses and temperature extremes than normal steel. Also Star Wars where it's used to make basically every vehicle and starship.

Naqadah is a superdense metal from Stargate, used to build the titular stargates. Naqadah is also superconductive, and can be used to generate vast quantities of energy. There's a strange duality where Naqadah is almost indestructible, we see stargates survive meteor impacts, all manner of weapons, immersion in lava and briefly being launched into a star. On the other hand, Naqadah is ridiculously explosive, in the original movie a small pile of Naquadah around a nuke was supposed to increase the yield a hundredfold, with careful design the SGC was able to get even more out of their nukes. One thing we know Naqadah reacts explosively with is calcium, yet we see an awful lot of people running around with a significant amount of the stuff in their bodies and bloodstreams without issue.

Naquadriah is a radioactive isotope of Naqadah, with far greater potential as a weapon and a power source. The bad news is it's incredibly unstable, many very intelligent people try and get around the instability throughout the show, and all fail besides noting briefly that the Naquadriah gets more unstable the more energy they try and derive from it. Also, it's really radioactive, that stuff'll kill you and goes right through character shields. In a later episode we find that Naqadah turns into Naquadriah after being exposed to Naquadriah radiation, I think there are real-world materials like this (though I don't think it matters where the radiation comes from) but I can't seem to recall specifics.

Trinium, as long as we're doing the Gateverse anyway, is a silvery metal with 1% the weight of steel but is 100 times stronger. The first time we saw it there were Indians using it for clothing, tools and weapons getting it from a stream and regular prayer to spirits (actually sufficiently advanced aliens.) Not sure where they got more after that, since the gate was buried at the end of the episode, but they were able to replace the Iris (door that keeps the bad guys from coming through the stargate) with a trinium-reinforced version a short time later.

Hlif is, as far as I know, purely a fanon name for something Thor mentions once on the show. A naqadah-trinium-carbon alloy they build the O'Neil class ship hulls from, and that's pretty much all the canon information. I suppose since naqadah is already next-best thing to indestructible, the other two are to stabilize the naqadah so it doesn't explode. Of course, various fans and fanfiction have ascribed all sorts of qualities, my favorite is the one where 10 meters of hlif could withstand an Ori mothership.

[slebetman]

Transparent aluminum (Star Trek IV) it's aluminum, only see-through. And part of a minor paradox, just where did the idea come from originally?

Transparent Aluminum (Aluminum Oxynitride) actually is a real life material, mostly used in amour glass, IR Seekers, laser windows and various other specialty applications. Talk about Science Fiction becoming Science Fact.

I didn't know that. At all. Thanks, Cyril!

Not only that, but transparent aluminum exists in nature and have been mined since around 200 BC - Ruby and Sapphire are both aluminum crystals and are both transparent (albeit colored).

[Purple]

Plasteel (Dune, Star Wars, every Baen book, how many others?) is a plastic that's as tough and strong as steel. I suppose there are some applications where where steel-equivalent plastic would be superior to plain steel (say, you're fighting a dude named Magneto) but I don't think there are that many.

You have not even scratched the surface. First off, it all depends on how easy the material is to make and mold. If it's as easy as modern plastics than I could see it replacing anything iron based altogether. After all, what is not to like about being able to print structural beams and things like that with your 3D printer at home. And even if it is as heat resistant (is it?) as steel (thus higher melting point and thus no 3D printer fun) you would still have the benefit of not requiring a supply of iron and various metals for alloys, not to mention huge foundries. All you need is a really hot furnace (without even the coal requirement too) and some oil for the plastics. And given that oil can be synthesized from coal you can keep your industry really simple.

As for uses, think of all the situations where metal detectors have to be avoided. So hiding firearms, land mines, hiding from RADAR (metallic objects have a higher radar signature, thus a plastic aircraft would be semi stealth by design).

Really, the uses are endless.

[krakonfour]

Unobtanium from Avatar (movie, not the cartoon. And yes, it's really called that.) is a room-temperature superconductor with interesting magnetic properties that somehow translate into natural floating mountains. Used for mag-levs and antimatter reactors, but mostly it's there for the Evil Humans TM to get greedy over land/mining rights.

I also think it was some sort of magnetic monopole or something equally physics-defying.
One thing that bugged me about the movie is that they were ready to pulverize the native population for the deposit under the Hometree, but completely ignored the floating mountains ie rocks containing enough Unobtainium to support their own weight.

Plasteel (Dune, Star Wars, every Baen book, how many others?) is a plastic that's as tough and strong as steel. I suppose there are some applications where where steel-equivalent plastic would be superior to plain steel (say, you're fighting a dude named Magneto) but I don't think there are that many.

Maybe they can be molded or something... maybe they are less dense too?

Transparisteel is transparent steel. Also from Star Wars, it's what the windows on starships are made of, which would make windows on a starship a lot less silly, except it's still a lot weaker than the "durasteel" hulls.

Meh. Impossible stuff.

Durasteel is an "ultralightweight" steel variant that's also a lot more resistant to mechanical stresses and temperature extremes than normal steel. Also Star Wars where it's used to make basically every vehicle and starship.

In the 21st century, we use titanium.

Naqadah is a superdense metal from Stargate, used to build the titular stargates. Naqadah is also superconductive, and can be used to generate vast quantities of energy. There's a strange duality where Naqadah is almost indestructible, we see stargates survive meteor impacts, all manner of weapons, immersion in lava and briefly being launched into a star. On the other hand, Naqadah is ridiculously explosive, in the original movie a small pile of Naquadah around a nuke was supposed to increase the yield a hundredfold, with careful design the SGC was able to get even more out of their nukes. One thing we know Naqadah reacts explosively with is calcium, yet we see an awful lot of people running around with a significant amount of the stuff in their bodies and bloodstreams without issue.

Superdense? Reacts with calcium of all things? I believe these writers were flinging properties at the material and hoping the cool and quirky ones stick.

Naquadriah is a radioactive isotope of Naqadah, with far greater potential as a weapon and a power source. The bad news is it's incredibly unstable, many very intelligent people try and get around the instability throughout the show, and all fail besides noting briefly that the Naquadriah gets more unstable the more energy they try and derive from it. Also, it's really radioactive, that stuff'll kill you and goes right through character shields. In a later episode we find that Naqadah turns into Naquadriah after being exposed to Naquadriah radiation, I think there are real-world materials like this (though I don't think it matters where the radiation comes from) but I can't seem to recall specifics.

Its called neutron activation.

[Simon_Jester]

Plasteel (Dune, Star Wars, every Baen book, how many others?) is a plastic that's as tough and strong as steel. I suppose there are some applications where where steel-equivalent plastic would be superior to plain steel (say, you're fighting a dude named Magneto) but I don't think there are that many.

Plastics are often easier to work than steels, under the right conditions- say, when treated with a softening agent. For example, you might have structural applications where you use simple techniques like injection molding to create your... proto-plasteel object, then apply a hardening treatment to give it strength, then sit back and watch the steel mills cry as you outcompete them.

On the other hand, such a plastic might have advantages and disadvantages compared to metal. For instance, it might be lighter but WAY less heat-resistant, with a plastic's tendency to melt or soften at temperatures of only a few hundred degrees. So that it becomes a wonderful building material... until there's a fire and the whole building dissolves in a puddle because the main structural members melted under the blazing inferno heat of burning paperwork.

[Somehow I doubt anyone would let you build a large building out of the stuff, were this a concern, unless you go to some libertopia with no building codes]

Durasteel is an "ultralightweight" steel variant that's also a lot more resistant to mechanical stresses and temperature extremes than normal steel. Also Star Wars where it's used to make basically every vehicle and starship.

Whether or not it's lightweight depends on who's saying. Also, there are so many different "super-alloys" that it's functionally impossible to catalog them all; you say "durasteel," I say "duralloy," the other guy says "dureum," and so on and so on. It's basically all "super duper metal that's metal only more super and duper." Not much point analyzing it, though looking at the consequences of its existence can be interesting.

Durasteel is an "ultralightweight" steel variant that's also a lot more resistant to mechanical stresses and temperature extremes than normal steel. Also Star Wars where it's used to make basically every vehicle and starship.

In the 21st century, we use titanium.

Uh, no we don't. Titanium is NOT repeat NOT some kind of "super-steel." It's more like "super-aluminum," and most applications for which titanium is used are the same ones we might use aluminum for. The difference is that titanium is stronger and harder to melt than aluminum (good for aircraft that get exposed to high temperatures and high structural loads) while still being relatively low-density compared to steel (which is also good for aircraft).

However, pure titanium is NOT a good thing to put in a slab of armor plate designed to stop heavy impacts, because it's brittle. Titanium can be a very useful metal to alloy with other metals, creating materials of exceptional strength and durability... but then again you can say that about practically every metal in the periodic table, starting with iron and getting weirder from there.

[krakonfour]

Uh, no we don't. Titanium is NOT repeat NOT some kind of "super-steel." It's more like "super-aluminum," and most applications for which titanium is used are the same ones we might use aluminum for. The difference is that titanium is stronger and harder to melt than aluminum (good for aircraft that get exposed to high temperatures and high structural loads) while still being relatively low-density compared to steel (which is also good for aircraft).

However, pure titanium is NOT a good thing to put in a slab of armor plate designed to stop heavy impacts, because it's brittle. Titanium can be a very useful metal to alloy with other metals, creating materials of exceptional strength and durability... but then again you can say that about practically every metal in the periodic table, starting with iron and getting weirder from there.

I was just trying to point out that in most cases of 'super extra duper steel alloy FROM THE FUTURE', we can replace it with titanium for the same effect (stronger yet lighter).

And technically, steel is an alloy of iron and carbon too. Speaking of weirdness... check out the physical properties of plutonium.

Plutonium is an element at odds with itself—with little provocation, it can change its
density by as much as 25 percent ; it can be as brittle as glass or as malleable as aluminum; it expands when it solidifies; and its freshly-machined silvery surface will tarnish in minutes, producing nearly every color in the rainbow. To make matters even more complex, plutonium ages from the outside in and from the inside out. It reacts vigorously with its environment—particularly with oxygen, hydrogen, and water—thereby,degrading its properties from the surface to the interior over time. In addition, plutonium’s continuous radioactive decay causes self-irradiation damage that can fundamentally change its properties over time. Only physicists would think of using such a material.

If authors did just a little bit of research, they'd find stuff stranger than the fiction they write.

[Broomstick]

Transparent aluminum (Star Trek IV) it's aluminum, only see-through. And part of a minor paradox, just where did the idea come from originally?

Transparent Aluminum (Aluminum Oxynitride) actually is a real life material, mostly used in amour glass, IR Seekers, laser windows and various other specialty applications. Talk about Science Fiction becoming Science Fact.

Not only that, but transparent aluminum exists in nature and have been mined since around 200 BC - Ruby and Sapphire are both aluminum crystals and are both transparent (albeit colored).

We can now manufacture aluminum oxide in industrial quantities although its not exactly cheap to make due to the high temperatures involved and the need for rather pure starting materials. Aluminum does not naturally occur in a pure state given its reactivity with other elements. As noted, ruby and sapphire are both naturally occurring variations of Al2O3 which is also called corundum. Uses range from the abrasive in sandpaper (and wouldn't our recent ancestors be aghast at the notion we manufacture ruby and sapphire dust to use in something as mundane as sandpaper!) to laser components to scratch-resistant watch covers and optics to window armor. Also used in various high-temperature industrial applications due to a relatively high melting point. Oh, and the colored varieties make pretty sparkly jewelry and baubles.

Plasteel (Dune, Star Wars, every Baen book, how many others?) is a plastic that's as tough and strong as steel. I suppose there are some applications where where steel-equivalent plastic would be superior to plain steel (say, you're fighting a dude named Magneto) but I don't think there are that many.

Maybe they can be molded or something... maybe they are less dense too?

I'm becoming more and more of the opinion that “carbon fiber composites” and “plasteel” are more or less the same thing. CFC's are amazingly strong for their weight and the engineering can be tweaked for different applications. Forming and shaping it is somewhat easier and safer than steel in some respects although some components can be toxic to people.

The downside is that it burns very nicely once it starts combusting, and generates toxic gases while doing so. Technically, steel can burn to but more typically it oxides so slowly as to not generate significant heat (we call that “rusting”) and conditions where it will oxidize rapidly enough to be called “on fire” very seldom exist on the planet.

Also, failure brought on by material fatigue is quite different for steel vs. CFC's which can have important implications in some situations.

Durasteel is an "ultralightweight" steel variant that's also a lot more resistant to mechanical stresses and temperature extremes than normal steel. Also Star Wars where it's used to make basically every vehicle and starship.

In the 21st century, we use titanium.

Or aluminum.

Duralumin/duraluminum/duraluminium/other variants are all very science-fictiony sounding names for an aluminum alloy that was a major player in the aircraft industry from the German zepplins onward. Still is, actually.

There are some other “exotic” metals (osmium, for example, and beryllium) with various applications that can make them sound quite SF as well.

Uh, no we don't. Titanium is NOT repeat NOT some kind of "super-steel." It's more like "super-aluminum," and most applications for which titanium is used are the same ones we might use aluminum for. The difference is that titanium is stronger and harder to melt than aluminum (good for aircraft that get exposed to high temperatures and high structural loads) while still being relatively low-density compared to steel (which is also good for aircraft).

However, pure titanium is NOT a good thing to put in a slab of armor plate designed to stop heavy impacts, because it's brittle. Titanium can be a very useful metal to alloy with other metals, creating materials of exceptional strength and durability... but then again you can say that about practically every metal in the periodic table, starting with iron and getting weirder from there.

While titanium is arguably “super aluminum” you could just as easily argue aluminum is also a form of “super steel”, as aluminum alloys replaced iron alloys in many applications in the late 19th and early 20th Century, (where it wasn't replacing copper).

Really, it's very rare for the modern world to use any metal in its pure form, what we use for almost everything metal is an alloy of one sort or another.

[slebetman]

And even if it is as heat resistant (is it?) as steel (thus higher melting point and thus no 3D printer fun) you would still have the benefit of not requiring a supply of iron and various metals for alloys, not to mention huge foundries. All you need is a really hot furnace (without even the coal requirement too) and some oil for the plastics. And given that oil can be synthesized from coal you can keep your industry really simple.

Depending on the chemistry, it may not even be necessary to form plasteel in a furnace. Lots of real world plastic exist in liquid form at room temperature and then harden when reacting to hardeners. A classic example is superglue (CA) which is liquid until it comes in contact with moisture. Or you can have something like epoxy which requires mixing two chemicals in order to produce hard plastic.

[Zeropoint]

You can also get UV-curing resins, which stay liquid until exposed to sufficient quantities of ultraviolet light.

Suffice it to say, if an author thinks that simple carbon steel is the best stuff that modern material science has to offer*, then their examples of futuristic super-materials may seem a bit uninspired.

* Simple carbon steel IS the best stuff available for many applications--something many people forget is that different applications make different properties desirable. They also forget that COST is an applicable property of materials.

[Ahriman238]

Superdense? Reacts with calcium of all things? I believe these writers were flinging properties at the material and hoping the cool and quirky ones stick.

I thought Naqadah was one of the more consistent materials on the list. The calcium thing was important in exactly one episode, where a little girl was turned into an apocalyptic bomb and never brought up again. They never say it's really dense or island of stability IIRC, but you see things like two strong guys visibly straining a bit to lift two small bricks of the stuff and similar displays.

Plasteel (Dune, Star Wars, every Baen book, how many others?) is a plastic that's as tough and strong as steel. I suppose there are some applications where where steel-equivalent plastic would be superior to plain steel (say, you're fighting a dude named Magneto) but I don't think there are that many.

Plastics are often easier to work than steels, under the right conditions- say, when treated with a softening agent. For example, you might have structural applications where you use simple techniques like injection molding to create your... proto-plasteel object, then apply a hardening treatment to give it strength, then sit back and watch the steel mills cry as you outcompete them.

On the other hand, such a plastic might have advantages and disadvantages compared to metal. For instance, it might be lighter but WAY less heat-resistant, with a plastic's tendency to melt or soften at temperatures of only a few hundred degrees. So that it becomes a wonderful building material... until there's a fire and the whole building dissolves in a puddle because the main structural members melted under the blazing inferno heat of burning paperwork.

[Somehow I doubt anyone would let you build a large building out of the stuff, were this a concern, unless you go to some libertopia with no building codes]

Fair enough. I was thinking more in terms that steel is plentiful and we've been working it for a very long time, but you're right.


As far as transparent aluminum, I had a brief moment of clarity when I connected that with dilithium and deuterium being real things that are absolutely nothing like Trek writers think they are. And being a parody, Galaxy Quest was almost certainly deliberately knocking this when they had a ship powered by a beryllium sphere.

[Simon_Jester]

Dilithium is at least a crystal; it could conceivably be a crystal whose chemical "unit cell"* has a formula like Li2thisXthatY. In which case "dilithium" is exactly the sort of name you'd expect real people who have to work with the stuff would come up with as a shorthand.

*Look that term up.

Deuterium, yeah, the main references to it I remember are in the context of using it as fuel for nuclear fusion, which actually does make sense, but I'm sure there's some bastardized reference to "deuterium-titanium alloy" or some other fatuous nonsense.

But yes, that's a chronic problem in B-grade technobabble (of which Star Trek has lot, even if it's otherwise A-grade). One can never take a chemical formula in popular SF too seriously, because a lot of them are determined by throwing darts at a periodic table. One might even say that knowledge of basic physics is more widespread in SF than knowledge of basic chemistry.

[Crazedwraith]

It's potassium not calcium that Naquadah goes boom with.

The really durable thing was the stargate. Especially when active. And even then if it gets overcharged it will go boom with Alacrity, as was the problem in the series 6 opener Redemption with Anubis gate-destroyer weapon. the nuke thing makes a sort of sense. (though not so much the 'mutliples by 10 effect) considering the superconducting nature. Small chunks of it would be easier to overload and explode with energy than having to do the same thing to the whole gate.

Also often the naquadah used for nukes was specified to be refined 'weapons-grade' naquadah, which might well be more volatile than the stuff used to make the gates anyway.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Damnit, I was about to point out the "potassium not calcium" thing. Oh well. As for humans having naquada in their blood but not going boom, I would expect that the symbiote gets rid o the potassium and it's healing effects deal with any potential potassium deficiency problems.

[TOSDOC]

Let's start with a classic, H.G Wells' cavorite from the First Men on the Moon. Cavorite is a "complex alloy infused with helium" which reflects gravity and "all other forms of radiant energy." In fact, the spaceship which carries Cavor and Bedford to the moon is a sphere of cavorite coated panels so they can repel gravity in any direction they please. It was written in a very different time, the question is what non-obvious uses could we have for an antigravity paste?

Simple applications abound. I can picture dabbing a bit on a hospital patient's cast on a broken limb to allow it to float instead of hanging it from a frame. It would make it easier to move a senior citizen to and from the bathroom at the nursing home too. Movers could wrap a refrigerator, couch, or stove in a strap impregnated with the paste, float it to and from a truck, and remove and store the strap again. The problems are safety and cost-effectiveness. It would have to be cheaper than current methods, and then you have to be careful of the person or object's inertia causing physical injury and property destruction. And how would the mover keep from floating away with the strap if he was lighter than the object he was moving? A way to immediately neutralize the cavorite would need to be tailored for each application to stop an accident without harming anyone or losing the application itself.

[Me2005]

On the other hand, such a plastic might have advantages and disadvantages compared to metal. For instance, it might be lighter but WAY less heat-resistant, with a plastic's tendency to melt or soften at temperatures of only a few hundred degrees. So that it becomes a wonderful building material... until there's a fire and the whole building dissolves in a puddle because the main structural members melted under the blazing inferno heat of burning paperwork.

Depending on your definition of "main structural members melting," this is actually the no different than steel construction has today. While steel doesn't turn to a liquid until thousands of degrees F and your plasteel might; steel looses most to all of its structural usefulness at a few hundred degrees F. This is why all structural steel buildings in the US must have either insulation on the steel, sprinklers, or enough separation from combustible objects that any heat should dissipate prior to the steel melting. This is also how the WTC collapsed despite the combustion temperature not being high enough to liquefy the steel. Interestingly, wood buildings survive much better in a fire than steel ones - I've been shown an image of a wood beam supporting melted steel beams after a fire (wood develops a protective char and insulates itself from the heat, only loosing strength as it looses mass. Steel weakens as its temperature rises).

Since the plasteel wouldn't be useful at all if it melted at much less than 200 F, you're not looking at a huge difference temperature-wise (200-600 F) for a possibly large improvement in weight, and you could insulate and protect the plasteel the same way normal steel is (encasing it in concrete or gypsum and providing sprinklers). For reference, a quick google shows that housefires easily get up past 1,000 F, and if I'm remembering my codes class right, they can get up to that temperature inside of a minute or two.

[Batman]

I see the Rhodanites are fast asleep. Well at this hour they should be. Ynkelonium. An element that not only doesn't react with antimatter, but actually supresses M/AM reactions in its immediate vicinity. You could literally store liquid antideuterium in an Ynkelonium-coated thermos. Drawbacks-only found on two planets in the galaxy so expensive and apparently while it can be alloyed, the alloy inevitably ends up being pink.

[Ahriman238]

I saw the potassium thing when Wraith mentioned it, didn't jive with my memory so I looked it up and yes, you're right CrazedWraith. It's potassium. As for Goa'uld purging the blood of the stuff, maybe. We see them fight off serious infections and they can cure cancer, but when I hear the words 'potassium deficiency' my first thoughts are 'probable arrhythmia, vastly increased risk of heart attack.'

I see the Rhodanites are fast asleep. Well at this hour they should be. Ynkelonium. An element that not only doesn't react with antimatter, but actually supresses M/AM reactions in its immediate vicinity. You could literally store liquid antideuterium in an Ynkelonium-coated thermos. Drawbacks-only found on two planets in the galaxy so expensive and apparently while it can be alloyed, the alloy inevitably ends up being pink.

Once upon a time in college, my good friend Asa from Germany tried to summarize/explain Perry Rhodan to me. It did not go particularly well. I know there's an immortal astronaut/political leader named Perry Rhodan plus his immortal sidekicks who go on adventures, and I guess they're immortal so there's always someone to remind humanity of a challenge set by a godlike living planet. Some set number of millennia to prove we can be productive members of a galactic society. I know they've been publishing a booklet a week for fifty years without pause, and that major plot arcs normally involve a hundred booklets, or about two years of realtime. Oh, and I know that Asa said the entire plot of Stargate Atlantis was a rip-off of the Master of the Islands plot-arc.

So, ynkelonium? Matter that antimatter doesn't react to would be exceptionally useful, add in suppressing the normal reactions entirely and you can now safely create, store and transport antimatter.



How about exotic power-granting materials?

Allotropic Iron from Lensmen, is a variant easily made from ordinary iron and can be used to derive astronomical energies, enough to fuel one super-ship in battle against an entire fleet. The Nevians launch an expedition to recover iron, the rarest of elements on their planet, and are awed to find it so plentiful in this sector it's used to build things, leading them to liquefy a fleet and start a short war with the Triplanetary service. Allotropy* is a real thing, when otherwise identical substances form different arrangements of atomic bonds, so you could have almost pure carbon form in a tetrahedral lattice and call it diamond but if it bonded in sheets it'd be graphite. It's also why we have O2 and ozone, or white, red, and green phosphorus similar to each other, yes, but different.

* literally "alternate or other form." You don't have to know Latin or Greek to learn science, but it sure helps to make all the new vocabulary words less scary.



Tiberium (Command & Conquer) is a glowing green crystal "both blessing and curse." Tiberium is highly radioactive and emits toxic gasses, but is also a considerable power source and easily broken down into it's component elements, most of which are valuable or useful in some way. It also grows and spreads, consuming all minerals it comes into contact with and converting them into Tiberium. In the alt history of Command & Conquer, Tiberium was introduced to this world by a 1995 meteor strike in Italy, and has overgrown a significant portion of the world creating "red zones" where all the eye can see is radioactive crystal and the air is unbreathable. Naturally you get to fight over both Tiberium deposits and the increasingly scare clean land.


Vespene Gas is used by all three races of Starcraft, albeit for very different things. Humans use vespene, which has a high "potential energy index" as a simple fuel for all the normal machinery. The Protoss use it as a catalyst for their psychic powers and psionic-based tech. The Zerg just use it as high-energy food.

Magmatter (Orion's Arm) is highly artificial, made exclusively of magnetic monopoles. This makes it a couple thousand times denser and tougher than any normal matter, enough to make Ringworlds and Dyson Shells with. To say nothing of it's use in conversion (monopole-catalyzed fusion) and metric (space-time warping) technologies. Magmatter can carry considerable electric charge, is essential in picto-tech (the nanites' nanites) as well as to most tech from the SI:3 level on. In-universe the creation of conversion and magmatter is raked with the respective discoveries of fire, agriculture and nanotech as world-changing.

Ylem (also Orion's Arm) can absorb EM radiation with 99.999+% efficiency and convert it to matter, specifically more ylem. Remember kids, if it's OA it's totally plausible.

[Simon_Jester]

Oh cool you've read the Lensman novels too?

Allotropic iron is basically used as a fuel for total conversion power, and it is implied that, at least using the available technology of that time (some centuries prior to the mainline novels), it's the only substance that can be run through a total conversion plant. This makes it a safe, cheap replacement for atomic energy.

Speaking of which, the original "Element X" comes from Doc Smith's The Skylark of Space, the original FTL travel story. X is an unknown metallic element, not found on Earth but relatively common throughout the universe, which acts as a catalyst for the total conversion of copper, liberating large amounts of energy and (potentially) large directional forces. This makes it useful both as a space drive, and as a form of power supply- the Skylark novels are rife with references to "atomic power," and they mean X-catalyzed total conversion, NOT nuclear fission or fusion.

Later they learn to extract energy by total conversion of denser metals (i.e. uranium), but it's still the same principle.

[Ahriman238]

Oh cool you've read the Lensman novels too?

Allotropic iron is basically used as a fuel for total conversion power, and it is implied that, at least using the available technology of that time (some centuries prior to the mainline novels), it's the only substance that can be run through a total conversion plant. This makes it a safe, cheap replacement for atomic energy.

Only Triplantery, Amazon Kindle has it for free. Didn't exactly convince me to spend money on the rest of the series, but it was some good golden-age of scifi fun. Where space is full of ether.

[SMJB]

re: Rhodan:
I once tried to read a Perry Rhodan novelette while drunk. It was like tripping balls inside my mind.

re: Ylem:
...I don't recall ever hearing of this.

[Ahriman238]

re: Ylem:
...I don't recall ever hearing of this.

It doesn't have it's own article, it's mentioned on the Black Angel discussion and article in the Encyclopedia Galactica. Context being that Black Angel seems to be made of ylem and thus invulnerable to energy weapons, but it seems it can switch the effect on and off. Definite clarketech.

[Broomstick]

Only Triplantery, Amazon Kindle has it for free. Didn't exactly convince me to spend money on the rest of the series, but it was some good golden-age of scifi fun. Where space is full of ether.

If I recall, the public domain Triplanetary, which is likely what Amazon is offering for free, is not quite the same as the series version of Triplanetary which underwent some revision and is not (yet) out of copyright, though it will be in a few years.

Unfortunately, it's been 30 or 35 years since I read the series so my memories are a bit faded, and I can't seem to find a copy of the earlier books anywhere (my local library told me their copies simply wore out/crumbled a decade or so ago - they were printed in a era when the paper in cheap books had a high acid content and self-destructed after a time) so actual comparisons are not feasible at this point in time.