[Corvettaholic]

I really liked all three alkali metal articles. Learned quite a bit, and I would love to play with sodium on a small scale. Also instilled the fear of death in me too, because I never really guessed how dangerous they were. You were right in always wondering what would happen if cesium was dumped in water. Isn't francium considered alkali, or is that one of those man-made elements that lasts only a fraction of a second? My sister wanted to know what would happen with that stuff. My vote for next topic would be noble gases, but phosphorus is cool too  

[jdurg]

I'm glad you liked my articles.  That makes it worth the writing.  Heh.  I just got in from playing with my excess sodium.  Used a bit too big of a piece and had a nice loud explosion.  Thankfully I had enough pool acid left to neutralize it.    Francium is an alkali metal, but it is INCREDIBLY radioactive and has a very short half-life.  I do not believe that any visible quantities of it have ever been produced.  If it were to be produced, I'm guessing that it would be a liquid metal as cesium is just barely solid at room temperature.  Francium is a naturally occuring element, but again, its half-life is so small that ores don't exist.  Atoms just exist for brief moments during the decay process of other, heavier, elements.  

I'm still debating what my next article will be on.  I do have all the noble gasses in very nice discharge tubes, but there isn't too much I could write about them.  Phosphorus is really neat and has a nice history to it, but my black/violet phosphorus hasn't arrived yet.  We'll see what happens once I get the time to write another article.  

[Mitch]

Francium 223, is stable for 21.8 minutes. By the way. , an other excellent article,

[Corvettaholic]

Do you guys have any links to other articles that are like Jdurg's stuff? Easy to read is definantly a plus, because I'm not terribly up to snuff on my terminology. I want to learn about EVERYTHING (as cheaply as possible).

[Donaldson Tan]

I agree that Jdurg wrote pretty well - the lack of jargon makes it easy even for beginners/newbies to read. Alkali metal is nice..

Perhaps an insight into forensic chemistry - let all of us know what CSI chemist do.. all your cool thing including the mass spectro u did for analysis of cocaine.. LOL

[Mitch]

Older articles can be found in the "Read Old Articles" link to your left. Although, no one else has started writing yet.

[billnotgatez]

Jdurg – If you are still debating – I put my vote in for hydrogen since it is depicted above the alkali metals on the periodic chart. Then continue on with the inert column and helium is my favorite. Of course this is all self- serving.
Regards,
Bill

[jdurg]

Thanks for all the kind words everybody.  I truly appreciate knowing that people are enjoying my writing and learning a few things.  It makes me even happier knowing that I'm not exactly the world's best writer.    I'm doing my best to come up with another article for this weekend and perhaps upload the GC/MS data from my forensic internship, but I have a lot going on right now in terms of personal life which is eating up my time.    As for what my next article is going to be.... well, there are a lot of elements to discuss and each one has so much to talk about.  I'm now thinking that a random number generator may be used to determine my next article.  

[Corvettaholic]

Hey jdurg, not anytime soon but eventually... could you touch on organic chemistry? I know next to nothing about it except it somehow relates to the liquid I put in my car. I also remember hearing somewhere that tastes and smells can be related to o-chem, and I would really like to know more about it! At least a good beginners course where I can synthesize some simple stuff in my garage. But this is only if you want to, and no hurry cause I can't wait for halogens!

[Corvettaholic]

Good article on phosphorus! Now I'm trying think of some neat use for it. The only thing I really knew about white phosphorus was that it was used in war, and it was a terrible weapon.

[Corvettaholic]

Any progress on the mercury article?  

I haven't forgotten!!

[jdurg]

Any progress on the mercury article?  

I haven't forgotten!!

Haha.  Actually, yeah.  I've put together an outline now to help give me ideas of what to include.  It's also letting me work on later parts of the article without having to finish the earlier parts.  I'm just doing a bunch of research to make sure that I can legally post some pictures that aren't mine and what steps I need to take to make sure proper credit is given.  So give it some time, and it will be done.  

[jakeo7]

Does anyone know why it took scientist so long to discover francium

[Donaldson Tan]

Francium is so reactive. It is very hard to isolate it.