'Kryptonite' Discovered in Serbian Mine

Rubinstien writes "A mineralogist at London's Natural History Museum was contracted to help identify an unknown mineral found in a Serbian mine. While he initially thought the miners had discovered a unique compound, after its crystal structure was analyzed and identified the researcher was shocked to find the material already referenced in literature. Fictional literature. Dr. Chris Stanley, from the BBC article: 'Towards the end of my research I searched the web using the mineral's chemical formula — sodium lithium boron silicate hydroxide — and was amazed to discover that same scientific name, written on a case of rock containing kryptonite stolen by Lex Luthor from a museum in the film Superman Returns ... I'm afraid it's not green and it doesn't glow either — although it will react to ultraviolet light by fluorescing a pinkish-orange.'"

Comments

Apparently no one reads.....

[SQLGuru]

Apparently no one reads the comic.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kryptonite
Green, Red, Gold, White, Blue, etc.

White (the color referenced in the article) kills all plant life.
Pink (since no pinkish-orange is listed) turns people gay.

Take your pick.

Layne

More information...

[jolyonr]

The real mineral is called "Jadarite", or at least it will be officially when it's published later this year. At the moment it has the official memorable name of "IMA2006-036" - but as the name "Jadarite" has leaked out onto the internet already, there's no big surprise about the forthcoming announcement. In fact these leaks on the internet pushed the Natural History Museum to release this press release now.

More information about Jadarite at: http://www.mindat.org/min-31570.html
 
Jolyon

They need to print a correction, Quickly!

[beadfulthings]

Everybody knows Superman's arch-nemesis is Lex Luthor--not Lex Luther.

Yahoo picked up the mistake from Reuters, people on Slashdot are typing it wrong, and now even the BBC has screwed it up.

What kind of poor excuse for an arch-nemesis would spell his name "Lex Luther?" Sounds like some kind of religious observance.

Re:So...

[Red Flayer]

So hardystonite (calcium zinc silicate) is an oxide of hemate?
And melanophlogite (SiO2 + organics) is an oxide of melanophlog?
How about hematite (iron oxide)? Shouldn't that be ferrite?

Minerals tend to not conform to SI naming conventions for compounds.

Re:"Superman could use it as a paperweight"

[Kjella]

I thought the parent was joking. But no, accoring to wikipedia:
"Pink Kryptonite
From an alternate timeline in a 2003 Supergirl storyline by Peter David, this bizarre variety of Kryptonite apparently turned heterosexual Kryptonians temporarily into homosexuals; it was seen in just one panel, with Superman giving flattering compliments to Jimmy Olsen about his wardrobe and decorative sense. It spoofs the more "innocent times" of the Silver Age (Lois Lane is depicted in this story as not understanding what's gotten into Superman)."

So from the sound of it (there's no orange kryptonite): "although it will react to ultraviolet light by fluorescing a pinkish-orange" they have in fact, found the substance to make superman gay. Then again, the bodysuit is rather gay to begin with... or then again maybe it's just superhero fashion, he's hardly the only one.

Re:Really Kryptonite?

[Oktober Sunset]

Well, in the film, they come in and they check them all with that thingy (preusably some radiation detecting widget) and saw that the sample had a chunk of kryptonite hidden inside it so they had idenified the soft creamy outer substance as sodium lithium boron silicate hydroxide, but they had not analysed the crunchy centre of tasty kryptonite. Soooo, they haven't found kyrptonite, just some crap that kryptonite was once found in the middle of. Form superman 3, the chemical composition for the Kryptonite that Richard Pryor's computer screen reads is Plutonium: 15.08% Tatalum: 18.06% Xenon: 27.71% Promethium: 24.02% Dialium: 10.62% Mercury: 3.94% Unknown: 0.57%. The 'Unknown' was later worked out by Luthor.