'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

The plan is almost complete!

[Anonymous Coward]

Step 2: Send email to Superman
Step 3: Build wheelchair ramp ...
Step 4: Rule the world!

Time to rename the Serbian mine?

[Iphtashu Fitz]

... to the Fortress of Solitude?

Excitingly unexciting

[tttonyyy]

Summary

Exciting: Contains same elements as described in fictional cartoon

Unexciting: Superman could use it as a paperweight without feeling like he's dying of man-flu

Re:Excitingly unexciting

[QuickFox]

superman doesn't exist How do you know? Do you have proof?

No wonder

[CSHARP123]

No wonder all my super powers are gone.

Really Kryptonite?

[ATestR]

It's been a while since I've seen the movie, but the question that comes to my mind is: "Was the box in superman Returns correctly labeled?". Perhaps it was only labeled sodium lithium boron silicate hydroxide, but someone had mistakenly identified the kryptonite as that substance. After all, why would Lex Luther steal a box containing white powdery substance... oh, wait, never mind.

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.

duh

[Dance_Dance_Karnov]

of course it doesn't glow or kill superman, it wasn't effected by either the destruction of krypton or a trip through space. What exactly do they pay these so called scientists for anyway?

Re:duh

[Reality Master 101]

What was super about him was his ability to still contribute to society as a quadriplegic.

Well, he was a quadraplegic with a lot of money who wanted to be cured, and thus spent a lot of money on himself. That's not as high on the respect-o-meter as someone who does things without a personal stake.

Beware!

[Billosaur]

Instead, it will be formally named Jadarite when it is described in the European Journal of Mineralogy later this year.

And somewhere on Earth, in an unknown fortress, a stranger from planet Jadar knows fear...

"Superman could use it as a paperweight"

[iainl]

That's what I didn't get in the story. In DC continuity, Kryptonite is just fine to handle if you're only human. So how have these scientists established that it wouldn't hurt a fictional alien?

Re:"Superman could use it as a paperweight"

[ScrewMaster]

It's the greenish glow. It's all about the glow.

Re:"Superman could use it as a paperweight"

[elrous0]

Until we test it on the fictional alien, I guess we'll never know. Knowing academia, though, and the propensity for grad students (and even older researchers) to engage in silly fads, it wouldn't surprise me if someone did a paper or article on it. As a great scholar once said, you can write your thesis on Gameboy if you can bullshit well enough.

Re:"Superman could use it as a paperweight"

[Minwee]

Unless of course it is really Red Kryptonite or Blue Kryptonite or even the Pink Kryptonite that has the power to turn Superman gay.

Then it wouldn't have to glow green.

Re:"Superman could use it as a paperweight"

[Stupidfat]

Before commenting, please RTFA. I quote:

"mineral blah blah kryptonite blah blah blah they know it is kryptonite because a GIANT FUCKING SEMITRANSPARENT HEAD APPEARED IN THE CAVE AND TOLD THEM IT WAS"

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.

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

Re:Apparently no one reads.....

[DikSeaCup]

Watch out, Jimmy Olsen.

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

Re:So...

[Rob T Firefly]

Just as long as you don't add "tar" to the formula...

Called Jadarite

[necro81]

It's being called Jadarite for the mine near Jadar where it was found. This is fairly common from what (little) I know of minerology. They note that, because it doesn't actually contain any krypton, it can't officially be called kryptonite.

Still, couldn't they have made a push for another superman-inspired name. Some suggestions are: Jorelite, Kalelite, Metropolite, or Lutherite.

For sale?

[LLuthor]

Where can I buy some? Its still not on EBay!

My henchmen are already on their way to pay the scientists a visit.

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...

[SixFactor]

Oh yeah? Well, Chuck Norris can create a thicker oxide layer with a well-placed roundhouse kick. :D

Why does nobody read the article

[Anonymous Coward]

"The new mineral does not contain fluorine (which it does in the film) and is white rather than green but, in all other respects, the chemistry matches that for the rock containing kryptonite."

So basically,
1) it's not green,
2) it's doesn't cause radiation of any kind,
3) it's not a crystal
4) it's not even the same set of elements

How about "I was dating a girl a while back, I realised she was Cindy Crawford, oh yeah, she's not actually Cindy Crawford, just has some similarities. PS, She's a man."

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.

Even more excitingly unexciting

[mwvdlee]

Exciting: Contains same elements as described in fictional cartoon

Unexciting: ...except fluorine, so actually it doesn't contain the same elements.

Re:Even more excitingly unexciting

[Anonymous Coward]

Exciting: Contains same elements as described in fictional cartoon

Unexciting: ...except fluorine, so actually it doesn't contain the same elements.

Parent is correct.
FTFA:

"The new mineral does not contain fluorine (which it does in the film) and is white rather than green but, in all other respects, the chemistry matches that for the rock containing kryptonite."

IANAChemist but what little chemistry I had over 30 years ago says it can't be the same chemical formula if it has one less element. Thusly the article disagrees with itself and this sounds a bit like pushing things for the find to get extra attention. If we can leave out an element and ignore the chemical bonding requirements then we could sweeten our food with carbon dioxide instead of sugar.

Re:Even more excitingly unexciting

[Mr. Underbridge]

They likely mean it has (or rather, would have) the same structure as the fictional kryptonite (based on nomenclature). Similar compounds usually share some characteristics such as reactivity (e.g. all alkali metals react with water in a similar fashion but with differeing severity), melting point, etc.

That assumption does not typically hold for complicated compounds with so many elements. For one, there are frequently many different possible crystal structures for the same molecule which exist under different conditions, which may have significantly different structures and properties. Additionally, there are often different molecular structures allowed for different formulae (called isomers), which often have drastically different properties. Additionally, the fictional and real versions differ in that the fictional contained fluorine, a very chemically active element that tends to drastically alter the properties of anything with which it bonds for a variety of interesting reasons.

So ultimately, it would be impossible to suggest that they would share the same properties based on similar but not identical chemical formulae, and that might not hold even if they were identical. As such, the press release is nothing more than some jackass wanting his 15 minutes.

Re:Kryptonite colors

[Whiney Mac Fanboy]

Wikipedia sez:

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).[1]

So, pink kryptonite turns superman gay. No word on orange kryptonite tho'

This is one of those situations where you realise wikipedia's superiority over the competition. (I mean how much help would Encyclopedia Britannica have been for this question?;)

Re:So...

[Bloke down the pub]

What if you oxidise Sh?

Re:So...

[bheekling]

Shi-ite?