Any Suggestions For a Meaningful Geeky Wedding Band?

mbutala writes "I am getting close to popping the question, and I've been racking my brain for an idea for a cool and unique wedding band. I've been thinking of contacting a company that can (possibly) fabricate a ring from pure Iridium (Ir) or a nearly pure alloy. It is the most corrosion-resistant metal known — it cannot be dissolved in aqua regia like gold or platinum. Iridium is extremely rare on Earth, and the high concentration of it at the K-T boundary in the Earth's crust is what suggests a meteor took out the dinosaurs. I am positive that the symbolism of the permanence of Iridium, the reminder that we are star-stuff, and the fact that the ring would be one-of-a-kind would really strike a chord with my girlfriend. It's a really geeky idea, so I thought I would run it past you all — what do you think? Any other ideas?"

Comments

More Geeky uses for Iridium

[bughunter]

Radiation Shielding -- Better than lead for shielding of electronic components from space radiation, though considerably more expensive. At a previous job where I built detectors for satellite remote sensing instruments, one design included some rather hefty Iridium vaults to protect back-illuminated CCDs from excessive particle radiation and total dose effects.

Antimatter -- Iridium targets are bombarded with insanely high-energy Protons to create antiprotons. Actually, a whole menagerie of exotic particles are created, but antiprotons are picked off using a high-T magnetic field and diverted into a collecting cyclotron beam. All in a hard vacuum, of course.

Re:Or you could make it yourself.

[easyTree]

mod parent up (insightful)