'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.'"

Apparently no one reads.....

[SQLGuru]

Apparently no one reads the comic.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kryptonite [wikipedia.org]
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 [mindat.org]
 
Jolyon

Re:So...

[Stooshie]

Technically, Kryptonite should be an oxide of Krypton (given the -ite extension). However, Kryptonite is one of then most unreactive elements in the periodic table and it is very unlikely that it exists in nature at all.

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 [bbc.co.uk] 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"

[Tanuki64]

But in the comics, long-term exposure can result in a painful death.

Statements like that does not make much sense when you don't add the version of the continuity you speak of. Kryptonite was initially harmless for normal humans. In a later continuity long-term exposure caused cancer. What it does now, after the second crisis to humans... Noone knows yet.

Re:So...

[QuickFox]

It's krypton [infoplease.com] that is one of the most unreactive elements. Kryptonite would be a krypton oxide.

Re:Called Jadarite

[mozzis]

They said that it can't be called kryptonite because it doesn't contain krypton. Again missing the point - the name didn't refer to its composition, but rather to its origin on the planet Krypton - much as the current uninspiring name refers to the mundane origin of the sample under discussion.

not quite correct

[cpt.hugenstein]

It exists in the atmosphere at 1ppm. http://education.jlab.org/itselemental/ele036.html [jlab.org]

Re:"Superman could use it as a paperweight"

[profzoom]

Here's some specific examples of kryptonite affecting humans:

In Post-Crisis continuity (basically, between John Byrne's 1986 Man of Steel miniseries and either Mark Waid's Birthright a few years back or last year's Infinite Crisis, the dividing line still isn't clear), long-term exposure causes cancer, as mentioned above. Lex Luthor fashioned himself a ring of kryptonite to keep Superman at bay, but he ended up losing his hand, and eventually faked his own death and cloned a new body for himself as a result of it.

In Smallville continuity, kryptonite exposure can cause humans to manifest powers, as seen by the show's regular "freaks of the week".

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:"Superman could use it as a paperweight"

[allanc]

The Glow is also what you need to defeat Sho'Nuff, the Shogun of Harlem.

(It's very useful)

Re:Even more excitingly unexciting

[Anonymous Coward]

From Wikipedia [wikipedia.org]:
The scientific name for the rock was displayed on its case, 'Sodium lithium boron silicate hydroxide with fluorine'.

Since when a chemical formula uses with? Granted I am no chemist, but I've never heard a chemical formula that uses with in my high school/college years. It sounds more like a composition of two substances like how steel is a composition of iron and carbon instead of a substance with a chemical formula "iron with carbon".

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.

Re:So...

[IllForgetMyNickSoonA]

Being a socialist state (actually, Serbia was one of the republics of the "Socialistic Federal Republic of Yugoslavia", which in turn pretended to be socialistic) does not mean you need to be a Soviet state. ;-)

Actually, Yugoslavia, and thus also Serbia, had a rather strained relationship with the USSR, especially as long as the Stalin was in charge. Yugoslavia was a "block-free" state, belonging neither to NATO nor to the Warshaw Pakt, yet keeping rather good connections to both west as well as east (starting some time after Stalin died).

Re:So...

[Anonymous Coward]

Ask and you shall receive. [wikipedia.org]

Re:Time to rename the Serbian mine?

[Woldry]

Actually, the Silver Age Fortress of Solitude contained samples of every kind of kryptonite -- green, white, gold, and red -- in lead boxes. These samples figured prominently in several stories (including quite a few of the "imaginary story" variety). Yeah, I'm older than dirt ...