• Question: What is your favourite element in periodic system?

    Asked by 245drud47 to Sinead, Anne, Florence, Mark, Neil on 6 Nov 2015. This question was also asked by Stormy.
    • Photo: Sinead Balgobin

      Sinead Balgobin answered on 6 Nov 2015:

      There are so many to choose from! I always say antimony at first, because its symbol (Sb) is the same as my initials, but that’s a bit of a rubbish answer.

      I think my favourite element is Nitrogen. It’s not very exciting on its own- it makes up most of our air, so it’s not very rare, and as a gas (N2) it isn’t very reactive. But nitrogen is the element that makes our planet live. It’s in our DNA, in the proteins that make our cells and muscles and all the tiny biological machines that make our bodies work, and in a compound called ATP, which is the power source for our bodies. Plants need it to live, too, which is why lots of fertilisers have nitrogen compounds in them. We even use it to send rockets in to space- compounds with lots of nitrogen in them can be highly explosive, making great rocket fuel.

      And freezing stuff in liquid nitrogen is also pretty cool- you can make ice cream!!! Also the tennis table ball explosion thing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ldgp3Ton7R4

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