the.com/barium
the metal that lights fireworks green and reveals your guts on demand
means A soft, silvery-white alkaline-earth metal that burns green in flames and, as a swallowed compound, makes the digestive tract visible on X-rays.
from From Greek 'barys' meaning 'heavy,' a cousin of the same root behind 'barometer' (pressure-weight) and 'baritone' (the heavy voice). The name was lifted from 'baryta,' the old word for the dense mineral barium oxide; chemists named the metal hidden inside it 'barium' in the early 19th century, after it was first isolated by electrolysis. Fittingly heavy-named for a metal whose chief medical job is being too dense for X-rays to pass through.
- x-ray drink
- swallowed as a chalky shake to map intestines
- green flame
- the secret behind emerald fireworks
- name origin
- Greek for heavy, yet lighter than iron
- so reactive
- pure barium ignites in plain air
- deadly twin
- soluble barium salts are violently poisonous
barium swallow study — medical imaging procedure using barium sulfate contrast to visualize the esophagus and stomach
barium titanate — ceramic material used in capacitors and piezoelectric devices since the 1940s
barium enema — x-ray procedure using barium sulfate to examine the colon, standard diagnostic test for decades