the.com/tellurium
the metalloid that makes you smell like garlic for weeks after a tiny taste
means A brittle, silvery-white metalloid element (symbol Te, atomic number 52) used in alloys, solar cells, and semiconductors.
from From Latin 'tellus' (genitive 'telluris'), meaning 'earth' or 'ground' — the same root behind words like 'terrestrial.' It was named in the late 18th century by the German chemist Martin Heinrich Klaproth, who chose the earthy name as a deliberate companion to 'uranium,' which he'd named for the heavens (the planet Uranus). So tellurium is, quite literally, the element of the earth standing opposite the element of the sky.
- garlic breath
- trace exposure causes garlic odor lasting days
- named earth
- from Latin tellus, meaning the Earth
- solar power
- key ingredient in thin-film solar panels
- rarer than gold
- among Earth's scarcest stable elements
- goldilocks find
- often discovered alongside actual gold ores
copiapo valley — chile's primary tellurium mining region, producing ~30% of world supply
boliden tara mine — irish zinc mine extracting tellurium as byproduct, operated since 1982
first solar cadmium telluride — cdte solar panels using tellurium, company founded 1999, major photovoltaic technology