On the 78th day of the year, 10 facts about the 78th element in the Periodic Table: Platinum.
The word platinum comes from the Spanish platina, a diminutive of plata "Silver".
Its atomic number is 78, its symbol is Pt; its melting point is 2041.4 K (1768.3 °C/3214.9 °F) and its boiling point is 4098 K (3825 °C/6917 °F). It has remarkable resistance to corrosion, even at high temperatures, and is therefore considered a noble metal.
It may not react much, but it has proved very useful as a catalyst. As such, it is used to make catalytic converters for cars and also fertilisers.
Another industrial use it has been put to is cancer drugs. The anticancer drug cisplatin was the first one to be platinum based. Now, about half of the drugs used in chemotherapy contain platinum.
Archaeologists have discovered traces of platinum in the gold used in ancient Egyptian burials. What they don’t know, however, is whether the Egyptians even realised there was platinum in their Gold. The South American La Tolita Culture (c. 600 BCE – 200 CE) on the other hand, are known to have specifically worked the metal.
The first European reference to platinum appears in 1557 in the writings of the Italian humanist Julius Caesar Scaliger. He described an unknown noble metal found between Darién and Mexico, "which no fire nor any Spanish artifice has yet been able to liquefy". The Europeans who first came across it regarded it as an impurity in gold and would actually throw it away. The first person to study platinum was Antonio de Ulloa, who collected some nuggets of the stuff the natives were working with when travelling in Colombia and Peru in 1735. He established the first mineralogy lab in Spain and produced a report on platinum in 1748, but after that he stopped studying it and moved on to other things.
There are only about 5 parts per billion by weight in Earth's crust, meaning platinum is very rare. It’s been said that all the gold ever mind would fit into 3 Olympic sized swimming pools. All the platinum ever mined would fill just one of those pools to ankle depth. Hence it gets used as bullion and as an investment. The value of platinum, unlike the metal itself, is highly reactive to market conditions. During periods of economic growth, the price of platinum tends to be as much as twice the price of gold, but during periods of economic uncertainty, the price of platinum tends to decrease more due to reduced industrial demand, falling below the price of gold.
Platinum, therefore, is seen as more prestigious than gold. A platinum loyalty or credit card will offer more privileges than a gold one, for example. In the United States, a musical album that has sold more than a million copies will be credited as "platinum."
The 70th anniversary of anything is its platinum anniversary or jubilee. For example, 2022 saw the platinum jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II who had been on the throne for 70 years.
The metal bar that traditionally defined a kilogram, housed at the Paris Institute for Weights and Measures – is made from an alloy of 90% platinum.
Beta
(Combat Team Series #2)
Steff was abducted by an evil alien race, the Orbs, at fourteen. Used as a weapon for years, he eventually escapes, but his problems are just beginning. How does a man support himself when his only work experience is a paper round and using an Orb bio-integrated gun?
Warlord is an alien soldier who knows little but war. When the centuries-old conflict which ravaged his planet ends, he seeks out another world where his skills are still relevant. There are always wars on Earth, it seems. However, none of Earth's powerful armies want him.
Natalie has always wanted to visit England and sees a chance to do so while using her martial arts skills, but there are sacrifices she must make in order to fulfil her dream.
Maggie resorted to crime to fund her sister's medical care. She uses her genetic variant abilities to gain access to the rooms of wealthy hotel guests. The Ballards look like rich pickings, but they are not what they seem. When Maggie targets them, little does she know that she is walking into a trap.
Hotel owner Hamilton Lonsdale puts together a combat team to pit against those of other multi-millionaires. He recruits Warlord, Natalie, Maggie and Steff along with a trained gorilla, a probability-altering alien, a stockbroker whose work of art proved to be much more than he'd bargained for, a marketing officer who can create psionic forcefields, a teleporting member of the landed gentry, and a socially awkward fixer. This is Combat Team Beta.
Steff never talks about his time with the Orbs, until he finds a woman who lived through it, too. Steff believes he has finally found happiness, but it is destined to be short-lived. He is left with an unusual legacy which he and Team Beta struggle to comprehend; including why something out there seems determined to destroy it.
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