Era's of history often defined by societies use of metals like copper, bronze, iron, alloys, now super alloys & metal materials
From communication with wires & 5G NR antenna, to power distribution & electric motors & electronics that enable internet, lighting, fans, pumps & more to function! Metals are important in the human body & in plants & other animals to make oxygen transport in blood & in vitamins & enzymes. Human body made of 126 different chemical elements.
Electroplating uses metal ions moved by electricity to apply nickel to steel & copper to nickel & gold to copper contacts in electronics & more, nearly endless combinations. In mining & processing electric furnaces produce ultra pure alloys & we are entering the era of super alloys with better market diffusion to high temperature ductile super conductors cooled with liquid nitrogen from earths air which is about 78% nitrogen.
Automakers like Tesla & Ford are using aluminum to replace iron alloys to make vehicles lighter for better energy economy & lower emissions & better fuel economy.
Copper wires helped to wire up the world with radio & wireless RF technology extending now into 5G NR & power wires in homes & vehicles. Telecom & internet would be impossible without copper wires
Cobalt the toxic metal in common lithium ion batteries of portable consumer electronics very popular world wide actually biologically important as the core metallic element in vitamin B12 & other important enzymes that enable lower temperature biochemical reactions to happen in lifeforms in Earth's biosphere
Stainless steel a major popular improvement materials over basic iron, widely utilized for rockets by Space X now & in cars & SUV's & appliances & infrastructure such a bridges & raised walk-ways & skyscrapers.
Uranium & thorium in fission energy reactors, subcritical isotope research reactors & emerging MMR & SMR reactors approved by the NRC & IAEA & other global nuclear government agencies.
Each element of the periodic table so useful that an a wikipedia article of good depth exists for each one. I am only pointing out that metals & our ability to use them affects nearly all aspect of modern civilization
Our high-tech & low tech & everything in between from the smallest hobby jewelry scale lost wax metal casting to huge metal casting for ship making that enables global trade & transport & even space stations & space satellites & rockets & wires & vehicles & batteries
Think of Lead the toxic heavy metal inside a bath of sulfuric acid in common starting lighting & ignition PbA or Lead Acid batteries common today in flooded, sealed & AGM technologies used in UPS systems, hospital carts, engine starting, electric trolling motors for small boats, powering CPAP machines of campers & portable HAM rigs. While Sony's 1991 Lithium Ion chemistry all the range because of smart connected IOT devices like smartphones & smart watches & electric vehicles, the Lead / Lead Oxide Sulfuric Acid battery from 1859 by Gaston Plante still widely utilized today & the mostly widely diffused toxic metal recycle win in history with core deposits refund system to encourage people to bring their old dead batteries back to distribution sales points for recycling. Lead can be endlessly recycled, just like copper & glass & gold.
Nickel a very corrosion resistant metal also used in NiMH batteries with lanthanum metal, significantly affecting Toyota with the development of their Hybrid Synergy Drive technology launched in the Toyota Prius which continues to sell well having already achieve global market diffusion with 14+ million units sold. The lanthanum rare earth metal content of NiMH & Nickel mining practices provide opportunities for more applied innovation to clean up toxic emissions & pollution.
Metal mining & metal refining practices an be cleaned up with innovative furnace design, oxygen injection, argon & nitrogen & co2 mixes for shielding gases, in welding, foundries & manufacturing.
I am very interested in energy & if you consider the lose outer orbital electrons of metals like copper & silver, you can see why metals are very important for energy in solar panels photovoltaic & computer chips & glass & ceramics as oxides & in wires that connect human minds online, now mixed with fiber optics for faster speeds.
I have started nickel plating stainless steel & copper plating the nickel plating as hobby in small glass containers using a variable DC power supply.
I am about to use my 25 year old brass propane torch with some borax & a small ceramic crucible & holder & heat proof gloves to melt hobby quantities of aluminum from pop cans & copper, casting small bars in a graphite mould for fun, to make electrodes for my electroplating experiments from scrap metals recovered for free or nearly free. The main cost the propane & time & the emissions created by smelting sub 300 gram quantities for jewelry making & tiny scale electro-plating experiments for fun
I got a nick name at work "Sargent Science Fair" & like that one. I enjoy teaching people interesting facts, especially about staying well hydrated & fasting & the value of fitness. You might think those have nothing to do with metals, but the iron in your blood makes your body move oxygen around & the reason that CO or carbon monoxide toxic (it binds to hemoglobin & blocks oxygen binding, starving the brain & muscles of oxygen)
The cold hard fact of life on Earth, everything connected. Earth a giant spacecraft hurling around the sun at amazing velocities with the Moon orbiting the Earth & our Sun orbiting a giant black hole at the center of the Milky Way with billions of other stars. There are trillions of stars & tens of trillions of planets in outer space. We cannot visit them with chemical rockets, today we even struggle to access the Moon or Mars in a big way. Chemical rockets made of amazing metals, especially the engines & fuel tanks & metal lines & hosed & how they are orbital welded // but they suffer from a mass paradox where to carry more fuel they must be bigger, which increases mass, which increased fuel consumption, loop function //
I am a polymath of Science & Technology & use my curiosity & drive to obtain enhanced understandings of everything I can. Sadly I cannot know everything as no one does & no one is able to. Look at the FPS breaking AI being applied today. Humans are good at creative problem solving & pattern recognition & communicating with one another in teams to collaborate.
I want to ask you for a favor, help lift other people up any way you can think of! Do not just think about it, think about HOW to actually do it & make a plan & go do it! We can accomplish amazing things like the International Space Station when we work together as one Human People on Planet Earth.
War has some applications but tends to cost to much, in human life & capital that could be applied to make the world better for everyone, including especially transitioning away from burning carbon & moving to cleaner safer & sustainable ways to power advanced civilization so that we can find another habitat planet & open up access to space & start mining in space.
We need fusion & fission & ZPE rockets to get past the fuel mass paradox of chemical rockets. Further we need to figure out how to commercialize faster than light travel to move people & materials over vast distances in space much faster
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