Germanium is a chemical element with the symbol Ge and atomic number
32. It is a lustrous, hard, greyish-white metalloid in the carbon
group, chemically similar to its group neighbors tin and silicon.
Germanium has five naturally occurring isotopes ranging in atomic mass
number from 70 to 76. It forms a large number of organometallic
compounds, including tetraethylgermane and isobutylgermane. Because few
minerals contain it in large concentration, germanium was discovered
relatively late despite the fact that it is relatively abundant in the
Earth's crust. In 1869, Dmitri Mendeleev predicted its existence and
some of its properties based on its position on his periodic table and
called the element ekasilicon. Nearly two decades later, in 1886,
Clemens Winkler found it in the mineral argyrodite. Winkler found that
experimental observations agreed with Mendeleev's predictions and named
the element after his country, Germany. Germanium is an important
semiconductor material used in transistors and various other electronic
devices. Its major end uses are fiber-optic systems and infrared
optics, but is also used for polymerization catalysts, in electronics
and in solar electric applications. Germanium is mined primarily from
sphalerite, though it is also recovered from silver, lead, and copper
ores. Some germanium compounds, such as germanium chloride and germane,
can irritate the eyes, skin, lungs, and throat.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germanium>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
193:
Praetorian Guards assassinated Roman Emperor Pertinax and sold the
throne in an auction to Didius Julianus.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pertinax>
1795:
Partitions of Poland: The Duchy of Courland, a northern fief of the
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, ceased to exist and became part of the
Russian Empire.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duchy_of_Courland_and_Semigallia>
1802:
German astronomer Heinrich Wilhelm Matthäus Olbers discovered 2 Pallas,
the second asteroid known to man.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2_Pallas>
1979:
A partial core meltdown of the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating
Station near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, USA resulted in the release of
an estimated 43,000 curies (1.59 PBq) of radioactive krypton to the
environment.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Mile_Island_Nuclear_Generating_Station>
2005:
The Sumatra earthquake hit Indonesia, killing approximately 1,300
people.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_Sumatra_earthquake>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
satay (n):
An Indonesian dish made from small pieces of meat or fish grilled on a
skewer and served with a spicy peanut sauce
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/satay>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Just as we cannot stop the movement of the heavens, revolving as they
do with such speed, so we cannot restrain our thought. And then we send
all the faculties of the soul after it, thinking we are lost, and have
misused the time that we are spending in the presence of God. Yet the
soul may perhaps be wholly united with Him in the Mansions very near
His presence, while thought remains in the outskirts of the castle,
suffering the assaults of a thousand wild and venomous creatures and
from this suffering winning merit. So this must not upset us, and we
must not abandon the struggle, as the devil tries to make us do. Most
of these trials and times of unrest come from the fact that we do not
understand ourselves.
--Teresa of Avila
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Teresa_of_Avila>