# Are There Any Useless Elements? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 13, 2019, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-useless-elements/829494 "2019-02-13T20:08:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Hatchie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hatchie/32/3983_2.png) [@Hatchie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hatchie)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2019, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-useless-elements/829494/21 "2019-02-14T23:52:04Z")
Oh sure, if you don’t mind that it’s an isotope, Pm-147, which makes it a bastard element. But consider this: promehtium is so boring that its discoverers didn’t bother to announce their discovery for years! Read the uninspiring story [here](http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/elements/features/2010/blogging_the_periodic_table/promethium_uranium_stole_its_fire.html). > [@](#): > > Three scientists from Oak Ridge National Laboratory made the announcement at a scientific meeting that year—but revealed that they’d actually discovered it two years before and had sat on it. They had said nothing partly because of security restrictions at a national lab, but they also knew the delay wouldn’t matter: No one else was looking for the element. The media gave the announcement unenthusiastic coverage, calling the new element “not good for much.” Sure, “not good for much” does not equal useless. You could stuff a beanbag with it, if you could find any, which aside from the lab-created variety there’s apparently very little of on Earth, we’re talking mere grams. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2019, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-useless-elements/829494/22 "2019-02-15T00:09:09Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > _Dysprosii eunt domo!_ People called Dysprosii, they go the house? ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2019, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-useless-elements/829494/23 "2019-02-15T03:49:12Z")
Well, [this element](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Selectric_typewriter#/media/File:IBM_Selectric_typeball.jpg) is pretty much useless today. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2019, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-useless-elements/829494/24 "2019-02-15T04:43:39Z")
> [@zimaane](#): > > I would have thought astatine as being basically useless and unusable, as its most stable isotope has a half life of eight hours and it is so radioactive that no one knows what a pure sample looks like, but research is being done on its medical uses > > [Astatine - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astatine#Uses_and_precautions) > > So maybe you are right I wonder how astatine-211 could have medical uses, when there basically isn’t any such thing. It’s made from bismuth-200 and could potentially be used in thyroid cancer, because it’s chemically similar to iodine - but we already use iodine for this purpose, and it works and doesn’t stay radioactive very long. ---
**Author:** ![Dereknocue67](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/6de8d8/32.png) [@Dereknocue67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dereknocue67)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2019, 9:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-useless-elements/829494/25 "2019-02-15T09:11:34Z")
Yes, there are useless elements. I have one on my stove. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2019, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-useless-elements/829494/26 "2019-02-15T21:53:07Z")
> [@Hatchie](#): > > Oh sure, if you don’t mind that it’s an isotope, Pm-147, which makes it a bastard element. _All_ variants of an element are isotopes. There’s no such thing as a non-isotope form of an element. Example: the three main [isotopes of Hydrogen](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isotopes_of_hydrogen) includes H[sup]1[/sup]. ---
**Author:** ![Hatchie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hatchie/32/3983_2.png) [@Hatchie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hatchie)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2019, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-useless-elements/829494/27 "2019-02-15T22:35:34Z")
What? Are you trying to derail this discussion with facts? Especially now that the inevitable jokey posts that attempt to mine alternate meanings of the word “element” for giant belly laughs are just now pulling into the station? I say the whole Promethium family and all its cousins are damnable no-accounts. ---
**Author:** ![MarvinKitFox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ba0ec/32.png) [@MarvinKitFox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MarvinKitFox)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2019, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-useless-elements/829494/28 "2019-02-18T06:22:28Z")
There are Elements that post inane threads like this on forums. Seems pretty useless to me. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2019, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-useless-elements/829494/29 "2019-02-18T08:12:24Z")
If anyone has a use for [Moscovium (element 115)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscovium) _beyond_ pure science, let me know; the half-life of its longest-lived isotope, Moscovium-290, is 650 milliseconds. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2019, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-useless-elements/829494/30 "2019-02-18T12:07:43Z")
I don’t think there’s uses, other than scientific research, for any element above 98 californium. It’s not because of too short a half-life; some have half-lives measured in days, but they still don’t have any use. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2019, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-useless-elements/829494/31 "2019-02-18T13:20:53Z")
Flerovium-298 is predicted to be (relatively!) stable, but so far nobody has managed to make any. Even if it had its uses, one problem with these heavy elements is the ludicrously high cost of synthesizing even just a few atoms, which is going to limit practical applications. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2019, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-useless-elements/829494/32 "2019-02-18T14:06:25Z")
**[Moderating]** > [@MarvinKitFox](#): > > There are Elements that post inane threads like this on forums. > > Seems pretty useless to me. This is certainly a threadshit, and it looks to me like it’s also a personal attack. If you don’t like a thread, then the simple solution is to not post in it. This is an official Warning for violating board rules. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2019, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-useless-elements/829494/33 "2019-02-18T15:53:42Z")
_Slight tangent:_ I hadn’t realized that elements in the 110s had actual names these days. I still remember the “ununpentium”-type names on classroom periodic tables \*circa \*the mid 1980s. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-useless-elements/829494.md?page=1)