# Sci Fi minerals **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 17, 2013, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-minerals/669028 "2013-09-17T04:02:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2013, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-minerals/669028/1 "2013-09-17T04:02:07Z")
I majored in literature and know just enough chemistry to get into trouble, so please forgive if the following questions are stupid. I’ve just always wondered about: **Kryptonite** : Krypton is a noble gas. Don’t nobles bond with, well, nothing? How would krypton be coerced into a mineral state? Or is the mythical kryptonite some other unexplained mineral from the planet Krypton? **Dilithium Crystals** : Lithium has a single free electron to form a covalent bond. Can you crystalize something like that? I thought you needed at least two free electrons: one to grab one atom by a valence, and another to grab another atom. I’m thinking of diamond where each of the 4 carbon valence electrons grabs onto a valence electron from 4 different carbon atoms. Sorry for being dumb. ---
**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:** [September 17, 2013, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-minerals/669028/2 "2013-09-17T04:07:15Z")
Both of those substances are completely fictional. Any resemblance to any real substance, in name or properties, is coincidental. ---
**Author:** ![coremelt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@coremelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coremelt)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2013, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-minerals/669028/3 "2013-09-17T04:08:33Z")
in their respective fictional universes Kryptonite and Dilithium and both new fictional elements that just happen to have similar names to real elements. ---
**Author:** ![Isilder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@Isilder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isilder)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2013, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-minerals/669028/4 "2013-09-17T04:17:52Z")
> [@The Great Sun Jester](#): > > I majored in literature and know just enough chemistry to get into trouble, so please forgive if the following questions are stupid. I’ve just always wondered about: > > **Kryptonite** : Krypton is a noble gas. Don’t nobles bond with, well, nothing? How would krypton be coerced into a mineral state? Or is the mythical kryptonite some other unexplained mineral from the planet Krypton? > > **Dilithium Crystals** : Lithium has a single free electron to form a covalent bond. Can you crystalize something like that? I thought you needed at least two free electrons: one to grab one atom by a valence, and another to grab another atom. I’m thinking of diamond where each of the 4 carbon valence electrons grabs onto a valence electron from 4 different carbon atoms. > > Sorry for being dumb. Krypton does form molecules. Flouride is strong enough to take electrons away and make KrF2 and KrF4 . See, if F has the electron, F is negative , the Kr is positive and they stick together. Its basically ionic. The difference between ionic and moleculer is one of grades … Kryptonite is not meant to be a compound with Krypton. From wikipedia… In the Silver to Bronze Age stories, as well as in the “Green, Green Glow of Home” episode of Lois & Clark New adventures of Superman, Kryptonite is a stable transuranic element (element 126) that finally decays to iron.[6][7] However in Superman III (1983) it is said that Kryptonite is an alloy made up of 15.08% plutonium, 18.06% tantalum, 27.71% xenon, 24.02% promethium, 10.62% dialium, 3.94% mercury, and 0.57% of an unknown substance. A Post-Crisis story in Action Comics #591 (Aug 87) also made Kryptonite an alloy. Dilithium - In real life - Lithium its a metal when its metallic bonded, but dilithium molecules exist using covalent bonds… its only ever been known as a gas, how to make it crystalise ??? In Star Trek, dilithium is a different atom. Dilithium’s chemical symbol is Dt, its atomic weight is 87 and it is a member of the hypersonic series of elements, according to a periodic table graphic seen in episodes of The Next Generation[1] and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. The dilithium crystal structure is 2(5)6 dilithium 2(:)l diallosilicate 1:9:1 heptoferranide, according to the Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2013, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-minerals/669028/5 "2013-09-17T04:23:47Z")
> [@Isilder](#): > > Dilithium - In real life - Lithium its a metal when its metallic bonded, but dilithium molecules exist using covalent bonds… its only ever been known as a gas, how to make it crystalise ??? What does it do at low temperature? Water vapor crystallizes when frozen. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2013, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-minerals/669028/6 "2013-09-17T04:31:11Z")
Kryptonite also has the unusual property of faster-than-light space travel, from the location of the doomed planet of Krypton to our solar system, within the lifetime of Kal-El. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2013, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-minerals/669028/7 "2013-09-17T04:43:18Z")
> [@The Great Sun Jester](#): > > **Kryptonite** : Krypton is a noble gas. Don’t nobles bond with, well, nothing? How would krypton be coerced into a mineral state? Or is the mythical kryptonite some other unexplained mineral from the planet Krypton? I assume that Jerry Siegel just wanted a vaguely scientific-sounding name for Superman’s home planet, so he probably just picked an obscure element from the periodic table. The planet has nothing to do with the actual element; kryptonite is named after the planet. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2013, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-minerals/669028/8 "2013-09-17T04:44:50Z")
It works if you have enough vespine gas. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2013, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-minerals/669028/9 "2013-09-17T06:06:21Z")
> [@The Great Sun Jester](#): > > **Kryptonite** : Krypton is a noble gas. Don’t nobles bond with, well, nothing? How would krypton be coerced into a mineral state? Or is the mythical kryptonite some other unexplained mineral from the planet Krypton? The last: at no point do they state it includes krypton among its component elements. Dilithium was originally fictional and as **isilder** explains again the name wasn’t intended to reflect real chemistry; in theory crystalized dilithium would be undistinguishable from crystalized lithium - but gaseous dilithium is (and liquid dilithium will be, if we get to make it) electronically similar to gaseous (and liquid) hydrogen. In the simplest version of orbital theory, electrons get organized in layers, each of which contain one or more orbitals, and each orbital can contain up to two electrons (that is, one electron pair). The first orbital in each layer is called s (from “spherical”); the smallest layer, the first one, only contains one s orbital; other layers contain more orbitals. H[sub]2[/sub] contains two paired electrons, one from each of its atoms’ [sup]1[/sup]s-orbitals; Li[sub]2[/sub]‘s outer layer contains two paired electrons, one from each of its atoms’ [sup]2[/sup]s-orbitals. When drawn in computer simulations, it looks like a fatter H[sub]2[/sub]. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2013, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-minerals/669028/10 "2013-09-17T06:39:41Z")
The TV tropes page for Unobtanium has an entire list of Star Trek elements and materials, which in addition to Dilithium also has Corbomite, Neutronium (actually a real thing, but it doesn’t behave as it did on the show), Duranium, Tritanium, Baakonite, Latinum, Trilithium, Keiyurium, Vertenium-Cortenide (which gets bonus points for being a compound made up of two non-existent substances), Archerite, Transparent aluminum, Aluminum Oxynitride, Cortenide, Duranium, Trellium-D,and Fulmorite. > **[Unobtainium - TV Tropes](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Unobtainium)** > > Unobtainium is engineering jargon for, "a material that would be perfect for our purposes, if we could get it, which we can't." Sometimes an object that actually exists, or existed at one time, becomes unobtainium because it's unavailable now. Star Trek things are generally made to sound cool. Any similarities to real world materials and physics is usually coincidental. A “phaser” for example was originally a “phase modulated laser”, which the writers thought sounded cooler than just “laser”, which everyone in sci-fi had by then. If you’ve ever seen the show you know that phasers have strange properties that are nothing at all like laser beams (like “stun” mode and completely disintegrating an object just by striking it at one point). On top of that, the term “phaser” isn’t even consistent through Star Trek lore. I’ve also heard it said to describe a “Photon Maser” or “Phased Energy Rectification.” That’s the big problem with anything Star Trek. They kinda made it up as they went. If something sounded cool and fit in with the plot they went with it. Realism wasn’t much of a consideration. You also may be interested in the wikipedia article on Star Trek tech, which includes an article on dilithium and its supposed properties. It also has an article about Star Trek materials and substances and a bunch of other stuff as well. > **[Technology in Star Trek](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology_in_Star_Trek)** > > The fictional technology in Star Trek has borrowed many ideas from the scientific world. Episodes often contain technologies named after or inspired by real-world scientific concepts, such as tachyon beams, baryon sweeps, quantum slipstream drives, and photon torpedoes. Some of the technologies created for the Star Trek universe were done so out of financial necessity. For instance, the transporter was created because the limited budget of Star Trek: The Original Series (TOS) in the 1960s did not... ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2013, 7:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-minerals/669028/11 "2013-09-17T07:34:30Z")
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#): > > The TV tropes page for Unobtanium has an entire list of Star Trek elements and materials, which in addition to Dilithium also has Corbomite, Neutronium (actually a real thing, but it doesn’t behave as it did on the show), Duranium, Tritanium, Baakonite, Latinum, Trilithium, Keiyurium, Vertenium-Cortenide (which gets bonus points for being a compound made up of two non-existent substances), Archerite, Transparent aluminum, Aluminum Oxynitride, Cortenide, Duranium, Trellium-D,and Fulmorite. Aluminium Oxynitride is for real. > **[Aluminium oxynitride](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aluminium_oxynitride)** > > Aluminium oxynitride (marketed under the name ALON by Surmet Corporation) is a transparent ceramic composed of aluminium, oxygen and nitrogen. Aluminium oxynitride is optically transparent (≥80% for 2 mm thickness) in the near-ultraviolet, visible, and mid-wave-infrared regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. It is four times as hard as fused silica glass, 85% as hard as sapphire, and nearly 115% as hard as magnesium aluminate spinel. It can be fabricated into transparent windows, plates, dom Al... ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2013, 11:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-minerals/669028/12 "2013-09-17T11:11:58Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > Kryptonite also has the unusual property of faster-than-light space travel, from the location of the doomed planet of Krypton to our solar system, within the lifetime of Kal-El. I remember seeing a Superman comic that had the kryptonite rock fall through a spacewarp to get to Earth. That was decades ago and they may have changed things since then. ---
**Author:** ![aNewLeaf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ac91a4/32.png) [@aNewLeaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aNewLeaf)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2013, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-minerals/669028/13 "2013-09-17T11:34:42Z")
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#): > > " That’s the big problem with anything Star Trek. They kinda made it up as they went. If something sounded cool and fit in with the plot they went with it. Realism wasn’t much of a consideration. But for the original series, the writes had no idea anybody would take it so seriously. The word ‘dilithium’ was going last a couple of seasons, none of the writers figured that 50 years later, people would write college papers on the substance. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2013, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-minerals/669028/14 "2013-09-17T11:48:05Z")
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#): > > The TV tropes page for Unobtanium has an entire list of Star Trek elements and materials, which in addition to Dilithium also has Corbomite, Neutronium (actually a real thing, but it doesn’t behave as it did on the show), Duranium, Tritanium, Baakonite, Latinum, Trilithium, Keiyurium, Vertenium-Cortenide (which gets bonus points for being a compound made up of two non-existent substances), Archerite, Transparent aluminum, Aluminum Oxynitride, Cortenide, Duranium, Trellium-D,and Fulmorite. > [@Mangetout](#): > > Aluminium Oxynitride is for real. > > [Aluminium oxynitride - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aluminium_oxynitride) [Transparent aluminum](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transparent_aluminum#Transparent_aluminum) is also real, although it was only created after it was made up in Star Trek. > [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#): > > A “phaser” for example was originally a “phase modulated laser”, which the writers thought sounded cooler than just “laser”, which everyone in sci-fi had by then. Actually, I understand that “phaser” was chosen because Roddenberry didn’t want everyone in a few years to be saying “Hey! Lasers can’t do that!” Using made up substances and technology has the advantage that a few years down the line it probably won’t be something familiar to the audience in real life. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2013, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-minerals/669028/15 "2013-09-17T11:50:56Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > Kryptonite also has the unusual property of faster-than-light space travel, from the location of the doomed planet of Krypton to our solar system, within the lifetime of Kal-El. > [@dtilque](#): > > I remember seeing a Superman comic that had the kryptonite rock fall through a spacewarp to get to Earth. That was decades ago and they may have changed things since then. Baby-supes got here within the span of his infanthood, so I’m not sure why this would be a problem. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2013, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-minerals/669028/16 "2013-09-17T12:02:21Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > Baby-supes got here within the span of his infanthood, so I’m not sure why this would be a problem. He got here in a spacecraft, presumably with an FTL drive; unpowered rocks getting here to Earth is harder to explain. ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Panda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ee7513/32.png) [@Darth\_Panda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Panda)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2013, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-minerals/669028/17 "2013-09-17T12:10:52Z")
> [@robert\_columbia](#): > > It works if you have enough vespine gas. nitpick: vespene And I do believe I’m getting a case of the vapors. ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Panda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ee7513/32.png) [@Darth\_Panda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Panda)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2013, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-minerals/669028/18 "2013-09-17T12:13:40Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > He got here in a spacecraft, presumably with an FTL drive; unpowered rocks getting here to Earth is harder to explain. Maybe Jor-el dropped some of his rock in the bag when he was packing Superboy’s lunch. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2013, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-minerals/669028/19 "2013-09-17T12:21:01Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > He got here in a spacecraft, presumably with an FTL drive; unpowered rocks getting here to Earth is harder to explain. Frame dragging. ETA: I mean, it’s not exactly the only thing in the Superman Universe that sort of needs explaining… ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2013, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-minerals/669028/20 "2013-09-17T12:24:46Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > He got here in a spacecraft, presumably with an FTL drive; unpowered rocks getting here to Earth is harder to explain. Caught in the wake (or slipstream) of the spacecraft. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-minerals/669028.md?page=2)