What is the most valuable (US$) thing on earth, per gram of weight?

What is the most valuable (US$) thing on earth, per gram of weight? I would’ve thought Philly Cheesteaks if the serving size was 0.000002 grams!

Per millilitre? Printer ink.

:smiley:

Quoth the Master:

Firstly, welcome to the boards!

Cecil did a column on the most expensive thing in the world.

I won!

DOH!

Bested again! I’ll never preview and check link funcionality again!

:slight_smile:

That article is a touch old. According to Emsley’s Nature’s Building Blocks, Cf-252 is sold for cancer therapy at $10/microgram.

Thanks for the welcome here. The link you sent me to was dated 1973. From 1975 …

252-Cf is now being offered for sale by the O.R.N.L. at a cost of $10/mg. As of May, 1975, more than 63 mg have been produced and sold.

Source: http://pearl1.lanl.gov/periodic/elements/98.html Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Chemistry Division: Periodic Table - Californium

30+ years later, I think my Philly cheese steak might even cost moe?

Sorry, meant “is” as in today. :rolleyes:

If you believe this source, recent pricing is $160 / microgram. (mg = milligram).

Went to the “source” link. Who is Ben S. and what was his research?

A high school student, doing a school project. This is probably the source of his research. The $160/mic is for Cf-249, apparently.

Thanks, never anticipated a chemical. Thought, maybe, some kind of art. But you had me laughing, kept thinking Ben S. was Ben Stiller!

Actually, it seems like he’s a middle school student. I’ll be graduating college in 2010, and it says he’ll be graduating high school in 2009. So I’m guessing he’s in 7th grade.

Sheesh, citations of middle schoolers’ reports in GQ?

Thanks. Don’t mind that so much, Ben could be the next Max Planck. My only concern is that the CDC reference was dated 1997-1998.

Heck, it’s the weekend. The serious question answerers will be back on Monday once when they get to work & the boredom sets in. Then we’ll get the Straight Dope.

Meanwhile, I’ll fill in as best I can …

Note the OP asked for the “most valuable thing.” It didn’t have to be for sale.

I’m suspecting the recent experiments involving Bose-Einstein condensates, or perhaps studies of antimatter would probably take the prize . The laboratory(i.e. the factory) has an operating budget of several million, if not several dozen million, US dollars per year and the gross production is a few hundred sub-atomic particles. That’s gotta be a lotta money per pound or gram.

I don’t understand? :confused:

Gone4Subs

When someone posts a question that Cecil Adams has addressed in one of his columns, there’s usually a race to see which of us can link to it quicker. Chandeleur allowed himself to get distracted by proofreading and doing that “Welcome Wagon” thing, so he came in second. I, on the other hand, ignored the civilities and assumed that all my linking was correct, so I posted first.

It’s all very silly and immature. (But, I won! :smiley: )

But I thought the most valuable things in life were priceless! :smiley:

(And for everything else, shameless product placement :wink: )

Sorry, folks. But it seems the most expensive substance on Earth is currently antimatter, at approximately $62.5 trillion per gram or antiprotons.
Warning: link is PDF file.