Elemental Limericks, Part 4

[deckardcanine]

For gallium pure, we must smelt.
In your hands, it will probably melt.
It’s in nuclear bombs,
So you may have some qualms,
But at least it’s quite soft when it’s felt.

Germanium seldom appears
In large quantities; thus it took years
Since Dmitri’s prediction
To prove it nonfiction.
It now helps make “fuzz” to our ears.

Though arsenic partners with lead
In car batteries, treat it with dread.
It kills fungi and bugs
And some microbes, but thugs
Often hope it makes bigger things dead.

Selenium also can be
Highly toxic to you and to me,
But it might be the answer
For staving off cancer.
We’ll keep doing studies to see.

While bromine is used to delay
The progress of fire to this day,
Many compounds are banned
Within many a land
For their ozone depletion. Oy vey.

The primary reason for fame
Of krypton just might be the name
Of the home of Jor-El,
But it’s noted as well
For its use to light lamps without flame.

Rubidium looks grayish white
But has deep red emissions, all right.
It helps PET scans of brains,
As a tumor retains
More than normal brain tissue on site.

While natural strontium’s stable,
A nuclear isotope’s able
To make one quite ill
If not painfully kill.
It’s not used much these days to watch cable.

Some yttrium compounds make lasers
And needles for accurate razors
To cut pain-bearing nerves,
And a lot of them serve
To make gemstones to take to appraisers.

Alphabetical order would send
Zirconium straight to the end.
We employ it to make
Our ceramics opaque.
It’s especially tricky to bend.