Folly of the Faithful Canine

Roentgenium’s in, so we’re told,
A homologous series with gold,
In addition to copper
And silver, but proper
Experiments still are on hold.

Copernicium, chemists suspect,
Might just give up its 6d elect-
Rons instead of the ones
7s as they’ve spun
Due to relativistic effects.

Nihonium’s named for Japan,
As indeed it was made in that land,
Though a Russian-Amer-
Ican team claims that they’re
The first makers. These scientists, man.

Flerovium’s named for a lab.
In theory, some isotopes have
Rather lengthy decay
For how much they must weigh,
But for now, we can just take a stab.

Moscovium’s last in the group
Called pnictogens. What is the root?
Ancient Greek for “to choke,”
As their gas is no joke.
At least, nitrogen isn’t a hoot.

Livermorium first got its name
Twelve years after production and fame
More than twenty years since
Attempt 1 could evince
None at all (there’s a science time frame).

Tennessine is the latest of finds
In the table, at least at the time
Of this poem I wrote,
But it’s not the last note:
There’s a heavier entry behind.

Oganesson’s so rare only five
Atoms ever were known to arrive.
It furthermore stands
Out as named for a man
Who, though elderly, still is alive.

Protactinium’s not like its neighbors,
Which feature in scientists’ labors.
It gets mostly removed
From reactors; its proved
Inefficiency does it no favors.

Uranium’s last among those
That occur when no humans impose
Upon nature. Enhanc-
Ing electrical plants,
It’s still dangerous, everyone knows.

Neptunium builds up in smoke
Detectors of everyday folk.
In theory, it could
Be sufficiently good
For a fuel or a bomb. That’s no joke.

Plutonium keeps up the pattern
Of naming for bodies past Saturn.
It first was produced
In amounts good for use
By a project performed in Manhattan.

Americium’s used to create
Other elements, all of them late
In the table, perforce.
It is also a source
Of neutrons for probing; that’s great.

Now, curium’s named for Curie,
Both Pierre and his darling Marie.
It helps analyze rocks
But is not good in MOX
Fuel—polluting reactors, you see.

Berkelium’s named for the city
Where quite the distinguished committee
Discovered it, plus
Several others. I just
Wish the place name had really been pretty.

Californium-252
Has its uses—in fact, quite a few,
Such as helping prospect,
Treat some cancers, detect
Cracks in aircraft, and educate too.

Einsteinium’s named for the guy
Whose theory let atom bombs fly.
It came forth in a spike
When they blew Ivy Mike,
Just enough to be seen with mere eyes.

Primordial fermium’s gone,
Decayed from the earth since the dawn,
But a bomb brought it back
In a test (no attack).
It’s not useful, and thus we’ve moved on.

Lutetium’s named for Paree,
Rendered Latin, tho some disagree
That it first was found there:
Two more men did declare
That they found it that year, mercy me.

And hafnium, too, has been named
For the capital city that’s claimed
As its first noted site,
Copenhagen. That’s right:
It’s what Hafnia (Latin) became.

But tantalum’s named for the guy
In the legend who, after he’d die,
Couldn’t reach any food,
For the metal, imbued
With an acid, absorbs none; oh my.

Polycrystalline tungsten is brittle
And hard to work into a metal,
But the pure single stuff
Is ductile enough
For a thicker steel hacksaw to whittle.

Now rhenium’s known as the last
Stable element found for the past
Circa 98 years,
And it nicely adheres
To some alloys so creep strength’s amassed.

Rare osmium’s known for its smell,
And its density’s awesome as well:
Nearly twice that of lead.
Its pure state causes dread,
But in various alloys, it’s swell.

Iridium’s colorful salt
Is especially rife in a fault
That geologists say
Marks the terrible day
When the dinosaurs came to a halt.

Pure platinum costs quite a lot.
It is highly unlikely to rot—
That is, to corrode—
So at one time, it showed
What a meter length was (so we thought).

Pure gold’s even pricier yet,
As it’s not all that easy to get.
Most is deep in the core,
And the seabed has more,
But extraction attempts are all wet.

Most mercury’s liquid in form.
Its boiling point’s terribly warm.
If you breathe in its fume
Or, worse yet, you consume
It, your health will be in for a storm.

A lustrous gray metalloid, anti-
Mony’s use within kohl has grown scant-a
In the West, which instead
Has it mixing with lead
Or inhibiting flames at a plant-a.

Tellurium’s namesake is Earth.
That’s ironic in light of its dearth
In the crust. In the past,
It flew off as a gas.
Now catalysis helps give it worth.

While iodine might be best known
For its medical uses, it’s shown
To help supplement feed,
Create photos, cloud-seed,
And move spacecraft, though not on its own.

One element starts with an X.
It’s called xenon, with handy effects
For its use in a lamp,
And it’s also a champ
To thrust ions, as NASA respects.

Pure cesium’s color’s pale gold.
To be solid, it must be quite cold
For a metal, and not
Via water. Too hot?
Too unstable: It tends to explode.

Ol’ barium isn’t found free.
It reacts very dangerously.
While it’s gray with a hint
Of a yellowish tint,
It makes fireworks green as we see.

Pure lanthanum’s tough to extract.
For its subgroup, it’s quick to react.
(That’s the lanthanide set,
Just in case you forget
Or were never aware of this fact.)

Despite its “rare-earth” designation,
We find cerium rife in creation,
With its presence fivefold
That of lead, as I’m told,
In the crust, though with less application.

Now, praseodymium’s neat
For its use in a scientist feat:
It allows things to be
At a millidegree
Above absolute zero. How sweet.

Neodymium’s sort of its mate,
Both discovered upon the same date,
When didymium split.
Today, “Neo” is fit
To give magnets an extra strong state.

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.

Oops, I skipped one last time:

Once, nitrogen went by “azote.”
In our air, it is hardly remote.
It is commonly seen
Within drugs like caffeine
And some water pollutants of note.

Now to pick up where I left off:

When doctors advise us to halt
Our gratuitous usage of salt
To combat hypertension,
They’re likely to mention
The problem is sodium’s fault.

Magnesium comes from old stars.
It’s been found on the surface of Mars
In the rocks and the soil.
Perhaps someday we’ll toil
To ensure that that rocket fuel’s ours.

Aluminum used to be pricy,
As the methods to get it were dicey,
But the process improved
And more stuff was removed.
Now the cost of it isn’t so high, see?

We’re now in the Silicon Age,
When that solid’s become all the rage,
As it’s prized by constructors
Of semiconductors.
Computers need those to engage.

As critters’ remains decompose,
We get phosphates their bodies enclose.
But pure phosphorus, white,
Is more often a blight
Than a boon as it famously glows.

Some compounds of sulfur are rank,
So it’s found in a stink-bomb-based prank
And in garlic and skunks’
Awful signature funks.
It’s why eggs aren’t my fave, to be frank.

Our chlorine is taken from brine.
Now it’s used to make pool water fine.
Back in World War I,
‘Twas a gas but no fun,
Being poisonous quite by design.

By contrast, pure argon’s a shield
In which substances often are sealed
To prevent them from burning,
Like graphite, or turning
Putrescent, like crop farmers’ yield.

Potassium’s healthful to eat
For more reasons than I can repeat.
We consume it in yam,
Avocados, and bran,
Among many more products. That’s sweet.

While calcium’s good to the bone,
It’s not used for nutrition alone.
When it’s not in a meal,
It can help to make steel
And get nitrogen out on its own.