13 exotic elements we can't live without - tech - 20 June 2011. From indium touchscreens to hafnium-equipped moonships, the nether regions of the periodic table underpin modern technology – but supplies are getting scarce AS YOU flick the light switch in your study, an eerie europium glow illuminates your tablet computer, idling on the desk.
You unlock it, casually sweeping your finger across its indium-laced touchscreen. Within seconds, pulses of information are pinging along the erbium-paved highways of the internet. Some music to accompany your surfing? Angular_Form.jpg (3011×2261) Hi-Res Images of Hydrogen. Nonmetal, mass: 1.008 u, 2 stable isotopes (1, 2), abundance rank (earth/space): 9/1 Click image to magnify.
Vial of glowing ultrapure hydrogen, H2. Original size in cm: 1 x 5. How to make gases glow. Hydrogen is the lightest and simplest element and, with a ratio of 80%, is the main ingredient of the visible universe. 20% consist of helium, the ratio of the heavier elements is below 1%.