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#11069 11/27/00 08:19 AM
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>Apparently, the European community has also adopted this INCI label language. I would be interested to know if anyone in this forum is involved with packaging of retail consumer products like shampoos and foam baths, and if they are following these rules

There was quite a discussion about this here on one of those endless consumer programmes. The word aqua has appeared on labels for products like shampoo, foam baths etc. As the items that form the largest constituent of the product are shown first, inevitably many products have aqua as the first listed constituent. Several people commented that the change to "aqua" sounded much better than acknowledging that the rather expensive product you had just bought was little more than water. In the end it was revealed as a new EU ruling to continue the standardisation of the United States of Europe.


#11070 11/27/00 08:21 AM
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I assume that most of these are too radioactive for normal use. If not, I was thinking of ordering a Unununium Uuu necklace and a pair of matching Ununbium Uub earings - or do you think that the colours would clash!


#11071 11/27/00 09:10 AM
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lost touch with the discovery
If this is a consolation for you: even as a chemist, I have not yet heard of this latest outgrowth of political correctness (Recent namings, like Seaborgium, having given rise to endless squabbles).


#11072 11/27/00 09:14 AM
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or do you think that the colours would clash!

Explode, more likely. These artificially created elements have half-lives measured in milli-, micro- or pico- seconds. I believe they are expecting a 'region of stability' to emerge once they get to and past element 118 - but that simply means that they half-life might be as great as one-hundredth of a second. Scientists have weird ways when using relative terms like stable, large, accurate and so on. Remember the big hoo-ha about 'high temperature' ceramic superconducting materials. If you ever ploughed through the articles you discovered that these incredible high temperatures were usually lower than -50 Celsius (no higher than 223 Kelvin, or lower than -58 Farenheit, for those either science-obsessed, or unaware that there is such a thing as the metric system).

Similarly, they consider the universe to be balanced uncannily between contraction and expansion. How close is this 'uncanny' balance - oh, within a factor of a few magnitudes. (This means it could be a thousand times heavier or lighter than they think - this is the uncanny accuracy that is leading many of them to religion - there had to be a god if the universe was fine tuned to this degree!)


#11073 11/27/00 09:19 PM
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110 Ununnilium Uun
. . .
118 Ununoctium Uuo


Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm fairly certain that these are merely temporary names until more suitable ones are created. Until quite recently Rutherfordium (104), Dubnium (105), Seaborgium (106), Bohrium (107), Hassium (108), and Meitnerium (109) had similarly flavorless names.


#11074 11/29/00 09:20 AM
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Memo to Tom Lehrer: Time for an update!


#11075 11/29/00 02:20 PM
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Tom Lehrer: The Element Song? That's great!
I can hear it now: u-nun-UN-ee-yum!


#11076 12/07/00 10:29 AM
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This thread does seem to indicate how prophetic Lehrer was, when he commented at hte end that, "... these are all the elements that are known at Harvard/ Though there may be many more that have yet been discarvered."

(or something like that - I don't have the song sheet with me and don't have time to LIU)



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Camel Menthol Lights


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