"Wil McCarthy - The Technetium Rush" - читать интересную книгу автора (McCarty Sarah)

The Technetium Rush
by Wil McCarthy

Materials can have many uses, some of which are talked about more openly than
others....

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Bangalore Daily News, 26 July 2011

Byline: Hemant S. Tripathi

Fact: The element technetium is produced in minute quantities by red giant
stars so far away that the light theyтАЩre emitting now will someday shine on your
grandchildrenтАЩs grandchildren. For our purposes here, thatтАЩs far enough not to
matter. Closer to home, the element is sometimes generated by the collision of
molybdenum atoms and тАЬheavy hydrogenтАЭ from the sun, or by the natural decay of
uranium. These are freak occurrences, though; aside from the transuranics (which
are about as stable as a life of crime), technetium is the rarest element in the natural
universe and forms no known minerals.

Fact: Of the thirty-two possible crystal classes, only oneтАФthe gyroidal
isometricтАФhad, until recently, never been found in the mineral world. Is it mankind
that abhors a vacuum?

Fact: On March 20, 2008, Delhi University-trained geologist Rakesh тАЬRockyтАЭ
Solanki, on an apparently routine survey of the alluvial clays north of Bhilwara,
Rajasthan, found a deposit of fluorescent orange crystals that he couldnтАЩt identify,
and so brought back to his Jaipur office for examination. Later named Tc solankite,
the crystals were hard, translucent, vaguely lustrous andтАФconsidering their gyroidal
structure and 20 percent technetium compositionтАФquickly valued at $5,000 per
gram. This is 300 times the price of platinum and twice that of clear uncut diamonds,
so weтАЩre talking about serious money here. LetтАЩs be clear about that.

Since the material had apparently washed down from the nearby Arvalli
Mountains sometime in the past thousand years, SolankiтАЩs discovery touched off,
almost immediatelyтАФthe greatest land rush since the Canadian diamond wars of the
1990s. But can we really believe SolankiтАЩs gambling debts, criminal connections, and
curious patterns of stock and land ownership have nothing to do with his sudden
good fortune?

Hey, no oneтАЩs on trial here; the guy may be as innocent as a bride. Or, this
may be one of the most sordid chapters in the oft-opprobrious history of mineral
science. Place your bets and letтАЩs get moving; this rag doesnтАЩt pay me by the hour.

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 Our story begins with the Canadian Diamond Rush of 1991, when geologists
Charles Fipke (a forty-five-year-old with a mere bachelorтАЩs degree) and Stewart
Blusson (with a pilotтАЩs license and twenty years in the bush) braved arctic winters
and hungry bears to outwit the De Beers cartel and 258 other mining companies to