Elementary, My Dear! Trivia Quiz

Answer: Europium

Perhaps not surprisingly the element that makes the Euro more difficult to counterfeit is Europium!
It is one of the rare earth elements, most of which are luminescent.
Shining a light of a particular wavelength on a euro note results in red, blue, and green fluorescent details appearing.
The ECB ( European Community Bank) is secretive about what substances are used on the notes, but it has been determined that the color red is caused by europium.
If you own some Euros, you have some europium in your wallet!

Answer: Aluminium

Aluminium is one of the most common minerals on earth, but until the 1880's it was more expensive than gold. This because aluminium is usually bonded to oxygen and it is not found in nature in its pure form. Up to that point, nobody had figured out how to free it from impurities, until 1886 when Charles Hall did.
He made a fortune and founded Alcoa.
It is not clear whether Hall is responsible for dropping the second i in the American spelling of aluminium, (which became aluminum), although many credit him for doing so.

Answer: Iodine

In India, salt from the sea coast is cheap and an easy source of income.
But this salt does not contain iodine, an element critical to good health, as it prevents birth defects, mental retardation and goiter.
The problems started after Mahatma Gandhi, led the famous 1930 march to Dandi on the coast to protest the tax levied on salt by the British, and to promote the use of common salt. A controversy for and against iodization has been raging for years between Gandhi followers, who want to ban it, and those who want the government to legislate it in order to protect the poorest children against physical and mental defects.

Answer: Iridium

Iridium is extremely rare in the earth's crust but abundant in meteorites.
In 1977, the geologist Walter Alvarez noticed a thin layer of iridium in the rocks he was studying, which were dated at about 65 million years ago, coinciding with the dinosaurs' extinction.
Since this layer was found at more than 100 different locations around the world, he concluded that a giant meteorite had struck the Earth, producing a huge cloud that had covered the sun and caused the demise of a high percentage of living animals and plants.
But where was this giant impact crater? When some geologists working for an oil company in the Yucatan peninsula found an under water crater that fit the bill, Alvarez thought that he had proven his point, but his meteorite impact theory is still not universally accepted.

Answer: They are more sterile

The olygodynamic ( self-sterilizing) effect renders some metals more sterile than other materials, such as plastic or wood. Brass door knobs disinfect themselves in about 8 hours, while stainless steel and aluminum knobs never do.
Of all the other metals, copper especially is very effective against bacteria, because it interferes with their metabolism and kills them. This is also why it is used for piping in construction.

Answer: Sweden

Yttrium was discovered in 1799 by Johann Gandolin in the Swedish village of Ytterby. It is a rare earth element, but it is relatively common in the moon rocks brought back by the Apollo astronauts.
The quarry located at Ytterby has originated several new elements that have been named for the town. Besides yttrium, we have ytterbium, terbium and erbium.

Answer: Gallium

Gallium was discovered in 1875 by the French chemist Paul-Emile Lecocq de Boisbaudran, who named it after the Latin name for France, Gallia.
Its melting point is so low (29.8 C - 84 F) that it will liquefy in contact with your fingers.
Because of this, there is a popular trick to serve a cup of tea to unsuspecting guests with a gallium spoon in it, and watch their surprise when the spoon melts and disappears. Gallium is generally considered non-toxic, but the available data is not definitively conclusive.

Answer: It is highly toxic

Some white silvery stones were found near Bologna in 1603 by a cobbler-alchemist, Vincentius Casciorolus. He discovered that these stones, after being exposed to the sun, would glow in the dark at night. He had hoped of having discovered the philosopher's stone, which would convert base metals into gold. Eventually it was determined that the Bologna stone was the mineral barite, barium sulfate.
After a patient ingests a solution of barium sulfate, a doctor can take X-rays of the person's digestive tract, which appears white wherever the barium sulfate accumulates.

Answer: Japan

The name of the Japanese disease "itai itai" stands for "its painful". It was caused in 1910 by the Kamioka Mining Company that polluted the Jinzu river with cadmium, which contaminated the fish and the rice fields.
Cadmium is toxic even at low doses, and it poisons the liver and kidneys and causes osteoporosis. Finally a lawsuit in 1972 set things straight and made reparations.

Answer: Blue skin

In the past, it was thought that drinking colloidal silver would cure infectious diseases. As a side effect, this would turn the skin a blue/greenish color, an irreversible condition which is known as argyria, but fortunately it is not fatal and not even harmful.