Fun Stuff > CHATTER
Humanity Can Render Zinc Extinct
calenlass:
--- Quote from: tommydski on 25 Jul 2008, 01:09 ---I figure that Zinc is definitely something that can be replaced by another element in the devices we use it in.
Certainly by the time this might occur.
--- End quote ---
Yes but not in our bodies.
tania:
zinc is needed only in trace amounts (about 15 mg a day for adults) and is naturally occuring in a lot of foods. i think we'll be okay on that one.
Boro_Bandito:
All this means is that we need to kick our space mining operations into high gear.
Chesire Cat:
I loled in a cafe at Peak Zinc.
But truly just as elements never really disappear they only get tied up into other stuff. Im sure in a few hundred years we will develop some sort of molecular universal constructor like in Deus Ex that we can just create it by mixing so Protons and Electrons with a Neutron.
*edit*
Also I think they had one in the Jetsons... And the Fifth Element
Vendetagainst:
Elements cannot become "extinct" without undergoing nuclear changes. We can run out of a natural source, but because our uses for elements are almost entirely chemical or physical it would be virtually impossible for us to run out. Helium is an exception because it is so light that it literally escapes our atmosphere, and it's supreme nonreactivity renders it nonexistant as a compound. Hydrogen, despite being even lighter, does not have this problem because of it's presence in a ridiculously vast number of compounds (infinite compounds, hypothetically). Also, we should be more worried about copper than zinc because we are already approaching peak copper and it would be harder to replace
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