Zinc, Sunflowers, and the Periodic Table of Death & Mystery
Zinc (Zn) is a German word derived from the Persian word “sing”, which means stone. Isn’t that lovely? And while it was officially discovered as an element in 1746, Greeks and Romans have known about it for a couple thousand years (1). A silvery-white metal, Zn tarnishes to a pretty blueish tinge. It’s fairly abundant, making up 0.004% of the earth’s crust, and Zn is primarily used to galvanize other metals so they don’t rust. That means zinc-galvanized stuff—like the metal in cars, buildings, ships—lasts for generations (2). Super-duper. Wonderful. What the heck is galvanize? The American Galvanizers Association has ALL the answers. There’s even a movie (3). Galvanizing is literally dipping …