Friday 27 April 2018

At School,

I was taught that helium,


was one of the five, or now six inert, or noble gases, that is that it could not be combined with other chemicals, but I now find that piece of information was incorrect, in a major way, many of us know helium as a lighter than air gas, used for floating airships and party balloons, also if inhaled it can dramatically change the tone of your voice, but above is the helium I did not know about, until today, and far from being a fun gas it is now the most acidic of all acids known to man, (and women), phew! nearly committed a PC gaff, behold helium hydride, as it is little known, 

but it is so important because any change in the behaviour of helium hydride in the early years of the universe could mean tearing up our present models of how stars and galaxies formed, the creation of helium hydrideis thought to have taken place between the three minute and twenty minute marks in the history of the universe, that is in the first couple of minutes after the Big Bang, 13.7 billion years ago, so it looks like it will be back to school for me and relearn that some noble gases are not noble!


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