• Question: What is your favourite element on the periodic table and why?

    Asked by miley on 13 Nov 2025. This question was also asked by kai.
    • Photo: Heather Walton

      Heather Walton answered on 13 Nov 2025:

      Vanadium, because it is element 23 and my birthday is the 23rd, not a good answer I know, but I chose it in high school and have stuck with it!

    • Photo: Pete Webb

      Pete Webb answered on 14 Nov 2025:

      Silicon, because it is such a versatile element, combining with numerous other elements to form an incredible variety of minerals such as quartz, feldspars, pyroxenes…it just goes on and on!

    • Photo: Michael Capeness

      Michael Capeness answered on 25 Feb 2026:

      Palladium (#46) it’s both highly valuable and can be used as a catalyst to help us do amazing chemical reactions without the need for high temperatures or hazardous chemicals. It also helps reduce harmful emissions from combustion engines.

Comments

  • Photo: Andrew M

    Andrew M commented on :

    Sulphur. It has history and we have history together. I worked with it for so long in my PhD, the one constant in all the materials I studied, of the too many things I accidentally poisoned myself with whilst a student. The smell of it, the look of it, the long history and cultural connotations of it. Brimstone.