Molybdenum - Element of the Week 4/19/13 - 7/22/14

Element 42. Douglas Adams would be a big fan of this element's number (if you don't understand the reference - click here). This is a silvery, metallic element that was discovered in 1778 by Carl William Scheele, a Swedish chemist who also isolated oxygen (even though he didn't get the credit). Scheele did his research on an ore that contained the element. The first person who produced molybdenum metal was Peter Jacob Hjelm, who produced an impure form in 1782 or 1781.

The name molybdenum comes from the Greek word "molybdos" meaning "lead." There are 35 known isotopes of molybdenum. It is the 54th most abundant element on Earth and the 25th in the universe! Much of the use of molybdenum is in alloys.

Molybdenum has some uses. One of the most bizarre is that molybdenum powder is used as a fertilizer for cauliflower, and an unstable isotope, molybdenum-99, is used to manufacture technetium-99, which is an isotope used in nuclear medical imaging. Molybdenum is also used some in solar cell creation because it remains fairly inert (non-reactive) even under the temperatures needed (greater than 500 Celcius) to make a solar cell.

Molybdenum is also an essential element of human nutrition., but no one is quite sure why. They believe that molybdenum may be involved in the formation of the nervous system and responsible for energy production in our cells. There have also been studies where molybdenum has helped reduce the harmful effects of certain cancer drugs (in animals of course). Read more -here.

Molybdenite, which is the ore that most molybdenum is extracted out of, was actually just featured on the news. You can read about it -here.