Zinc Atomic number 30 Anhedonia Commentary

Judea, India, Nagarjuna elements

Zinc

• Zinc is found as a copper alloy
• in Judea.
• Mines in Rajasthan provided
• zinc ores.
• Conventional smelting didn’t work
• for zinc
• because the metal instantly oxidizes.
• Distillation
• of pure zinc was developed
• in Rajasthan
• by the twelfth century and described
• by Nagarjuna,
• the metallurgist and alchemist.

Atomic number 30

• Zinc is a hard and brittle metal
• that burns with a bluish-green flame.
• Exposed to air,
• it forms a protective layer
• of zinc carbonate.
• *
• European chemists
• didn’t produce pure zinc
• until the 1700s.
• Alessandro Volta used plates
• of zinc and copper
• to make the first battery in 1799.
• *
• Zinc is essential for living organisms.
• Its deficiency results in diarrhea,
• skin problems, depression, stunted growth,
• and increased cases of pneumonia and malaria.
• Zinc in the diet increases one’s ability
• to experience happiness and pleasure.
• *
• Zinc carbonate and zinc gluconate
• are dietary supplements.
• Zinc chloride is a deodorant.
• Zinc sulfide is a white pigment
• but mixed with silver luminesces blue,
• mixed with manganese orange-red,
• and with copper glow-in-the-dark green.

Anhedonia

• In the land of Anhedonia
• people are depressed.
• The world is sad and dreary;
• everyone is weary.
• In the land of Anhedonia
• there’s a scarcity of zinc.
• There’s nothing to do
• and pleasures are few.
• In the land of Anhedonia
• it’s pretty hard to think.
• From despair that nothing lessens
• we never learn our lessons.