Gallium Atomic number 31 Bizarre stuff Commentary

Paris—Paul-Émile Lecoq de Boisbaudran elements

Gallium

• Dmitri Mendeleev predicted gallium
• and called it “ekaaluminium.”
• Paul-Émile Lecoq de Boisbaudran discovered gallium
• in a sample of sphalerite by its two violet spectral lines
• and he subsequently isolated it
• using electrolysis of gallium hydroxide.

Atomic number 31

• Unusual metal alloys,
• high-speed semiconductors,
• and artificial garnets.

Bizarre stuff

• If you handle the metal,
• extremely fine droplets
• of liquid gallium wet your skin.
• This kind of thing, bizarre
• and independent, does not exist
• in our normal experience.