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Eat lead (mander.xyz)

submitted 6 months ago by fossilesque@mander.xyz to c/science_memes@mander.xyz

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[-] Linsensuppe@feddit.org 28 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Can someone explain to me why lead HAS to come from another element? Why cant it just… exist?

[-] LouSlash@szmer.info 15 points 6 months ago

Because it needs a...

... leader

[-] shrugs@lemmy.world 5 points 6 months ago

Pazuzu@midwest.social explained above:

The original post only gave half the explanation. It’s not that lead exists in general, it’s that lead exists within zircon crystals.

Under normal circumstances that would be impossible, zircon crystals strongly reject lead atoms as they form. There’s no way to stuff lead into the crystal lattice in the quantity we find them there. But uranium and zircon go together just fine, we just have to wait for it to decay into lead. The trouble is it takes ~4.5 billion years for just half of those uranium atoms to turn into lead. So any zircon crystal we find with half as much lead as uranium must be roughly that old

[-] And009@reddthat.com 4 points 6 months ago

God made lead right after creating life

[-] Whorehoarder@lemmynsfw.com 3 points 6 months ago

Actually He started with lead. All life comes from lead. Praise the lead. It's not lead poisoning, it's lead salvation! Also Led Zeppelin is Christian rock and spreading the gospel.

[-] asdfbla@lemmynsfw.com 3 points 6 months ago

A normal Star, which does not end it's life with a supernova, can only produce elements up to Iron with normal fusion. All other elements are produced by e.g. supernovas, which tend to produce heavier elements initially (due to the forces involved) hat decay over time.

At least that is my pseudoscience knowledge about this