Silly Us

Is there a difference between being ignorant and simply not knowing? I guess it is otherwise they wouldn't have invented and spread the word.

Who are they. Those who stay (or better said walk) ahead of us. Those who had more time and motivation to read and understand than any of this planet. Living in Europe for one thousand years and constantly rejected because of looking different and having a different culture they tried and in the end succeeded in overcoming the locals mostly by understanding their weaknesses.

When i was in High School or whatever that was (High School for me, kinda of strange, circus with a trained animal for them) i had this class and one time roommate who read a book every day. He tried to put me through the same rhythm. Was he trying to make me one of them? Didn't have the same motivation. I was born from a simple and lazy breed. Couldn't keep the pace. Though endowed by nature with memory and some intelligence i was simply not one of them.

Didn't have time yet to look at my pace through the curricula for High School students or how it was called back then in the XIX century Hungary. I bet the list was long and rich and contained readings in Latin and Greek and philosophers and stuff. Back then in all Europe High School was something and everybody who passed through it had to have a number of readings impossible to imagine in today's world where football is way more important.

I was thinking at what i just wrote for days however did not have time to research or develop. So i will quit this subject leaving these paragraphs as note because i have something way more practical and important to write about. But not before bringing a memory from an exam in High School. Half way through or from second to third year we had an exam (the rung as they called it back then). It was quite a formality and almost everybody was passing it and to me at least was not meant as an exam but it happened and it just crossed my mind...

(The Hindu religion has defined a number of different types of hell. How is it called the one when one stays and remembers everything he had done so far and reevaluates all his life thinking of how it should have been if he knew this and that?)

So at the exam i had to answer the question. Which element of the two, Silicon and Germanium is more spread on the surface of the Earth? Coincidentally, not because of studying which i didn't, i knew the answer. It was Silicon. So i got a good point answering that. (Now i'm also convinced the teacher knew i knew the answer).

So i will quit now these silly memories or let them rest to write something really important about silicon. So important everybody needs to know about it. Cause we can't rely on nobody when it comes to our health even if the problems concerns us all as a society. Cause it seems like the known leaders are determined or hell bent to constantly go forward and leave us to our own ignorance.

As already stated above silicon is more spread in nature then germanium (that question was about these two elements used as semiconductors) now i'm concerned about silicon in a more general way. So how spread is silicon in nature, on Earth and in Universe? According to Wikipedia:

Silicon is the eighth most common element in the universe by mass, but very rarely occurs as the pure element in the Earth's crust. It is most widely distributed in dusts, sands, planetoids, and planets as various forms of silicon dioxide (silica) or silicates. Over 90% of the Earth's crust is composed of silicate minerals, making silicon the second most abundant element in the Earth's crust (about 28% by mass) after oxygen.

So it's not only the Silicon Valley. We all live on a Silicon Planet. What's important about? We are ignoring it. Should we? Probably, cause we have better things to do all day than remember what is the ground we step made of. But at least from time to time, at important holidays, i don't know, once a year we should remember. Maybe more than others we should have a Silicon Day to remember and celebrate.

Purest silicon in crystal form with almost no other elements in it. We all know, in crucibles at a very tightly controlled temperature they grow bars made of one crystal only which then they cut in discs or wafers as they call them which are further cut in chips and used to make circuits at the heart of any gadget today. Where do they take that silicon from? Not from the beaches where silicon in sand is mixed with other stuff. They quarry it from places where is purest so they would start from there with further refining it.

The grayest the sand on the beach the more silicon in it. And now i'm getting closer to the more interesting part or the health related one.

Is sand on the beach dangerous to health?

For that i will try to bring first the facts about inhaling dust. I saw lungs are very tough organs. There are people who smoke for decades, of whom the lungs change color and become scarred and sickened and still work for oxygenating the blood until those guys die some even from other diseases which may or not be related.

One thing lungs do to keep (us) functioning. Eliminate dust. They have these tiny vibrating hairs inside which are oriented towards the air when flowing outside. Anything that gets in there need to be eliminated otherwise in about several days to weeks or month, i don't know, i'm just guessing, the lungs will be simply filled with dust. Cause there is (unfortunately) dust is in any kind of air we breath, except that in the middle of the Ocean or in a clean room.

(How ironic is to live on the coast of the biggest ocean with wind blowing mostly from that direction and still breath polluted air?)

Anyways. Anybody have ever asked themselves what happens to the dust after it gets eliminated from lungs, probably mixed with moist mucus? It's very simple, it gets into your esophagus, stomach and if an insoluble mineral gets eliminated from your body together with undigested food.

Back to the beaches. On the beaches where wind and waves constantly grind the sand the grains become smaller and smaller until the smallest will eventually fly away and mix with soil or turn into clay at some distance. But the grinding with self under wind or wave action means the grains, big or small are rounded. This is natural dust. Sand or silica dust we have to inhale anywhere if we leave on the surface of the Earth is rounded because it went through this natural grinding process. Same goes for any other type of natural mineral dust. Rounded mineral dust particles will give you no problems to eliminate from lungs and digestive tract. Because we are adapted or built for it.

Silicon or silica naturally is not an absorbent mineral. No stable mineral is absorbent because in most natural occurrences i solid. But processed in some very interesting ways they can make it porous silicon, similar with making porous carbon (activated charcoal), so porous water can get trapped inside thus making it absorbent. They make porous absorbent materials out of silicon because it's cheap and chemically stable and suitable for the job. But is very brittle because it's like an open cell foam with tiny walls fro the cells.

What else is made of silica. Glass. Glass is also made of purified silica sand but is not crystalline. What is a crystal and what is not. Can read further i'm not going to go into this right now.

(There are numerous discussions on the web whether glass is actually more a frozen liquid then solid. Frozen seem not the right term since frozen water is also in crystal form.)

Ceramics are partially melted clay that is partially made of silica particles that once were sand and dust.

Anyways. What else is made of silicon or silica. Mineral insulation that is actually made of solidified basaltic lava that has mostly silicon but other materials like iron or calcium in it. It first occurred in nature though very rare. They found i don't know where in South America natural flying fibers made of solidified lava when hot lava was exposed to high winds. Mixed with other minerals, mainly silica, it was the (terrible) idea for making fibers that are now used as thermal insulation when building houses.

The fiber mineral insulation is not what insulates. What insulates is the air that is trapped within. Air is insulating if not moving. If the outer walls where empty inside like the inner ones (talking about Levi-town style buildings that are commonly found only in the US) air would circulate and exchange heat. The mineral fibers are meant to trap the air so it won't move.

So they found these lava fibers and thought about and combined with the only known way of making cheap fibers out of melted stuff. Cotton candy. Lava which is solidified material that had been melted inside Earth for eons is homogeneous enough to be remelted and turned into fibers in machine similar with cotton candy machines only difference being higher temperature. Though the thickness of the fibers cannot be controlled in the end it looks just like cotton candy though way more brittle and way less yummy. (If you don't believe me take a 5 minutes trip into your attic with loose mineral wool (wool-rock as they call it) on top of the roof (and step only on beams if you don't want to fall inside).

For some is the golden fleece. I mean you quarry lava, melt it and make cotton candy out of it and sell it to big kids. The cost is mostly the heat to melt it. Dirt cheap or lava cheap mineral insulation is gold for some and hell for all the others.

Cause when you live in such a house at any vibration the brittle mineral fibers will break further and the tiniest pieces will find their ways through cracks or nail holes inside your breathing space.

Also the absorbent silica used for pet boxes or in mechanics' shops. Melted silica cooled with water i don't know i forgot the process (also a cheap one of course) becomes very porous with room for water and oil an stuff. But that material is also very brittle and when it breaks it turns, as insulation dust, into sharp dust that can be inhaled accidentally.

Though your body was build to inhale continuously and tolerate and eliminate round dust particles, when sharp particles end into your stomach and intestine the troubles begin. But they never end because you will live in that house and use that litter box forever.