REAL KRYPTONITE FOUND!!

OK, I know I don't have to describe what Kryptonite is. That said, I feel like I do need to remind you that up until recently, it was considered to be fictional. However, according to a various reports, a substance matching the chemical composition of Kryptonite (as described in Superman Returns) has been discovered. As usual, the media isn't doing a great job covering the story and the scientists involved aren't doing a great job of doing their (fictional) research either. Check out this clip from [http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2007/04/24/science-kryptonite.html|an April 24, 2007 article] at http://CBC.ca and see what I mean:

Canadian scientists have discovered a new mineral here on Earth that matches the chemical description of kryptonite, the substance that robs comic book hero Superman of his powers. The mineral, discovered by geologists in a mine in Jadar, Serbia, has the chemical formula sodium lithium boron silicate hydroxide, the same formula used to describe kryptonite in the 2006 film Superman Returns.

Huh, I first heard of this story on the BBC News podcast World Today Select and in the interview, the geologist they spoke with sounded British. Maybe he was a Brit who worked at a Canadian Uni? Anyway, here's some more:

But the similarities end there, said Pamela Whitfield, a scientist from the National Research Council's Institute for Chemical Process and Environmental Technology in Ottawa. While the interstellar rocks from the comic books were typically green glowing crystals, the new mineral is a white, powdery substance with no radioactive qualities. "It's definitely not radioactive," Whitfield told CBC News Online. "I was working with it for weeks and I haven't grown a second head or anything."

The article does not point out that radiation does NOT cause a second head to be grown, but it does cause CANCER. So unless cancer always shows up within a few weeks of exposure to radiation, I'd hardly say the jury is in. Also, it's not glowing and isn't radioactive because we can't say it's definitely from the planet Krypton. It could be the same substance from some other source. The part of Kryptonite that makes it dangerous to Superman (and to any living thing that can be harmed by radiation) is the radiation itself. So, good journalism and good science, there, folks! Sheesh. Sadly, this substance will only be officially called Jadarite, after the location it was found, as opposed to Kryptonite, since it has no actual krypton in it. Krypton is an inert gas we already have on Earth and has nothing to do with an alien planet. Still, if scientists are cool with naming a planet Xena, you'd think they'd be down with naming a mineral Kryptonite.

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