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No. 807: Periodic Table: 63 Europium

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Periodic Table: 63 Europium

First | Previous | 2019-02-26 | Next | Latest

Permanent URL: https://mezzacotta.net/dinosaur/?comic=807

Strip by: David Morgan-Mar

T-Rex: T-Rex presents the Periodic Table:
T-Rex: 63 EUROPIUM
T-Rex: One of only two elements named after continents. Almost all applications use the fact that its ions are phosphorescent. For example, the anti-counterfeiting phosphor on euro banknotes.
Utahraptor: Europium is used on euro banknotes?! Neat!
T-Rex: Francium was used on francs, germanium on Deutsche marks, and lithium on lira!
Utahraptor: Now I don't know what to believe.
T-Rex: Osmium was going to be named Ozzium after Australia, but someone made a typo.

The author writes:

I too was amazed by this fact. It's not clear if they chose europium for euro banknotes because of the alignment of the words, but it'd be nice if they had.