Alicia Keys’ forthcoming album, which comes out Dec. 1, has one of those silly titles that have become so commonplace this year: It’s called The Element Of Freedom, even if its lead single sounds like it hasn’t really broken free of the template established by her 2007 monster single “No One.” But no matter! This is a fine time to ask what element from the periodic table you think best represents the concept of freedom. My pick is neon, because you can’t have bright blinking signs advertising American flags and beers without it. Other peoples’ choices, after the jump!
Marah Eakin, publicist at Bloodshot Records: “Helium, I think. Although some pro-nuclear people would say uranium.”
Eric Harvey, Marathon Packer: “I say argon. Delicious argon. It’s a noble gas!”
Reed Fischer, man about RSS: “Fe (iron), if we believe that the Liberty Bell is made of said material. Or rutherfordium: ‘Isolation of an observable quantity of rutherfordium has never been achieved.’ ”
Christopher R. Weingarten, master of brevity: “OXYGEN ALL THE WAY. It’s free to breathe everywhere. We go to Iraq and make people stop breathing oxygen! The terrorists in 9/11 took away 3,000 persons’ right to breathe oxygen!”
WebElements [Official site]
Earlier: Alicia Keys’ New Single Sure Sounds Like An Alicia Keys Song
On a day like this it has to be a Noble gas.
@dusty vinyl: Might I then suggest “Roentgenium”, the last element to receive an official “real name” (instead of an unofficial made-up scientific-y name); a member of the family of metals that includes copper, silver, and gold; and the element named in honor of the German physicist Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, whose discovery of x-rays earned him the very first Nobel Prize in Physics in 1901?
(Wikipedia does not lie, my friends…)
Marah Eakin is correct, the least reactive (and thus most free) element is helium.
Rob - though Roentgenium was discovered by a Nobel laureate it’s not a Noble gas unfortunately - excuse by geeky chemist’s play on words. We don’t get out much.
Which also gives me the chance for the predictable follow up question “which element best describes Alicia’s album” - let me be the first to suggest the one which has the atomic number 5.
@dusty vinyl: Aaaaaaahahaha! I’m slightly ashamed I had to look that up, but worth every second it took. Probably more!
Well, it’s gold (Au), of course!
We all know how valuable it is — entire wars have been fought over it, and its pursuit has driven mankind to do some fearless, even foolhardy things. But many of us have very little of it, and there are certain human beings whose entire existence is devoted to prying it away from others.
@dusty vinyl: Or maybe number 33? (yes, I had to check as well…)
I’m going with Hydrogen, because freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose.