• Question: if a new element was to be found in the atmosphere how would it react with the other elements in our atmosphere and how would it affect our everyday lives?

    Asked by turbanator to Emma, Jimmy, Janet, Niall, Simon on 12 Mar 2013.
    • Photo: Niall Crawford

      Niall Crawford answered on 12 Mar 2013:

      It really depends on the element – some elements are much more reactive than others, and so will interact more with other elements. If it were a noble gas, then it will probably not react with anything. It is likely to react with the hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen to create a compound.

    • Photo: James Holloway

      James Holloway answered on 12 Mar 2013:

      So since humans started making cities and industry we have pumped countless new chemicals into the atmosphere without really thinking about what will happen.

      Lots of them have little affect, but some of them have a terrible affect!

      An inventor came up with a new type of gas to use in fridges and fire extinguishers – CFC (or ChloroFloroCarbon). People used it and it spread through the atmosphere, it rose up 20 kilometers into the sky where Ozone lives (a gas that protects us from harmful ultra violet sunlight) and started to destroy it.

      Years later and people started to get skin cancer from the UV light that was making its way down to the surface, and we are still suffering today! The holes in the Ozone layer haven’t healed yet.

      So to answer your question, a new element / chemical has a high chance to have no impact, but a small chance to have a very very bad one.

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