Silver 101

I am a huge fan of silver so I will probably update this page quite often, even though it is not exactly relevant.

If not for silver medicine, I would be badly scarred. When I was three I pulled a pot of fresh coffee on myself and scalded myself badly, with burns to the bone. Silvadene is a type of antibiotic cream specifically for burn victims. It healed me with no scars.

Since then I have marveled at the medical powers of silver. The surface of silver, so shiny and polished, is like needles on the microscopic level. Bacteria, algae, and fungi can't live on it. If they ingest it, they die and are eaten by others who also die. Just think, before 1965 when US coins were made with silver, they could kill illness causing organisms. Now money is probably the dirtiest thing you've held today. Cool stuff.

It takes a certain type of supernova to even produce silver. Silver is about 16 times more common than gold on the earth's surface, and more is used industrially than we mine each year. Recycling fills the gap between what we mine and what we need to make our newest gadgets.

Recycled silver can come from coinage or bars, furnishings like silverware, or even computers.Silver has excellent thermal and electrical conductivity qualities, so it is in most electronics.

When electronics are recycled, the silver is ground into a powder that can be made into useful silver paste for manufacturing. Mitsubishi found a way to make it into a precious metal clay, which allows artists to form objects then fire out the binders to make objects out of silver and other metals. It also comes in a sheet form which allows artists to make origami models with some permanence, and made of silver. A wonderful combination of two of my favourite things.