The metal of the gods makes things lighter

摘要

The name really was not well chosen. Cronos, the youngest of the titans, was a clumsy lad who castrated his hated father, Uranus, and became master of the universe. He stomped around heavily for a while until he was finally overthrown by his son Zeus after a 10-year battle. Today's titanium takes its name from the titans of legend but comes across as light-footed in comparison to its mythological namesake. It is a high-tech material whose future lies ahead of it. That is because titanium is on its way to becoming the master of the universe among metals. History does not tell us what motivated the German chemist Martin H. Klaproth to turn to Greek mythology when looking for a name for the metal oxide he first isolated from the mineral rutile in 1795. Klaproth could not have guessed at the modern uses of titanium. While titanium is among the 10 most common elements and titanium dioxide is inexpensive to produce - it shines out from nearly every white paint: In cars, building facades, even in the white powder on top of salamis -the pure form of the metal is extremely difficult to make. It was not until the middle of the past century that it could be commercially produced.