Metallurgy with Marina

09/10/2024

09/26/2023

It was great to C u at our Open House last week.

I thought it would be a great segway to learn about Copper…

Copper is a special metal that looks reddish, and it’s one of the few metals that isn’t silver-colored, like gold.
2. People have used copper for a very long time, along with gold and meteoritic iron, because they could find these metals in nature in a pure form.
3. Copper is important for our health, helping make blood cells. It’s in foods like leafy greens, grains, potatoes, and beans, but too much can make you sick.
4. Copper mixes easily with other metals to make things like brass (copper and zinc) and bronze (copper and tin), among many others.
5. Copper is good at carrying heat and electricity and is used in many things like wires, pipes, electronics, and coins, but it can turn green over time, like the Statue of Liberty and some cheap jewelry.

What do you use copper for?

09/14/2023

Let’s Learn About Promethium!

🩻The existence of promethium was first predicted by Bohuslav Brauner in 1902, based on his studies of atomic weights.
🩻Promethium was isolated and identified as a new element in 1945 by a group of American chemists, including Jacob A. Marinsky, Lawrence E. Glendenin, and Charles D. Coryell.
🩻Promethium is used as a source of x-rays and radioactivity in various measuring instruments, making it crucial for precise
🩻While rare, trace amounts of promethium can naturally be found in uranium ore.
scientific measurements.
🩻Promethium's longest-lived isotope has a relatively short half-life of only 18 years, contributing to its scarcity and limited natural occurrence on Earth.

03/29/2023

In honor of and their campaign with I want to introduce you to our recent adoption. Meet Mia our husky poodle. Mia is an adventurous, active, sweet, and extremely energetic puppy and we are so grateful for her. I also want to express why Giving Day is important to me. Yesterday I was able to make a donation towards Metallurgical Engineering that was matched 1:1 due to Iperion X matching up to $12,500 of Metallurgical Engineering funds to go towards scholarships for our metallurgy students at the University of Utah. I am so grateful for the scholarships I earned while at the U and because of them I was able to graduate without the burden of student debt. I want to take a minute to say thank you to the many donors that made my scholarships possible and the donors this year that are contributing to scholarships for students to make a difference in the world.

03/03/2023

The University of Utah’s Metallurgical & Materials Science Engineering team of NASA 2023 BIG Idea Challenge, “Production of Steel from Lunar Regolith through Carbonyl Iron Refining (CIR)” has been selected as one of seven university proposals to receive funding to continue the development of the project concept. The full list of the 2023 BIG Idea Challenge finalists has been posted on the BIG Idea Challenge website (https://bigidea.nianet.org/2023-challenge/2023-finalists/). Great job MSE 👏

03/02/2023

Let’s Learn About Metals ⚒
Did you know these facts about Strontium?

🎆Strontium is the 15th most abundant element in the Earth’s crust. It occurs in about 0.03 percent of all igneous rock.
🎆The first large-scale application of strontium was in the beet sugar industry just prior to World War I. More than 100,000 tons of strontium hydroxide were used each year in the sugar crystallization process
🎆Scientists measure the levels of strontium isotopes Sr-86 and Sr-87 in ancient teeth, bones, or seashells, and then they compare the ratio of these two isotopes — either to one another or to another element, such as calcium or zinc — to determine a specimen's place of origin, diet or age.
🎆Like other alkaline-earth metals, strontium is highly reactive chemically and reacts with both air and water. When exposed to air, it burns with a bright red flame.
🎆Another primary use for strontium is in glass for color television cathode ray tubes (CRTs) where it is used to prevent X-ray emission. 
 
 

Information Credit:
LiveScience.com

02/28/2023

I had so much fun at the University of Utah’s Mine Your Future Open House last month for Mining Engineering. Did you know I used to work at a mine after I graduated? Well I did, I worked in the Safford and Morenci Mine in Arizona as a hydrometallurgist. The Open House had so many fun opportunities for students to engage in including virtual reality (of a real mine’s processing facility), a presentation on the several thousands of dollars scholarships offers every year, a Mine Craft demo some mining students at the U have been designing, and so much more. If you are interested in learning more about Mining Engineering make sure to check out mining.utah.edu

01/31/2023

Let’s Learn About Metals ⚒
Did you know these facts about Aluminum?

🦘Australia is the leading producer of the world’s aluminum.
🦘Pound for pound, aluminum absorbs twice the crash energy of steel and performs as well in an accident.
🦘An aluminum can takes as little as 60 days to return as a new can after recycling. About 75 percent of all aluminum ever made is still in use, thanks to recycling.
🦘Chou-Chu was a general of ancient China during the third century. Upon digging his tomb, historians found a piece of jewelry. 85% of the material of the jewelry was aluminum.
🦘Because of aluminum’s high likelihood of binding with oxygen, pure aluminum is almost never found in nature. However, aluminum is present in more than 270 minerals.
 

Information Credit:
briandcolwell.com

12/17/2022

Happy Finals Week University of Utah Students. As finals week has come and gone I’ve reflected on my final finals week four years ago. I’m so very grateful for the opportunity I had to pursue a higher education in Metallurgical Engineering. I’m so grateful for this amazing community that supports and encourages our goal of promoting metallurgy and STEM in our own communities.

12/14/2022

Let’s Learn About Metals ⚒
Did you know these facts about Barium?

🎆Barium nitrate and chlorate give fireworks a green color.

🎆Its compounds are used by oil and gas industries to make drilling mud. Drilling mud simplifies drilling through rocks by lubricating the drill.

🎆Barium is a dense alkaline earth metal that occurs naturally in ore deposits and makes up 0.05% of the Earth’s crust.

🎆It is very light and its density is half of that of iron.

🎆Barium compounds are also used to make paint, bricks, tiles, glass, and rubber.

Information Credit:
BYJUS.COM

12/01/2022

I had a blast at Aptive Technology’s STEM carnival. I usually don’t have many outreach events for children BUT this one was so much fun! The STEM carnival was circus themed with popcorn, candy, and lab coats for every child. They then had eight rotations to visit throughout the evening learning about non Newtonian fluids, slime, crystal structures, and of course Materials Science & Metallurgical engineering 😉 I loved watching the kids reactions to feeling the different densities of materials and watching their jaws drop when they saw Nitinol 😱

11/14/2022

Let’s Learn About Metals ⚒
Did you know these facts about Osmium?

✒️The heaviest metal is osmium which has an atomic weight of 190.6.
 
✒️The English chemist Smithson Tennant discovered the element together with iridium in the residues of platinum ores not soluble in aqua regia.
 
✒️Pure osmium metal does not occur in nature. Osmium has a low crustal abundance of about 0.001 part per million. 
 
✒️Osmium is very hard, brittle, and difficult to work, even at high temperatures. Of the platinum metals, it has the highest melting point, so fusing and casting are difficult.
 
✒️A hard alloy of osmium and iridium was used for tips of fountain pens and phonograph needles, and osmium tetroxide is used in certain organic syntheses.

Information Credit:
Brittanica