Mercury is a familiar substance in a thermometer since childhood. Terribly poisonous and dangerous to life and he alth, silver-white metal, liquid at room temperature. Even the alchemists of the Middle Ages tried to turn this unusual substance into gold.
At school, from chemistry lessons, we learn about the periodic system of Mendeleev, where Hg is an element with atomic number 80. Now this fluid metal, known since ancient times, is well studied. Whatever property of mercury is of interest to the layman, it will not be difficult to learn more about it. For example, its colorlessness in vapor, boiling point, compressibility, etc.
Already in the early 90s of the XX century, rumors spread everywhere about the creation of a completely new variety of this metal. The subject of gossip was red mercury, or rather the substance RM 20/20, allegedly produced in the secret scientific laboratories of the USSR. People's faith in the reality of the existence of this substance was supported by all the new stories and scandals associated with its sales. Mythical mercury red cost fabulous money. Sellers asked for 1 kg from 300 to 400 thousand dollars.
And willing to pay suchthe sums were, especially in the West, which at that time was still little familiar with Russian ingenuity. Red mercury, as they said, had simply fantastic properties - from super-density (over 20 g/cm3) and super-radioactivity to cosmic origin or the ability to cure any ailments. Under her guise, the buyer was slipped anything - from mercury amalgam to ordinary mercury, painted with dyes or brick powder.
Many Soviet nuclear physicists have repeatedly refuted the possibility of creating such a substance, explaining that it not only contradicts the laws of nature, but is also impossible at the modern technological level. Adding mercury compounds to uranium or plutonium used in a nuclear reaction only reduces their radioactivity and functionality.
With no real basis, rumors about the RM 20/20 substance almost subsided after a few years. Current observers believe that the hype that red mercury then caused was artificially created. The money interests of many high-ranking people have become a source of active promotion of rumors in the media. As well as the desire of the West to discredit the nuclear energy of the former Soviet Union, conveying to the world community the idea of a nuclear terrorist threat from Russia.
And now again in the media you can find articles about the reality of scientific developments to create red mercury, as a fundamental substance for the development of nanotechnologyor "living machines". On behalf of professors and academicians, the unique opportunities offered to humanity by this technological discovery are described. Red mercury is called a universal catalyst and inhibitor of chemical reactions, and fabulous prices for the "philosopher's stone of the 21st century" are also mentioned. This proves that people who are ready to cash in on someone's belief in miracles have not disappeared.
