Everything Matters: Boron

Come be in your elements with Exploratorium host Ron Hipschman. Follow tales of intrigue and invention, join in dynamic demonstrations, and uncover fascinating connections between individual elements and our collective human experience.

From the moment of its discovery, each element embarks on a journey into our culture. -Hugh Aldersey-Williams, Periodic Tales

Boron is complicated. Elusive. Tough. Created in collisions between cosmic rays and interstellar dust, pure boron may be found in meteoroids, but not naturally on Earth. And yet this relatively uncommon element is essential for plant growth, and readily appears in compounds such as borax, famously conveyed by 20-mule teams across Death Valley. A brittle metalloid, boron behaves somewhat like a metal, somewhat like a non-metal. It can be reactive or unreactive. Crystalline or powdered. It can shift from three to four atomic bonds. Imagine boron as elemental spy: enigmatic except in its useful effects.

Follow the trail of this intriguing element through ceramics, cleaning agents, fireworks, nuclear reactors, and nanotubes. Get a primer on quantum mechanics and the elements, and explore boron's slippery nature with slime, a mixture that flows like molasses and breaks like a solid. See live flameworking with Russell Taylor of Public Glass, and find out why borosilicate glass is used for both lab equipment and intricately beautiful artwork.