#10. Real-Life Kryptonite
In April, geologists in Serbia dug up a white, powdery mineral that they weren't sure what to make of. They turned it over to Chris Stanley, a mineralogist at London's Natural History Museum, who discovered that it had the same chemistry sodium lithium boron silicate hydroxide as the fictional kryptonite, the green glowing rock that, aside from Lois Lane, is Superman's only weakness. Its chemical make-up was revealed in the 2006 film Superman Returns in which villain Lex Luthor writes the formula on a box of rocks he steals from a museum. The real-life substance will be called jadarite, after the area of Serbia in which it was discovered. It can't be called kryptonite, alas, because krypton, the gas, is already a real element.
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