Just heard that bods with the metallic hydrogen have lost it, due to a lab mishap.

Small prize to whoever finds it, presumably. Possibly photo of it, and its chemical properties can be printed on milk cartons?
-- not_morrison_rm, Feb 22 2017

"Most Wanted" posters, shirley ?

Or maybe a batch of those laminated home-made "Have you seen this dog/cat/ferret /tortoise/metastable crystalline physical state ?" signs, tied to lamp posts ?
-- 8th of 7, Feb 22 2017


FOUND YA! Nope, I'm not Hydrogen, I'm Helium He He He He (in a squeaky voice)
-- AusCan531, Feb 23 2017


^Hmmmm.

If knew what it answers to, I s'pose it would help?
-- not_morrison_rm, Feb 23 2017


Have they looked down the back of the sofa ?
-- 8th of 7, Feb 23 2017


Very likely metallic hydrogen is not stable when not under extreme pressure. Which means the metallic hydrogen sample, during the lab accident, spontaneously converted to hydrogen gas.
-- Vernon, Feb 24 2017


Hmm, turning off all the lights in the lab, then shine a torch horizontally across the carpet?
-- not_morrison_rm, Feb 24 2017


Would metallic hydrogen be attracted to a magnet? When I'm watchmaking, and lose a millimetre-long spring or a half-millimetre screw, I just trawl the floor with a big magnet. I invariably recover something, and it's often the part I was looking for.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Feb 24 2017


Next time they should simply attach a bit of U-235 to it and use a Geiger counter. Velcro should do it.
-- RayfordSteele, Feb 24 2017


The very first sample of Plutonium ever created by your species was put on a piece of cardboard, stuck down with sticky tape, placed in an envelope, and transported to Los Alamos in a physicist's wallet.

That was before it gave you cancer, of course ...
-- 8th of 7, Feb 24 2017


If I recall, the decay mode of plutonium is by alpha emission, so the protective cardboard was probably not necessary.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Feb 24 2017



random, halfbakery