Infamous for its chemical reactivity with oxygen, barium’s infamy can be increased by its attributes of being - essentially - a worthless element to the various interdisciplinary applications in engineering, material sciences and metallurgy in general. Not just in the pure metal either but even as minute dilutions in alloying barium contributes nothing positive that some other metal can’t do better and cheaper. That explains why to most people the word barium may not even conjure the mental picture that ‘steel’ or ‘titanium’ might.

None of this, of course, is barium’s fault. We can’t blame it for its softness or its ease of oxidation. What we can do, however, is take pause at just how difficult it is to turn barium oxide into, you know, barium period. And we can marvel, too, at the delicate luster that peeks through from underneath the dulling effect of just a few atoms’ worth of oxides. Barium’s crystalline structure - at least on the macro level - is superficially similar to that of calcium (which is hardly surprising given that they’re in the same family grouping on the Periodic Table). But whereas calcium’s crystals go wanton and freeform, barium’s truncate prematurely and look somewhat more stubby.

Whatever. This is another wonderful achievement that will be a welcome addition to a growing dome collection!