Aerospace engineers have used the term unobtainium for a very long time to describe an element that has all the desired properties for their experiment except that it does not exist. The term un-obtain-ium humorously resembles the nomenclature of elements found in the periodic table with the suffix (-ium). Unobtainium is a science fiction regular where an almost impossible element would be needed to build a device critical to move the story forward. In James Cameron’s Avatar (2009), unobtainium was the rare mineral Parker Selfridge and his crew were mining for. But sometimes people use the term to refer to elements that exist but is difficult to get their hands on. Lockheed Engineers working on SR-71 Blackbird spy plane referred to titanium as unobtainium as its availability was restricted because Soviet Union controlled its supply. The concept of unobtainium is almost similar to that of the philosopher’s stone which was a mythical substance with the ability to turn silver into gold and grant anyone who consumes it, eternal youth and immortality. Who wouldn’t want to stay young forever? So, in 1669 one man let some urine stand for days until it gave off a terrible smell. He then boiled it until it formed a paste. Then heated this paste and led the vapors through water. He was hoping that the vapors would condense to gold but instead ended up with a white, waxy substance. Terrible, you may think. But that is how my friends, Hennig Brand discovered Phosphorus.
