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Holy Kryptonite: Fictional Elements We Wish Were Real

by Leila Brillson on June 12, 2009 at 02:30 PM


With the discovery of a new and unnamed element 112, German scientists are scrambling to come up with a title for the recent periodic addition. To inspire our Deustchland comrades, we've compiled a list of of our favorite fictional elements, which range from the sublimely silly to the ridiculously over-thought. Perhaps scanning the best in movie, television, and comic book alloys and materials will give the creatively stumped professors inspiration...


In real life, Carbonite is an actual compound, fusing nitroglycerine and a nitrate together to make an explosive. In the Star Wars-universe (sorry guys, that's not real life), it is the clay-like element that Han Solo was frozen into to be delivered to Jabba. Also, it should be noted, that Carbonite encasing leads to 'hibernation sickness.'



Most popular as the metal fused to Wolverine's skeleton, Marvel-made Adamantium is a virtually indestructible metal that came about by fusing two other metals together, attempting to recreate the material that composed of Captain America's shield.



Star Trek's Dilithium is a hard crystal structure that protects the star ship's warp core from the matter and anti-matter that is used to power it. Often linked, plot-wise, to the modern day dependence on oil, Dilithium is a highly contested material, as warp speed wouldn't be possible without it.



Energon is the most critical element for the fueling and maintenance of the Autobots -- and can be over-indulged in, creating a type of Transformers drunkeness. Only found on their home planet of Cybertron, the Transformers are living off of a crystallized substitute since its destruction.


Perhaps the most delicious of all the fictional elements is Bolognium, or Balonium (spelling is contested), which has, according to an Oscar Mayer ad in The Simpsons, has an atomic weight of 'delicious' or 'snacktacular.' In the future, a Futurama character calls someone on their 'weapons-grade Bolognium.'



Part drug, part space-travel device, and completely contested, the Dune-iverse 'spice,' or melange, is the reason that the story even takes place. Cinnamon-smelling and addictive, those that control the spice, control the universe.



If anyone is asked to name a fictional element, most people immediately come up with Kryptonite, which has made its way into pop-culture as meaning an 'Achilles' heel.' Having as many different variations as Superman himself, traditional Kryptonite is green and renders the Man of Steel powerless, coming from his home planet, Krypton.

Tags: elements, fiction, fictional, science, top

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