Beryllium
Be Beryllium is a relatively rare element in both the Earth and the universe. The element is not known to be necessary or useful for either plant or animal life. It is extremely toxic, thats why its practical use is somewhat limited. It has one of the highest meltinhg points of all the light metaksm and it has exceptional flexural rigidity. It has the abilty to reduce water when its oxide film is removed, that means it is very hard to produce this metal in its pure form. Beryllium wiki
Filiming Concepts
Windows for X-ray and other Radiation
It can be used as windows for xrays and other radiation chambers, because of its very low absorbtion of radiation. The purity of the Beryllium is extremely important on determining the quality of the x-ray images, if the Be is impure it can leave artifacts in the xray image.
The Large Haydron Collider
Cern again! -cause its that cool!
Anyways the large haydron colliders accelorator ALICE uses Be uses a beryllium beam-pipe. Because if Be's low atomic numer, it is almost transparent to energetic particles. Therefore one uses Be in the beam pipe arround the collision region in collider particle physics.
Used in the EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) Toolkit
Used for saftly removing old Naval Mines and Ieds. Using Beryllium Copper CuBe, it is an alloy of of copper and 0.5% to 3% Berylliym. This substance is non magnetic, and will not spark. 2 key features in Bomb dismantlement. *Beryllium Copper info
Beryllium is non-magnetic. Therefore, beryllium-based tools are used by military naval EOD-personnel when working on or around naval mines, as these often have fuzes that detonate on direct magnetic contact or when influenced by a magnetic field.
Cathrine Hardwick won Best Picture and was the first women to win an oscar for Best Directing for her film on an EOD squad in Iraq called the Hurt Locker. <videoflash type="youtube">2GxSDZc8etg|340|275</videoflash>
Space Telescopes
The succesor of the Hubble Telescope! The James Webb Space Telescope will have 18 hexagonal beryllium sections for its mirrors. Because JWST will face a temperature of −240 degrees Celsius (33 kelvins), the mirror is made of beryllium, capable of handling extreme cold better than glass. Beryllium contracts and deforms less than glass - and remains more uniform - in such temperatures. For the same reason, the optics of the Spitzer Space Telescope are entirely built of beryllium metal.
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a large, infrared-optimized space telescope, scheduled for launch in 2014. JWST will find the first galaxies that formed in the early Universe, connecting the Big Bang to our own Milky Way Galaxy. JWST will peer through dusty clouds to see stars forming planetary systems, connecting the Milky Way to our own Solar System. JWST's instruments will be designed to work primarily in the infrared range of the electromagnetic spectrum, with some capability in the visible range.
This could be an interesting perspective into the process of Telescope building, and kind of showcasing a new piece of NASA Tech. Nasa page on the Telescope <videoflash type="youtube">adi4ADVlUvg|340|275</videoflash>