How long has sulfur been around

Although Nature and the Nature Research Journals have editors dotted around the globe in various offices, each title can claim a particular city as its home base. Nature Chemical Biology may say that an author's favorite color is gray, but Nature Physics would say that an author's favourite colour is grey. In a similar vein, the UK journals — including Nature itself — spell sulphur with 'ph' and the US titles spell sulfur with an 'f'.

So, with Nature Chemistry based in London, why do we not follow suit and use the 'ph' variant? The answer boils down to the fact that it's not simply a case of Oxford English versus American English when it comes to naming chemical elements.

It is not a question of American or Oxford English spelling, it is a given name — and 'correcting' such a name to a different spelling is wholly inappropriate.

What would Fred Flintstone say if we insisted on spelling his name Phred Phlintstone! Just to hammer the point home, IUPAC only accepts alternative spellings for two elements, and neither of them is sulfur: 'aluminum' and 'cesium' are fair game, although Nature Chemistry uses aluminium and caesium. For those who defend the 'ph' version of sulfur, there is little in the way of support in etymological arguments.

A good example of this substitution can be found if we move just to the left in the periodic table and consider element 15, phosphorus, which means 'light-carrier' in the original Greek. Element 15 also has its spelling woes — an additional 'o' often creeps in to make it 'phosphorous'. A fascinating and detailed account 3 of the history of the name of element 16 can be found elsewhere, but the bottom line is that sulfur is not a Greek loan word and so there is no 'phi' that needs to be replaced with 'ph'.

The Greeks called element 16 'theion', which is similar to the prefix 'thio' that we commonly encounter when describing sulfur-containing compounds today. The word 'sulfur' can be traced to Latin, where the oldest form seems to be sulpur , which, over time, became sulphur and then finally sulfur — the first example of the latter spelling is thought to date back the third century. Only in English did the 'ph' remain for the 'f' sound — in other European languages the 'f' won through: azufre Spanish , schwefel German , soufre French , zolfo Italian.

Interestingly, why the change from 'sulphur' to 'sulfur' occurred in the United States during the early part of the twentieth century remains something of a mystery, as other 'ph' words have persevered in American English.

Language is our servant, not our master and it evolves to meet our needs. Natural gas, used for heating and cooking, is odourless, colourless and tasteless.

Sulfur compounds are added to natural gas so we can detect even the smallest leak. Skunks also use sulfur for protection. They use a sulfur-based spray that is strong enough to drive off bears. It is so strong that, downwind, humans can smell the spray several kilometres away!

In human health, sulfur is a macromineral. Read about the vitamins and minerals needed for a healthy diet in the article Micronutrients. Donwload this free ebook Making Superphosphate. This has been written to support the secondary school chemistry curriculum and describes the chemical processes involved in making superphosphate fertiliser at the Ravensdown Fertiliser works in Dunedin.

Add to collection. Related content Learn more about minerals. Useful links Learn more about sulfur with these websites: Science For Kids — sulfur facts ThoughtCo — 10 interesting facts about sulfur Live Science — facts about sulfur Donwload this free ebook Making Superphosphate. Go to full glossary Add 0 items to collection. Download 0 items. Twitter Pinterest Facebook Instagram. Email Us. See our newsletters here.

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These metal sulfides have become an important industrial source for many of these important metals. Industry is one place you are almost certain to find sulfur or more importantly sulfuric acid which is used in processes ranging from fertilizer production to oil refining. In fact sulfuric acid ranks as the most highly produced chemical in the industrialized world. Imagine that, the element with such a hellish reputation has become one of the most important.

And some even suggest that sulfur could save the planet. The biogenic compound dimethylsulfide DMS is produced from the cleavage of dimethylsufonoprioponate, an osmotic regulatory compound produced by plankton in the ocean. DMS is oxidized to SO2 and finally to sulfuric acid particles which can act as cloud condensation nuclei forming clouds which have a net cooling effect to the planet.

Imagine warmer temperatures followed by greater biological activity resulting in more DMS to the atmosphere. The resulting cloud formation might work to cool a warming planet. It's almost like the plankton are opening an umbrella made up-in part- of sulfur.

From a symbol of damnation to savior Steve Mylon sniffing out the stinky story of Sulfur. Thankfully next week's element is a lot less odiforous. The story of its discovery started when Rayleigh found that the nitrogen extracted from the air had a higher density than that made by decomposing ammonia. The difference was small but real. Ramsay wrote to Rayleigh suggesting that he should look for a heavier gas in the nitrogen got from air, while Rayleigh should look for a lighter gas in that from ammonia.

Ramsay removed all the nitrogen from his sample by repeatedly passing it over heated magnesium. He was left with one percent which would not react and found it was denser than nitrogen. Its atomic spectrum showed new red and green lines, confirming it a new element.

And that new element was Argon nicknamed the lazy element because originally scientists thought that it wouldn't react with anything. Now we know that's not true and John Emsley will be here to unlock Argon secrets on next week's Chemistry in its Element, I hope you can join us. I'm Chris Smith, thank you for listening and goodbye. Chemistry in its element is brought to you by the Royal Society of Chemistry and produced by thenakedscientists.

There's more information and other episodes of Chemistry in its element on our website at chemistryworld. Click here to view videos about Sulfur. View videos about. Help Text. Learn Chemistry : Your single route to hundreds of free-to-access chemistry teaching resources. We hope that you enjoy your visit to this Site.

We welcome your feedback. Data W. Haynes, ed. Version 1. Coursey, D. Schwab, J. Tsai, and R. Dragoset, Atomic Weights and Isotopic Compositions version 4. Periodic Table of Videos , accessed December Podcasts Produced by The Naked Scientists. Download our free Periodic Table app for mobile phones and tablets. Explore all elements. D Dysprosium Dubnium Darmstadtium. E Europium Erbium Einsteinium. F Fluorine Francium Fermium Flerovium. G Gallium Germanium Gadolinium Gold. I Iron Indium Iodine Iridium.

K Krypton. O Oxygen Osmium Oganesson. U Uranium. V Vanadium. X Xenon. Y Yttrium Ytterbium. Z Zinc Zirconium. Membership Become a member Connect with others Supporting individuals Supporting organisations Manage my membership.

Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Youtube. Discovery date. Discovered by. Origin of the name. The name is derived either from the Sanskrit 'sulvere', or the Latin 'sulfurium'. Melting point. Boiling point. Atomic number. Relative atomic mass. Key isotopes. Electron configuration. CAS number. ChemSpider ID. ChemSpider is a free chemical structure database. Electronegativity Pauling scale.

Covalent bond. Found in. Common oxidation states. Atomic mass. Half life. Mode of decay. Relative supply risk. Crustal abundance ppm. Top 3 producers.

Top 3 reserve holders. Political stability of top producer. Political stability of top reserve holder.

Young's modulus GPa. Shear modulus GPa. Bulk modulus GPa. Vapour pressure. Temperature K. Pressure Pa. Listen to Sulfur Podcast.