The Question:
This element is a by-product from nickel and copper mining. When this
element is exposed to air it forms an extremely toxic and objectionable
fume/odor. This element is the least abundant stable element in Earth's
crust, with an average mass fraction of 50 parts per trillion in the
continental crust. An alloy that includes this element was used for the
tips of phonograph styli during the late 78 rpm and early "LP" record days.
Which element is being described?

The Answer:
The element is Osmium (Os)!  Osmium's +8 oxidation state is notable for
being the highest attained by any chemical element aside from iridium's +9
oxidation state. Osmium derives its name from the Greek word "osme" meaning
"a smell", because of the ashy and smoky smell of the volatile osmium
tetroxide. Osmium-alloy record needle tips wore out far more rapidly than
competing, and costlier, sapphire and diamond tips, so they were
discontinued. The most notable application of Os isotopes is in geology in
conjunction with the abundance of iridium, to characterize the layer of
shocked quartz along the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary that marks the
extinction of the dinosaurs 66 million years ago.


The winner of the quiz is  Leland Woodall and will get the services of Clumpy
and Kloumpios for the week.  Lots of correct responses, Leland was first
and beat Scott Decker by only one minute per the firewall clock time stamp.
Apparently many folks still remember what LP records are!


So far Clumpy and Kloumpios have done the following:

Past Quiz winners/tasks:
Week 1 Ravinder Ajmani, Western Digital
Week 1 Ron Feyereisen, SigmaTron Intl.
Week 2 Louis Hart, Compunetics
Week 3 Mark Kostinovsky, Schlumberger Ltd.
Week 3 John Burke
Week 4 Drew Meyer, Benchmark Electronics
Week 5 No Winner - no correct responses!
Week 6 Bhanu Sood, NASA
Week 7 Keith Calhoun, Sopark Corp
Week 7 Ian Fox, Rolls Royce
Week 8 Leland Woodall
Week 8 David Bealer, SMT
Week 9 Tom Carroll, Boeing
Week 10 Louis Hart, Compunetics
Week 11 Tom Carroll, Boeing
Week 11 Scott Decker, UTAS
Week 12 Matthias Mansfeld, Mansfeld Elektronik PCB Design and Assembly
Week 13 No Quiz,
Week 14 Matthias Mansfeld, Mansfeld Elektronik PCB Design and Assembly
Week 15 Bhanu Sood, NASA
Week 16 John Maxwell
Week 17 Leland Woodall
Week 18 Leland Woodall
Week 19 Tom Carroll, Boeing
Week 20 Robert Kondner
Week 21 Tom Brendlinger, ClearMotion Inc.
Week 22 Carl Van Wormer, Cipher Engineering LCC
Week 23 Juliano Ribeiro, DATACOM
Week 24 Gerry Gagnon, FLIR Commercial Systems
Week 25 Graham Collins, Sunsel Systems
Week 26 Joyce Koo, IPC International
Week 26 Todd MacFadden, Bose
Week 27 Bhanu Sood, NASA
Week 28 Leland Woodall
Week 29 Mordechai Kirshenbaum
Week 30 Leland Woodall
Week 31 Leland Woodall
Week 32 Steve Gregory
Week 33 Leland Woodall
Week 34 Jerry Dengler, Pergamon Corp
Week 35 Frank Kimmey, VeriFone Inc
Week 36 Graham Collins, Sunsel Systems
Week 37 Richard "Dean" Stadem
Week 38 Leland Woodall
Week 38 Tom Carroll
Week 39 Matthias Mansfeld, Mansfeld Elektronik PCB Design and Assembly
Week 40 Leland Woodall
Week 41 Tom Carroll
Week 42 Matthias Mansfeld, Mansfeld Elektronik PCB Design and Assembly
Week 43 Joyce Koo
Week 44 Russell Kido, Practical Components
Week 45 Leland Woodall
Week 45 Frank Kimmey, VeriFone Inc
Week 46 Ian Fox, Rolls-Royce Control Systems
Week 47 Fred Cox, Bluering Stencils
Week 48 Tom Carroll, Boeing
Week 49 Todd MacFadden, Bose
Week 49 Leland Woodall
Week 50 Russell Kido, Practical Components
Week 51 Ravinder Ajmani, Western Digital
Week 52 Leland Woodall
Week 53 Scott Decker, UTAS
Week 54 Leland Woodall
Week 55  Tom Carroll, Boeing
Week 56  Mordechai Kirshenbaum
Week 57  Steve Herring, Pennatronics Corp
Week 58 Leland Woodall

Week 59 Drew Meyer, Benchmark
-  Wow!  Simply amazing timing.  Our leader will be gone next week so we
will be two people doing the work of three.  The boys will be greatly
appreciated.  The good news for them is that we finally have some decent
weather here.  Will have to get them some time outside to enjoy it!

Week 60 Leland Woodall
- Just in time for Memorial Day!  I can see the guys mowing, trimming
bushes, cleaning cars, and exercising their grilling skills.  I might mix
in a little work at the plant next week, just for good measure.

Week 61 Matthias Mansfeld, Mansfeld Elektronik PCB Design and Assembly
- Really great!  The boys can help me moving many boxes with old technical
journals in a cellar, assist me with learning Altium, they can rescue the
frogs which my black tomcat catches nightly as toy and last not least they help
me putting antibiotic pills into our red tomcat twice a day (now this is
really a quite hard task).

Week 62  Leland Woodall
- assisted with ????


I hope everyone has a awesome week!
Dave Hillman
Rockwell Collins
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