• gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de
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    6 months ago

    I think that we have a perception bias towards things that interest us.

    Since the elements in the top-right corner (C, O, N, P, S, Si, Fe, Al, Na, …) are interesting to us, that’s what we typically look at. And in that region, things are fairly balanced. It’s only in the regions where we don’t typically look, where we said “let’s just make it all metal so the categorization is done, call it a day, and move on”. I think.

    • axont [she/her, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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      6 months ago

      It’s more the case that in human interactions with the elements, most of them exhibit a metallic phase because we’re exposed to the elements on Earth. Out in space elements do weird things. Gaseous clouds of gold, solid metal nitrogen. A lot of elements in the universe are in plasma phase, which isnt common at all on Earth.

      Metals are metal on earth because their electronegativity gives them metallic bonds in our atmosphere.