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Unobtainium: Difference between revisions
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Unobtainium is the exotic [[Elemental Crafting|metal]] or other material that is needed to make the [[Applied Phlebotinum]] work.
Much [[Mad Scientist|mad science]] uses unobtainium, such as [[Chemistry Can Do Anything|imaginary chemicals]] with impossible properties or super-strong alloys that cannot be made from common earthly metals. [[Sufficiently Advanced Alien|Alien]] spaceships and weapons are usually made from unobtainium as well.
Some forms of unobtainium are based on real physics, but beyond the current scope of human engineering, such as [[wikipedia:Room-temperature superconductor|Room temperature superconductors]]; they would revolutionize just about every form of technology, but they are not in and of themselves dangerous or based on some exotic physics-bending principle.
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The most common varieties of unobtainium in fiction sit somewhere in the middle, like materials so resistant to heat and/or damage as to be [[Nigh Invulnerable]] compared to other, similar substances. Materials such as [[Mithril]], adamantium and [[Orichalcum]] (and all variant spellings thereof) are the fantasy version. [[Thunderbolt Iron]] is especially popular in fiction (and has some [[Truth in Television|basis in reality]] -- until [[wikipedia:History of ferrous metallurgy#Medieval and Early Modern Europe|blast furnaces were invented it was the best source of refined iron]]).
Following this would be medical and/or chemical wish-fulfillers; Classical real-world alchemy casually referred to carmot, the base substance of the [[wikipedia:
Increasingly common in [[Science Fiction]] in three flavors: whatever stuff makes [[Faster-Than-Light Travel]] possible, closely followed by the stuff that can [[Artificial Gravity|mess with gravity]] (if they're not [[Stargate SG-1|one]] and the [[Mass Effect|same]]), and finally the stuff they make [[Nigh Invulnerable]] Spaceships and/or [[Humongous Mecha]] out of.
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** One of them is actually called Levistone here. It is heated to decrease its levitation (allowing one to control the height of an airship).
** The other (and more often refered to) is Drag Energist. It gives life to dragons and sits in their chest cavity where their heart would normally be. It is mined from places where there's lots of dead dragons or from a dragon that is hunted and killed. This mineral is usually pink and it directly creates electrical energy (just makes electricity out of thin air, no input required) needed to power mechs (or guymelefs as they are called in Escaflowne) and other machinery. It also undergoes "resonance" (what seems to more accurately be nuclear fission) if too many are placed together in the same area. This is a real phenomenon called "critical mass". In fact in Escaflowne there is one nuclear accident attributable to this. In one of the last episodes, an atomic bomb is built using this same principle with this material.
* ''[[One Piece]]''
** Seastone, apparently "a solidified form of the sea". Contact with it will [[Kryptonite Factor|weaken Devil Fruit users, and drain them of their abilities]]. It's also apparently harder than diamond.
** Adam, a super-strong type of wood.
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== Comic Books ==
* Naturally, the [[Marvel Universe]] has adamantium (in multiple flavors; see below), but it also has other "magic metals," like vibranium (of which there are two varieties, Wakandan [which absorbs kinetic energy/sound/vibrations] and Antarctic [which causes other metals near it to liquefy]), Uru (the material of Thor's hammer), promethium (a magical metal found only in Otherplace/Limbo, which can be used as an energy source, [[Did Not Do the Research|despite it being a real chemical element with real properties]]), and netheranium (the material of Damien Hellstrom's trident). The best example, though, would have to be the infamous [[Magic Pants|"unstable molecules"]] used to make so many heroes' and villains' costumes. And [[Captain America (comics)]]'s unobtainable unobtainium shield - completely indestructible, but also a handwavy one-off item.
** A number of stories suggest that Cap's shield is an otherwise impossible vibrainium/adamantium alloy reinforced by American [[Right Makes Might|righteousness]] (as opposed to [[Clap Your Hands If You Believe|''self''-righteousness]]). Since the guy making it fell asleep during the forging process, we'll never know.
** The "vibranium/adamantium alloy" thing is due to a misprint in one of the ''[[Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe]]'' issues. His shield was made from a unique alloy of iron, Wakandan vibranium, and some unknown contaminant. When the metallurgist who had made it tried recreating the alloy (while Cap was frozen), the closest he could come up with is what's known as (true) adamantium, which is slightly ''weaker'' than the alloy in Cap's shield!
** Speaking of, adamantium comes in a few flavors. True Adamantium is the nearly-indestructible metal alloy that's bonded to the bones and claws of Wolverine. There's also Secondary Adamantium, which is a lot cheaper to make but is still quite strong. Carbonadium (the stuff covering Omega Red's [[Combat Tentacles|tentacles]]) is what the [[Soviet Superscience|Soviets came up with when they tried to create true adamantium]]; it's about as strong as secondary adamantium, but is more malleable... and radioactive. Also, in the [[Ultimate Marvel|Ultimate Marvel Universe]], adamantium can block telepathy.
*** ''[[Freakazoid]]'' takes a shot at this in "The Island of Dr. Mystico." Freakazoid and a number of superpowered villains are held in a bamboo cage. When Freakazoid tries to bend the bars, Cave Guy says, "It's no use, we've already tried. It's ''molecular'' bamboo."
* [[The DCU]] has its own varieties of unobtainium:
** In the [[Silver Age]] DCU, Krypton became a gold mine of unobtainium. Any item, living or not, that originated there would become indestructible under a yellow sun. Kryptonite was also formed by the explosion of Krypton (with various varieties in the Silver and Bronze Ages).
** Promethium is the DCU's equivalent of adamantium, a super hard metal that superstrong superheroes have a tough time damaging, and Nth Metal, or "transuranic iron ore," was the key to Thanagarian technology (as seen frequently in ''[[Justice League]]'').
*** [[Elements Do Not Work That Way|Irritatingly]], promethium is a real metal (element 61), one with no stable isotopes and no special structural properties.
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* In ''[[Outlander (film)|Outlander]]'', after establishing that Viking swords aren't strong enough to injure the Moorwen, Kainan salvages some hull metal from his crashed starship, and gives this to the local blacksmith to forge some stronger swords.
* Turbinium from ''[[Total Recall]]''.
* In ''[[District 9]]'', the unnamed nanofluid is found in prawn technology in extremely small amounts, and is apparently quite precious. It has the power to {{spoiler|activate the aliens' ship as well as transform a human into a prawn}}.
* In ''[[Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog|Doctor Horrible]]'', the good doctor powers his freeze ray with Wonderflonium, not far removed from Unobtainium as it has the power to stop time. However it only seems to paralyze or turn to stone a single target, rather than actually stopping time itself.
** Wonderflonium doesn't freeze time as suggested here. It merely makes the impossible possible and powers the freeze ray -- [[I Thought It Meant|which freezes time]] -- for a short time, at least. Wonderflonium should also never be bounced for some reason.
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* Wells also had a previously undiscovered element present in the titular comet in The Day Of The Comet.
* [[Harry Harrison]]'s 1973 Golden Age SF spoof novel, ''Star Smashers of the Galaxy Rangers'' features Cheddite (a fuel created from cheese). In another scene the heroes' 747 jet is turned into a spacecraft by means of windows armored with ''armolite'', vacuum insulation with ''insulite'', fuel tanks filled with ''combustite'', guns firing pellets of ''destructite'', batteries replaced with ''capacitite'' and a space-warp drive powered by ''warpite''.
* Melange, also called spice, in the ''[[Dune]]'' novels, extends life and grants limited prescience, allowing [[Faster-Than-Light Travel]]. And it [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|tastes like cinnamon]]. Oh, and there are other uses. If it seems like something that would be extremely valuable and important, that's because it is. It's generally thought to be an [[Alternate Company Equivalent]] to oil in the way that it drives the greater economy and is controlled by warlike tribes.
* Iridium, a natural element that is extremely rare on Earth, is often used in more dramatic [[Sci Fi]] stories.
* The German SF/pulp series ''[[Perry Rhodan]]'' has over the course of its history collected a fair bit of unobtainium in various forms. Classic examples are Ynkelonium, a metallic element that does not react with antimatter and can to an extent prevent such reactions from occurring in its immediate vicinity, and Luurs-Metal, which always maintains a constant temperature of about 3.4 degrees Celsius. Both materials occur naturally in the universe and cannot be synthesized.
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* The ''[[Uplift]]'' Series by David Brin has a material of the name unobtainium.
* The hyperdrive of Kevin J. Anderson's ''[[The Saga of Seven Suns]]'' is fuelled by "ekti," described as "[[Did Not Do the Research|an allotropic isotope of hydrogen]]."
* Atium, from the ''[[Mistborn]]'' books. It's only mined in one place, it's extremely rare, and incredibly powerful. All of the properties of Atium are ultimately justified by it being {{spoiler|made from the body of a god}}.
* John Ringo's ''[[Into the Looking Glass|Looking Glass]]'' series is so named for the instantaneous transmission portals which were created by what were originally thought to be Higgs bosons. That identification was later corrected, and they were renamed [[Applied Phlebotinum|Looking Glass Bosons]]. The looking glasses of the first book take a secondary role however, after the series takes off into space in a ship powered by a [[Black Box]] of alien origin, {{spoiler|and when the ship is destroyed in the third book, it is entirely remade by an alien race the ship just saved.}} This leads to the fourth book where the captain of the ship discovers he is missing a large number of alien made spare parts and [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshades]] all of this saying, "And now I have to call SpaceCom and explain to them that we're non-mission-capable until a couple of tons of [[unobtainium]] parts and tools get found!"
* Practically every book in the old ''Danny Dunn'' children's scifi series starts out with the discovery of a new form of Unobtainium. Usually because Danny or a friend of his spilled something in the lab.
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* Neal Asher's [[Polity Series]] has Chainglass, a material made from silicon chain molecules that can be made near-indestructible and sharp enough to slice through steel with ease. Chainglass is used instead of metal and plastic in most applications. It also made the inventor the richest man in the galaxy.
* Urim in L. Jagi Lamplighter's [[Prospero's Daughter]] trilogy. Warrior angels wear it. It can hold the Water of Life. A gauntlet made of Urim allows the wielding of the Staff of Decay without harm.
* The ''[[Sten]]'' series has Anti-Matter Two, the only energy source capable of generating enough power to run hyperspace engines and make interstellar travel feasible. In all the Universe there is only a single source of AM2, and only the Eternal Emperor knows where it is.
* In Stainless Steel Rat Goes to Heaven, common coal have rare "slow" and "fast" coal that slow or speed up time inside it. The [[Big Bad]] had {{spoiler|hundreds of young girl slaves move hands over small pieces of coal and pick out those specific coal pieces}}.
* ''[[Animorphs]]'' made a brief mention of ramonite, the metal that makes up most spacecraft and gives it its properties of stretching open doorways and opaquing/clearing the viewports.
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* It also shows up in various ''[[Harvest Moon]]'' titles (usually used to make gift jewelry). They also feature Mystrle and Mythic Ore - used to give tools semi-magical properties.
** And plain ol' Mythril in Harvest Moon's spin-off title 'Rune Factory'.
* ''[[Command
** It's apparently a crystal that leeches various elements out of anything it touches, and makes more of itself. Certain materials are more resistant to being turned into [[Green Rocks]], but all of them degrade eventually. With flesh, crystallization happens almost instantly...
** Nevermind the fact there's blue (canonical) and red/orange (semi-canonical) variants that are [[Made of Explodium]] - as if the green stuff didn't explode enough to begin with. With a bit of SCIENCE, you can turn tiberium (or tiberium-related substances, such as tiberium veins) into a chemical weapon that puts some of the deadliest stuff today to shame, or an explosive that makes a heavy-duty fuel air bomb look like a firecracker.
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* ''[[Starcraft]]'', likewise, had "minerals" of an unspecified type and "Vespene Gas" (which [[You Require More Vespene Gas|you require more of]], by the way), which each of the playable races uses in a different way to produce its various units and buildings.
** Neosteel, the material of Terran construction, is another example.
*** Also, the Khaydarin Crystals.
* The first two games of the ''[[X-COM]]'' series had Elerium, an element that formed in yellow crystals and had an atomic number of 115 (such an element has been actually created already). Since the third game, Elerium could be mined on Mars and extrasolar colonies.
** The second game reveals that Elerium-115 becomes inert if submerged in salt-water for too long, and since ''[[X-COM]] 2'' is titled "Terror from the Deep", that's a bit of a problem. The new source of power is Zrbite - apparently, an artificial material created through molecular manipulation. Following the victory in ''[[X-COM]] 2'', however, the aliens' Molecular Manipulation network collapses, and all remaining Zrbite becomes inert. It maintains its Unobtainium status, however, and Inert Zrbite is later used to build FTL-drive engines (with Elerium-115 as fuel).
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* The ''[[Metroid Prime]]'' games feature Phazon, which is a highly-mutagenic, violently unstable, sentient mineral. Being a bit more specific, there is an incredibly resistant metal made from it known as Phazite.
** In addition, visor scans can identify the chemical properties of certain structures. When you see names such as "Talloric Alloy" and "Bendenzium" in the description of a destructible obstacle, it is usually an indication as to which weapon you will need to use to proceed.
* ''[[Dwarf Fortress]]'' has a rather extensive simulation of real-world geology and metallurgy, including creating simple alloys such as bronze and electrum. It also has Adamantine, an incredibly rare ore that can be processed into various forms that allow it to be used in almost any type of construction imaginable - weapons, armour, tools, clothing, furniture, building material... about the only things you ''can't'' make out of it (well, without [[Game Mod|modding]]) are beds and food.
** There's also [http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/Slade slade], which ''can't be dug out''. Even if you could, it's horrendously heavy, so the potential uses for it are very limited -- not that it matters, as the game won't let you use it even if you [[Good Bad Bugs|somehow]] get some out of the walls. You're not thinking about this, though, because if you've even ''seen'' slade, [[Dug Too Deep|you've got other problems to worry about]].
** Now the developer is planning for game world's to each have their own unique [[Unobtainium]] with each one making some rare materials with randomly generated properties. When he first tried it out, he expected metals but ended up getting cursed mist.
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* The ''[[SCP Foundation]]'' has [http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-148 SCP-148], also known as Telekill. This stuff is incredibly useful, but the Foundation hasn't been able to fully analyse it, let alone make more of the stuff.
* The inventions of [[The Spoony Experiment]]'s Doctor Insano are powered by Raritanium.
* [[Super Stories]] has Electronium, resistant to all known methods of scanning (including superpowered ones). Apart from one villain's secret lair being made out of the stuff, no known piece is larger than a pebble.
* Allen Fesler writes stories set in the [[Chakona Space]] 'Verse. One of his inventions is boronike, which is extremely valuable and very useful to engineering types. It is commonly used in [[Transporters and Teleporters|teleporter tech]] because of its inability to ''be'' teleported.
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** In "Vanessassary Roughness," the element "Pizzazium Infinionite" is described as (maybe) having wondrous properties that could be used in the future to power generically-futuristic technology.
* In ''[[Teen Titans (animation)|Teen Titans]]'' the thief Red X used a suit that was powered by Xenothium, which was only described as being unstable and crazy dangerous, but was capable of insane things, such as creating explosive projectiles, shields, metallic bands and all kinds of crazy shizz.
** Though the Xenothium itself ''didn't'' do all that- it just powered the devices that did.
* [[Futurama|Professor Farnsworth]] once had the crew deliver a single atom of Jumbonium - a tennisball sized "single atom" that doesn't seem to do anything beyond adorn a tiara.
** If nothing else, it's valued for its rarity; that single atom is worth more than $50,000.
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** [[wikipedia:Chlorine trifluoride|Chlorine trifluoride]] is the real-world stuff. Derek Lowe has a nightmarish description at [http://pipeline.corante.com/archives/2008/02/26/sand_wont_save_you_this_time.php Sand wont save you this time.] From that article: "It is, of course, extremely toxic, but that's the least of the problem. It is hypergolic (combusts spontaneously) with every known fuel, and so rapidly hypergolic that no ignition delay has ever been measured. It is also hypergolic with such things as cloth, wood, and test engineers, and asbestos, sand, and water-with which it reacts explosively."
** Incidentally, the classical bucket of sand will not save you from it either: it'll just ''[[Beyond the Impossible|burn through the sand]]''.
* [[wikipedia:Greek fire|Greek fire.]] Accounts say it was a combination of volatile chemicals in liquid form that, when launched, would burn on and be ignited by water. The original formula has been lost, and speculation as to its contents continue today.
** Judging from its description, it probably had a lot in common with napalm.
** Not really. Napalm isn't really liquid (it's more sticky, like slime) nor is it ignited by contact with water. Water can put out napalm, as can covering the area of fire with a blanket, neither of which was supposedly possible with Greek fire.
* Carbon nanotubes have immensely useful electronic, optical, and mechanical properties, including a strength-to-weight ratio vastly superior to any building material currently in use. Sadly, as of 2010, even poor grade nanotubes go for about $100/gram. [[I Want My Jetpack|Guess that space elevator will have to wait a few more years.]]
** The biggest problem with them at the moment is to avoid cumulative weakening, as at the moment the more nanotubes you stock together, the more the nanoscopic faults accumulate, until their strength is all but gone. Still, many scientists are confident that they'll have long and durable nanotube strings in a couple of years.
* Mountain biker slang for a bike made of a rare or expensive material is also 'unobtainium'.
* In the late 70's Silicon Valley, there were two popular materials for solving otherwise intractable engineering problems, very specifically: Unobtainium-12 and Expensium-6. Neither was in the Grainger's or Thomas catalog.
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