Although it’s right next to carbon on the periodic table, boron has never been a particularly popular element for treating disease in carbon-based life. Boron’s been rather boring from a medical perspective.
In other industries, that’s not the case. Borax, a compound of boron and sodium, is present in many cleaning products. And boron is an important element in the manufacture of glass and ceramics as well as in composites used in the aerospace industry. Fibers used in golf clubs, fishing rods and body armor also use the element’s unique attributes to grant strength.
↧