All I Know About Tungsten I Learned From Eureka

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Tungsten is not a metal that I was overly familiar with before watching the TV show Eureka.  If you’re unfamiliar with this show that airs on the SyFy network, it’s about a bunch of über smart scientists living in a town that is basically a giant research facility.  Tungsten happens to be a metal alloy they use frequently in their projects.

Take for instance one of the most recent episodes that aired “Of Mites and Men” where tiny robot construction bugs’ programming goes awry and they start ‘eating’ all the tungsten at Global Dynamics the research headquarters of Eureka. And then there’s Eureka’s Sheriff Andy…an Artificial Intelligence robot made of tungsten.

I know, I know tungsten is actually on the periodic table of elements, with the symbol W and the atomic number of 74, but somehow I missed this in my chemistry classes, or maybe my teacher just didn’t make it as interesting as Eureka does.

Tungsten actually has many uses outside of robots and super secret research facilities, the filaments in a light bulb for example (although I guess those will soon be obsolete…).  I didn’t realize that you can buy tungsten rings either!  Seeing as tungsten is one of the most durable elements on the planet, I wish I had known about these when we got married.  My husband would probably like a black tungsten ring.  Of course, it’s probably not a good idea to have a tungsten wedding ring if you live in Eureka….who knows what sort of world apocalypse you might start if you wear one there!