lithium metal is lighter than air

An example of an alternative conception in public science discourse:

"…Barroso is sitting on vast reserves of something which the mining industry badly wants. Not gold, not diamonds, not even oil. The miners are looking for the lightest metal on earth, lighter in fact than air, lithium."

Journalist Misha Glenny narrating an episode ('The Hidden Paradox') of the BBC Radio 4 series 'The Scramble for Rare Earths'.

Read "Lithium: a rare earth metal that is lighter than air?"

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This seems to be an example of confusing the atomic properties of elements with the bulk properties of materials (a 'micro-macro confusion').

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lithium is eager to give up an electron

An example of anthropomorphism (and a a potential misconception) from science journalism,

"To make a better battery for mobile applications such as phones, laptops or electric vehicles, the defining design parameter is to pack the maximum electrical energy into the smallest, lightest package possible. If you were to go back to the periodic table, and design such a battery from scratch, it is still hard to go past lithium…. It's the smallest, lightest metal – and eager to give up an electron.

…according to conventional wisdom, the surface onto which the lithium is plating should be highly lithophilic, so that the lithium likes to stick. 'Somehow we have imposed a different requirement on the two interfaces involved in lithium plating,' Liu [Prof. Ping Liu, University of California, San Diego] says. The lithium should move fast through the repellent lithium-fluoride-rich [solid electrolyte interface], but then meet a substrate it simply wants to stick to."

James Mitchell Crow (2023) Building better batteries, Chemistry World, 20 (5), https://www.chemistryworld.com/features/building-better-batteries/4017313.article

As well as being anthropomorphic (lithium is said to be eager, to want, to like) this may suggest that a lithium atom will release an electron spontaneously, when this process requires an energy input.

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Many examples of anthropomorphism are listed in 'Creative comparisons: Making science familiar through language. An illustrative catalogue of figurative comparisons and analogies for science concepts'. Free Download.

Learners commonly think that atoms will spontaneously release electrons to give octet configurations or full outer shells, and this can be a tenacious alternative conception.

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lithium was born at the start of the universe

An example of metaphor in popular science writing:

"… lithium – a chemical born at the start of the universe – is found all around us, in the crust of the earth upon which we live."

de Moore, G., & Westmore, A. (2016). Finding Sanity. John Cade, lithium and the taming of bipolar disorder. Allen & Unwin.

n.b., Current understanding of the big bang is that it led to hydrogen, helium, and a (relatively) small amount of lithium being produced`. (Though not immediately – the conditions immediately after ther big bang were too extreme for any elements to form.) Some of the lithium in the universe today therefore resulting directly from the big bang, although most was created later in stars.

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Many examples of science metaphors are listed in 'Creative comparisons: Making science familiar through language. An illustrative catalogue of figurative comparisons and analogies for science concepts'. Free Download.

hospital processed lithium like a small outback mining town

Example of a simile in popular science writing:

"Val Ashburner, a psychiatrist at Sunbury, enthused over lithium, finding it such an irresistible option that he siphoned the solution out with stunning results. Twelve of the more than 50 patients to whom he prescribed lithium were liberated of all signs of illness, striding out of the asylum and into the community; none died. So zealous was Ashburner that – like a small outback mining town – the Sunbury hospital pumped no less that 15 pounds (7 kilograms) of the metallic lithium crystal into patients, grain by grain, in rapid time."

de Moore, G., & Westmore, A. (2016). Finding Sanity. John Cade, lithium and the taming of bipolar disorder. Allen & Unwin.

This is a confusing extract. Lithium metal is not used as a medicine, but rather a compound (such as the chloride or carbonate) which releases lithium ions is the therapeutic agent. So, 'metallic lithium crystals' would certainly not be used and could not be 'pumped' or 'siphoned'. It is a common alternative conception among learners to conflate the properties of an element and its compounds.

Indeed, the clinician would not have any contact with the metal, but would only handle the salt. It is not clear if 'solution' refers to the compound made up into a solution (for intravenous injections) – in which case it is not clear why the authors then refer to metallic crystals – or whether it is the medical 'solution' in which case siphoning and pumping are meant metaphorically.

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Many examples of science metaphors are listed in 'Creative comparisons: Making science familiar through language. An illustrative catalogue of figurative comparisons and analogies for science concepts'. Free Download.

at maximum dose lithium fills the body

An example of metaphor in popular science writing:

"At this point John Cade and Bill Brand both seem exhausted, and a bit fed up with one another. In this slumped state John comments that Bill is 'saturated at last'. What he meant was that lithium – at its maximum dose – filled Bill's body, soaking every cell and bathing Bill's brain."

de Moore, G., & Westmore, A. (2016). Finding Sanity. John Cade, lithium and the taming of bipolar disorder. Allen & Unwin.

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Many examples of science metaphors are listed in 'Creative comparisons: Making science familiar through language. An illustrative catalogue of figurative comparisons and analogies for science concepts'. Free Download.

lithium seeks out organs

An example of anthropomorphism and metaphor in popular science writing:

"The writings from the nineteenth century, familiar to John, suggested that lithium would seek out every organ, seeping into every cell and across the blood-brain barrier, that Great Wall of China, which separated the brain from blood. And it was the brain that was lithium's final target."

de Moore, G., & Westmore, A. (2016). Finding Sanity. John Cade, lithium and the taming of bipolar disorder. Allen & Unwin.

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Many examples of anthropomorphism are listed in 'Creative comparisons: Making science familiar through language. An illustrative catalogue of figurative comparisons and analogies for science concepts'. Free Download.

Read about metaphor in science

Read about examples of science metaphors

Many examples of science metaphors are listed in 'Creative comparisons: Making science familiar through language. An illustrative catalogue of figurative comparisons and analogies for science concepts'. Free Download.

lithium is the penicillin of mental health

An example of an analogy used in popular science writing:

"Lithium is the penicillin story of mental health. It was the first effective medication discovered for the treatment of a mental illness, and it is, without doubt, Australia's greatest mental health story."

de Moore, G., & Westmore, A. (2016). Finding Sanity. John Cade, lithium and the taming of bipolar disorder. Allen & Unwin.

This might be considered an implicit analogy as it is assumed the reader already appreciates the importance of penicillin (in treating diseases due to bacterial infection) or deduces it from what is written about lithium.

Note: the reference to lithium refers to the element (in compounds, as ions) and not the substance (the metal).

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Many examples of science analogies are listed in 'Creative comparisons: Making science familiar through language. An illustrative catalogue of figurative comparisons and analogies for science concepts'. Free Download.

lithium is happy to give away an electron

An example of anthropomorphism in public science discourse:

"Lithium is crucial for batteries because it is a highly reactive metal, it has an extra electron, and therefore it is happy to give that electron away, take it back again."

Jeremy Wrathall

Jeremy Wrathall (Founder and CEO of Cornish Lithium) was talking on an episode ('Lithified') of BBC's 'Lights Out'.

This statement includes a 'macro-micro' shift as "Lithium is …a highly reactive metal" refers to the chemical substance, but the 'it' that "has an extra electron" refers not to lithium itself, but a lithium atom.

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Many examples of anthropomorphism are listed in 'Creative comparisons: Making science familiar through language. An illustrative catalogue of figurative comparisons and analogies for science concepts'. Free Download.