Iridium is a chemical element with the symbol Ir and atomic number 77. It’s known as the second densest element, and it’s great strength and resistance to heat makes it useful to surround rods of radioactive plutonium in the power sources of long distance space probes, such as Voyager and the recent New Horizons mission to Pluto.
This is a general science zone, where we will meet five scientists from different areas of science.
There is one person providing scientific support for products sold in the market, one zapping things with high voltage to make a plasma hotter than the surface of the sun, and another looking for new planets. You will also meet one scientist looking for DNA mutations in children using a supercomputer, and another one studying the fundamental building blocks of the Universe and how they combine to create atoms.