THAT stand-offish element argon has been persuaded to consort with other
atoms for the first time. Marku R盲s盲nen and his colleagues at the
University of Helsinki in Finland have created a novel compound called hydrogen
argon fluoride (HArF).
To do it, they had to freeze argon by chilling it to just 10 degrees above
absolute zero, add hydrogen fluoride鈥攁n acid capable of eating through
glass鈥攁nd fire lasers at the mixture while warming it slightly
(Nature, vol 406, p 874). 鈥淲e鈥檙e now down to just two noble gases in the
periodic table鈥攈elium and neon鈥攖hat don鈥檛 form compounds,鈥� says team
member Jan Lundell. The work raises the possibility that argon, which makes up 1
per cent of the atmosphere, might form natural compounds that we haven鈥檛 yet
discovered.