From our archives: An essay on platinum, by Richard M. Gross

Abstract

When my mother’s silvery white wedding ring slid off and rolled under the porch of the summer cottage in New Hampshire, I was the only one small enough to crawl beneath the porch to retrieve it. I had no idea I would, later in life, consider the material used to make that ring—platinum—one of the elements important to one of my life’s pursuits. After I found the ring, I can distinctly remember feeling sorry for my mother because it wasn’t gold, like other mothers wore. I asked her about that, and I remember her answer. “This is rarer than gold,” she recounted, “and it’s sturdier, which means I can wear it my entire life.” So, my vast knowledge of platinum at that time was that it was used to make jewelry. By the time I was in high school and developing a growing interest in science, I was reintroduced to