Silicone Boobs for Dummies

Pure silicon

A real freelance journalist's job is to inform the readers; but a common problem with the internet's self-appointed freelance "journalists" is, as we at the Antisocial Network have so often discovered, that taking the time to be accurate gets in the way of dashing off content and making more money. To paraphrase the Bible, the love of money is the root of lots of dumbassery – dumbassery like the misinformation in "Interesting Facts About Silicon," published by Kevin D. Hinton on InfoBarrel.com (a moribund content farm of which he is part-owner).

Some of Kevin's "interesting" facts in this content are verifiable facts. In the sense of "a blind pig sometimes finds an acorn," anyone can harvest basic information from Wikipedia. Kevin doesn't hit in the center of the target on everything he writes, however, including some near misses:

"1. About 26% of the earth's crust contains Silicon... That's a misread fact: in reality, silicon (Earth's second most common element after oxygen) accounts for about 28% of the planet's crust; but it it doesn't "contain Silicon," it is silicon.  "4. In silicate form, Silicon is found in minerals like granite..." Kevin! how many times do we have to tell you people, granite is not a mineral -- it's a rock composed of multiple minerals!

"6. When combined with oxygen, Silicon forms sand."

Common dumbassery: silicon dioxide, SiO₂, is the chemical formula for the mineral quartz. Lots of sand is quartz, but not all of it -- and more to the point, "sand" is a particle size (larger than silt, smaller than gravel), not a mineral.

"10. Silicon dust can be dangerous. Workers who inhale the dust can develop a lung disease called silicosis..."

That's not "silicon dust," that's silica dust  – silica is SiO₂... now where have I seen that before? As Hinton himself said in his point number 3, silicon does not naturally occur in its pure form.

And then there's some utter bullshit, like these three factoids:

"11. Silicon also has uses in the plastic surgery industry. Silicon implants have been used by doctors to change the look of many parts of the body including the cheeks and chin. 12. Silicon has been used to make artificial heart valves. 13. Liquid Silicon can be used in retinal surgery." Kevin, Kevin, Kevin - you blithering idiot! Silicon is not the same thing as silicone! Silicone is a versatile synthetic polymer, a form of plastic. Silicon (no "e") is the chemical element that in its pure form is a hard, grayish substance. The only way to get "liquid silicon" is to melt the pure stuff, at more than 1400°C - a temperature wholly unsuitable for dripping in the eye, we suspect. All those uses you named (and in most of the rest of your stupid-ass article) are of the man-made compound silicone, not the chemical element silicon. Get a friggin' clue, Kevin!

For his inability to tell the difference between silicon and silicone and his insistence on still misinforming his readers, the Antisocial Network hereby awards the Dumbass of the Day to Kevin D. Hinton. Here's a hint, Kev: the pretty crystal on your plaque is quartz: silicon dioxide...

¹ InfoBarrel has deleted all user-generated content and become a "green" website, but this post can still be reead by using the Wayback machine at archive.org. Its URL was   infobarrel.com/Interesting_Facts_About_Silicon_Si

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