Talk:Germanium
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Article changed over to new Wikipedia:WikiProject Elements format by maveric149. Elementbox converted 13:28, 1 July 2005 by Femto (previous revision was that of 17:38, 14 June 2005).
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[edit] Information Sources
Some of the text in this entry was rewritten from Los Alamos National Laboratory - Germanium. Additional text was taken directly from USGS Germanium Statistics and Information, from the Elements database 20001107 (via dict.org), Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (via dict.org) and WordNet (r) 1.7 (via dict.org). Data for the table was obtained from the sources listed on the main page and Wikipedia:WikiProject Elements but was reformatted and converted into SI units.
[edit] Talk
From the Applications section: "While germanium has been claimed as an attractive nutritional supply, " Perhaps supply should be replaced with supplement. [edit]
[edit] Electrical conductivity units are incorrect
Instead of Ohm it should be Ohm-m or Ohm-cm or somesuch. (209.239.242.30) (ancient comment, done) Femto 11:42, 7 February 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Germanium in very small trace amounts may cure cancer
Germanium has shown no less than 'miraculous' results in fighting cancer In Japan, germanium has been used to help treat cancer for the past 30 years. Yet it has only been recently that the exact mechanism by which it works to tackle cancer has been uncovered.
Researchers found that germanium reduces the spread of cancer by slowing down the process that causes cancer cells to multiply. At the same time, the researchers observed that germanium didn't interfere with normal, healthy cells, which were left alone to grow and carry out their functions as nature intended (Chun Hua Yen 2000, 36(4):263-266).
Two years ago, a case study confounded many scientists and other members of the medical profession. It involved a patient suffering from a very rare and highly malignant form of lung cancer, called spindle cell carcinoma. Even with radical surgery, combined with radiotherapy and chemotherapy, only a small percentage of patients with this condition live more than a couple of years.
This particular patient had shown no initial response to any of the conventional treatments, and decided to take germanium supplements as a last resort instead. Doctors were astounded to find that even after four years, X-rays showed that the patient was completely free of cancer and that the disease didn't return (Chest 2000, 117(2):591-593).
[edit] Semiconductor related properties not listed
Germanium has been suggested to be used as a semiconductor here, but there are little or no properties relevent to semiconductors listed in the tables at the side (or in the document). I think it would be a good idea to make properties such as mobility, band gap, etc. part of the general template for semiconductor materials on wikipedia.
