Xenon is a noble gas that turns up in various lights.
It gets used in xenon ion propulsion systems for spacecraft.
Xenon plays a key role in the XENON detector which is used in the search for dark matter.
Xenon is also the ‘perfect’ anaesthetic, says Professor Allan Blackman from the Auckland University of Technology, in episode 92 of Elemental.
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The Elemental podcast is celebrating 150 years since the periodic table was first published by Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev.
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Professor Allan Blackman is at Auckland University of Technology.