Unusual elements

Wikipedia is such a great resource. There’s no way Encyclopaedia Britannica has an entry about these: fictional elements. It lists substances that exist in the imagination only, including such well-known ones as Dilithium and Kryptonite, as well as the less renowned Finkilium and Turbonium. Check it out.

Here are some of them:

• Bolonium or Bolognium (Futurama, The Simpsons, others) - A fictional element used to describe something as impossible or nonsensical: "Your explanations are pure, weapons-grade bolonium!" According to Oscar Mayer's promotional periodic table of elements in The Simpsons, the atomic weight of bolonium is "delicious" or "snacktacular".


• Cavorite (H.G. Wells' The First Men in the Moon; also used in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and A Deepness in the Sky) - Cavorite is impervious to gravity and can shield other materials from its effects. It is used to shield a craft from Earth's pull, allowing easy flight. It was named after its discoverer, Mr. Cavor, who used its levitational properties to travel to the Moon.


• Deletium (User Friendly) - An unwanted substance typically removed from computer systems. Characterized by consistent performance failures and expensive upgrades. Also, any Microsoft product.


• Dilithium (Star Trek) - A fictional crystalline mineral in the universe of Star Trek that is used to regulate the anti-matter-powered warp drives that allow starships to travel faster than light.


• Disgruntium (Joke) - An element which attracts and absorbs all levity, humor, and joy. It is highly toxic on direct contact but also radiates an unknown particle or field which affects the emotional state of nearby individuals.


• Femium [or is it Feminum?] (Wonder Woman TV Series) - Element found only on Paradise Island. Prolonged exposure to radiation from ore gives women immortality and superstrength; has no effect on men. Ore can be fashioned into a bulletproof metal, but is usually used for jewelry, such as bracelets.


• Finkilium (I Dream of Jeannie) - A rare metal sought by NASA and imperative to the success of the Saturn 12 program. Mentioned in episode 116, "Guess Who's Going to Be A Bride".


• Illudium Phosdex (Looney Tunes) - Also known as the shaving cream atom, it was found only on Planet X, which was unfortunately destroyed when both Duck Dodgers and Marvin the Martian tried to conquer it for Earth and Mars, respectively.


• Impervium (Donald Duck) - Material of which the doors of Scrooge McDuck's money bin are made according to Carl Barks


• Kryptonite (DC Comics) - Crystalline material, originally in various colours with separate effects, harmful to Kryptonians and created during the destruction of Superman's home planet Krypton; synthesis is also possible. Green Kryptonite was established as the sole variety, element 126 on the periodic table of the elements, in John Byrne's retcon of the DC Comics universe.


• Omega (Star Trek: Voyager) - An unstable and vastly dangerous molecule capable of destructive explosions that also disrupt subspace, making warp travel impossible. This atom that is a perfect energy source but also highly unstable and can destroy warp space. Seven of Nine mentions that the Borg revere it religiously due to its perfection and multiple components working together perfectly. Star Trek: Voyager Season 4 (4.21) Episode #89 The Omega Directive, Star Date 51781.2 (Org. Air Date: 15 Apr 1998)


• Stupidium (Various) - Used in several circumstances, many times to make fun of scientific jargon, especially of the use of names of elements with the suffix "-ium".


• Turbonium (Volkswagen Commercial and Total Recall) - The focal point of the first commercial for the turbo-charged version of the New Beetle. In theory, it was the element from which the turbo version of the car was forged. In the movie Total Recall, it was a metal\alloy used to extract oxygen from the ice on Mars's core.


• Unobtainium (The Core, many thought experiments) - Unobtainium is really any material that is unobtainable (for example, titanium was called "unobtainium" during the '60s within American aerospace due to the Soviets' cornering the market); although it can be that it possesses properties that are unlikely or impossible for any real material to possess and is hence completely unobtainable. It is also an informal name for an improbably strong material found in works of science fiction, only used explicitly in The Core. It is typically used to fill a plot hole, allowing characters to do things that may not be physically possible even in principle; thus a possibly more correct term is "handwavium."


• Upsidaisium (The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show) - Upsidaisium is a metal that is lighter than air and can be obtained by mining in upsidaisium-rich areas.