We have already spoken about the most expensive substances you can find in our world. In this article, you will find even more information about valuable substances some of which have a very crucial meaning for people.
The most expensive medicine in the world
Needless to say, some medicines tend to be extremely expensive which makes them affordable only for a very small group of patients. Yet, you might not be aware of the worth of some of them.
The medicine which is currently listed in Guiness Record Book is Zolgensma. Zolgensma is a brand name given by the Swiss pharmacological company Novartis to onasemnogene abeparvovec which is the first medicine created for treating the spinal muscular atrophy.
The spinal muscular atrophy is a rather serious genetic condition which was regarded as untreatable for a rather long time. People ill with the spinal muscular atrophy cannot move and even keep their head up and swallow. Even though you might not know people with such a condition personally, the genes for this illness are rather widespread. According to the statistics, one person in 40-60 people on the planet has such gens.
Actually, many children just cannot survive this health condition which makes it one of the most frequent culprits for children’s death related to the genetics. In the majority of cases, this disease is developing during the first 18 months of the life of a child, yet, there is also a bit different type of this illness which can appear in adults.
Fortunately, scientists managed to find a cure for this disease in 2019, however, the production of this medicine is extremely complicated which results into an enormous price of this substance. Currently, the price for one gramme of Zolgensma is 390000 USD. As you can imagine, one gramme is not enough for treating the condition. Actually, a single dosage of this substance consists of 5.5 grammes which costs over 2 millions of dollars.
The most expensive gemstone
We are used to the idea that the most expensive gemstones in the world are diamonds. Yet, there is a crystal which is a way more pricey than diamonds. This substance is known as painite and it is an extremely rare form of borate minerals which actually makes it extremely expensive.
Before 2005, people had known only 25 pieces of this substance in the entire world. These pieces are stored in museums and private collections. Then, it turned out that Myanmar has an area where this crystal can be excavated, although its quality is somewhat worse.
Interestingly, for a very long time people mistook painite for ruby as the borate crystal is also red. Yet, some of its pieces tend to be more of a mixture of orange and brown colours.
The price for one gramme of this gemstone is 300 000 USD.
The most expensive noble metal
Do you know which noble metal is the most expensive? The hint is that the same metal is also the hardest noble metal.
You might not be aware of this metal which is more expensive than gold and platinum since you will hardly find any jewellery made of this metal. It is called rhodium and one gramme of this substance costs nearly 363 USD at the moment. The most important mines of this metal are located in Columbia, Russia, Canada and South Africa.
Even though you might not find any jewellery made of rhodium, it is still used for the jewellery production. You might have come across rings, neckless or other items of jewellery which are marked as rhodium-plated. This means that such an item was covered by a very thin layer of rhodium which is usually done in order to increase its stability and make it more resistant to various chemical and mechanical impacts.
This metal is also widely used for electronics production as well as glass manufacturing. Rhodium is also a popular catalyst of a chemical reaction used for the production of nitric acid. Furthermore, you will find rhodium in the detectors of a neutron stream in nuclear reactors.
The most expensive form of hydrogen
The title of this part of the article might sound strange since hydrogen is the most widespread substance you can come across in the Universe. This makes hydrogen very cheap.
At the same time, its isotope known as tritium is one of the most expensive substances in the world. The price for a gramme of tritium is around 30 000 USD which is quite impressive. As you can count, in order to produce a killogramme of tritium, you will need to spend 30 millions of dollars. Such a high price for this substance is certainly related to the complicated production which requires conducting a nuclear process involving lithium-6.
Tritium is a gas and it does not have any colour, however, it can glow in the darkness. Due to this fact, it is usually added to some goods such as watches, clocks and medical equipment.