Post-transition metal · element 81
Thallium
Tasteless, odourless, and the poisoner's favourite.
Only 3.5% of people are Thallium. (estimated)
If you're Thallium
You are hard to detect and easy to underestimate. Soft on the outside, quietly dangerous, and best kept at a distance by people who know.
Thallium was the classic undetectable poison until modern tests caught up with it; it's now mostly used in infrared optics.
How to get along with Thallium
Do
- Keep a respectful distance and enjoy the quiet.
- Notice what they don't say.
- Keep things transparent; they detect the rest.
Don't
- Don't underestimate the soft exterior.
- Don't cross them without knowing what they know.
When it goes wrong: You won't taste it coming. Keep the relationship honest and you'll never need to.
Atomic profile
Every element is placed on six personality dimensions derived from its chemistry. Your answers are placed on the same six, and the closest element wins. How the scoring works
- Reactivity
- 5
- Sociability
- 4
- Stability
- 8
- Energy
- 2
- Rarity
- 6
- Warmth
- 3
Thallium in literature
- Claggart — Billy Budd, Herman Melville (1924)
- Goneril — King Lear, William Shakespeare (1606)
- Uriah Heep — David Copperfield, Charles Dickens (1850)
Characters from public-domain works, chosen for the same traits. Company, not a verdict.
Closest personalities
The elements whose profiles sit nearest to Thallium's. If you got Thallium, one of these was probably your runner-up.
Other post-transition metals
AlAluminiumGaGalliumInIndiumSnTinPbLeadBiBismuthPoPoloniumNhNihoniumFlFleroviumMcMoscoviumLvLivermorium