“No, I don’t,” said Novee.
“Isn’t beryllium used for anything?” Sheffield turned to Vernadsky, “Is it?”
Vernadsky said in vast surprise. “No, it isn’t. Damn it, I can’t think of a single use. I tell you what, though. In the early days of atomic power, it was used in the primitive uranium piles as a neutron decelerator, along with other things like paraffin and graphite. I’m almost sure of that.”
“It isn’t used now, though?” asked Sheffield.
“No.”
An electronics man said, quite suddenly, “I think beryllium-zinc coatings were used in the first fluorescent lights.”
“No more, though?” asked Sheffield.
“No.”
Sheffield said, “Well, then, listen, all of you. In the first place, anything Mark quotes is accurate. That’s what the book said, if he says so. It’s my opinion that beryllium is poisonous. In ordinary life it doesn’t matter because the beryllium content of the soil is so low. When man concentrates beryllium to use in nuclear piles or in fluorescent lights or even in alloys, he comes across the toxicity and looks for substitutes.
“He finds substitutes, forgets about beryllium, and eventually forgets about its toxicity. And then we come across an unusual beryllium-rich planet like Junior and we can’t figure out what hits us. It takes a Mnemonic to remember the old, forgotten data.”