It’s not green, and it doesn’t bring Superman to his knees, but researchers have discovered honest-to-goodness kryptonite in a mine in Serbia.
According to BBC News, the real mineral is white and, unfortunately for Lex Luthor, quite harmless.
“I’m afraid it’s not green and it doesn’t glow either — although it will react to ultraviolet light by fluorescing a pinkish-orange,” Dr. Chris Stanely, a minerologist at London’s Natural History Museum, told BBC News.
The scientist was called in by the mining company after the mysterious mineral was unearthed. Thanks to his expertise, and the Internet, Stanley soon discovered what the rock really was.
“Towards the end of my research I searched the web using the mineral’s chemical formula — sodium lithium boron silicate hydroxide — and was amazed to discover that same scientific name, written on a case of rock containing kryptonite stolen by Lex Luther from a museum in the film Superman Returns,” he said. “The new mineral does not contain fluorine (which it does in the film) and is white rather than green but, in all other respects, the chemistry matches that for the rock containing kryptonite.”
The fictional kryptonite — the remnants of the planent Krypton — originally was introduced in 1943 on the Superman radio series. The substance didn’t appear in comics until six years later, in Superman #61 (November/December 1949).

April 24th, 2007 at 3:50 pm
How does the chemistry compare to the read-out that Richard Pryor had in Superman III?