Vanadium compounds display a wide range of colors when oxidized.

Most of what is produced is alloyed with iron as ferrovanadium and used to strengthen molten steel.

Its first widespread use was in the 1908 Ford Model T, in its steel framework.

Its alloys with aluminum and titanium are used in dental implants and jet engines.

It was first discovered in 1801 by Andrés Manuel del Río, who named it erythronium, but he was later convinced by others that it was merely impure chromium. Nils Gabriel Sefström of Sweden rediscovered it in 1830 and named it vanadium. He named it after Vanadis, better known as Freyja. A man named George Featherstonhaugh once tried to name it rionium after del Río himself.

China has the largest mines of it, with Russia and South Africa in a distant second and third place.

Trace amounts exist in foods like mushrooms, parsley, shellfish, beer, wine, and grain.

Many wrenches, saws, drill bits, and engine turbines contain it in some form.

Vanadium-rich meteorites do exist, but they are rare and highly sought after by scientists.

Vanadium pentoxide is very dangerous and can cause green tongue, bronchitis, and pneumonia in those exposed.

Vanadium was almost a supplement to insulin for those with diabetes, but it caused too many abdominal cramps and diarrhea in test studies.

You can find a good amount of it in coal, tar sands, oil shale, and phosphate rock.

Vanadium technically has a half-life and is technically radioactive, but it will not decay until the sun dies.