Short answers, pulled from the story.
Silver is a chemical element with the symbol Ag and atomic number 47. It is a soft, whitish-gray, lustrous transition metal with the highest electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and reflectivity of any metal.
Silver's symbol Ag comes from argentum, the Latin word for silver, which derives from a Proto-Indo-European root meaning shining or white. The reflexes of this term are missing in the Germanic and Balto-Slavic languages, where words like Old English seolfor are used instead.
Most silver is produced as a secondary byproduct of the electrolytic refining of copper, lead, and zinc, and by the Parkes process on lead bullion. In copper production, silver collects beneath the anode as anode slime, then is purified above 99.9 percent in a nitrate bath.
Mexico was the top silver producer in 2022, mining 6,300 tonnes, or about 24.2 percent of the world total of 26,000 tonnes. China followed with 3,600 tonnes and Peru with 3,100 tonnes.
Silver tarnishes black because it reacts with sulfur and its compounds to form silver sulfide. This deterioration occurs in the presence of hydrogen sulfide and its derivatives, while gold under the same conditions does not react.
Traditional photography exploited the light sensitivity of silver halides, especially silver bromide and iodide, which decompose to silver metal when struck by light. Silver nitrate was the starting material, and global demand for photographic silver peaked in 1999 at 267 million troy ounces before contracting nearly 70 percent by 2013.
Silver is used in medicine because the silver ion kills bacteria by interfering with enzymes that transport nutrients and build cell walls and by bonding to genetic material. Carl Nageli named this the oligodynamic effect, and silver now coats catheters, breathing tubes, and wound dressings.