Wicked Problems. A wicked problem is a social or cultural problem that is difficult or impossible to solve for as many as four reasons: incomplete or contradictory knowledge, the number of people and opinions involved, the large economic burden, and the interconnected nature of these problems with other problems.
Surely you remember Iridium, Motorola Corporationâs $5 billion low-Earth-orbit debacle. Planned in the mid-1980s, the system was archaic by the time it was deployed in 1998, offering global communications from a brick-size, $3,000 phone at charges from $6 to $30 a minute.
Discovery of Iridium. Iridium was discovered in 1803, by English chemist Smithson Tennant in London. He found it in the residue left when crude platinum had been dissolved in aqua regia (a mixture of hydrochloric acid and nitric acid). Smithson Tennant also discovered osmium at the same time.ource: Iridium is found in natural alloys with platinum and osmium in alluvial deposits. Commercially, iridium is recovered as a by-product from the nickel mining industry. Isotopes: Iridium has 34 isotopes whose half-lives are known, with mass numbers from 165 to 198.