Silver Silver Silver is a chemical element with symbol Ag (from the Latin "", derived from the Proto-Indo-European "h₂erǵ": "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and reflectivity of any metal. The metal is found in the Earth's crust in the pure, free elemental form ("native silver"), as an alloy with gold and other metals, and in minerals such as argentite and chlorargyrite. Most silver is produced as a byproduct of copper, gold, lead, and zinc refining. Silver has long been valued as a precious metal. Silver
Silver stain Silver stain Silver staining is the use of silver to selectively alter the appearance of a target in microscopy of histological sections; in temperature gradient gel electrophoresis; and in polyacrylamide gels. Camillo Golgi perfected silver staining for the study of the nervous system. Although the exact chemical mechanism by which this occurs is unknown, Golgi's method stains a limited number of cells at random in their entirety. Silver staining was introduced by Kerenyi and Gallyas as a sensitive procedure to detect trace amounts of proteins in gels. The technique has been extended to the study of other biological macromolecules that