SKIRMISHER

The heartwarming presence of 13-year-old Anshul Samar, CEO of Elementeo whose mission is to make something as banal as the periodic table of chemical elements, is making geeks’ heads turn at the Sta Clara technology conference TiECON 2007. Anshul and his team of kids have the wits, ambition, and the beginnings of (quite possibly) weasel-like behavior that will make you stop and gape in awe. Elementeo, his “company,” is about making school work as exciting as blowing up bombs and killing your enemies with lead poisoning.

Samar argues that textbooks are boring and kids would rather spend their time battling enemies, blowing things up with bombs, and yes, even giving their opponents lead poisoning. So he created a fantasy role playing game that combines the rapturous teenage joys of competition and carnage with the exciting properties of the periodic table of chemical elements.

Here’s how the game works: You command an army of chemical elements, compounds and catalysts — represented within a 66-card deck (the fire and brimstone card at left is for “Sulfur,” for example). Your opponent has his own deck with the same number of cards. Your goal is to battle your competitor and reduce his IQ down to zero. Pit your oxygen card against your opponent’s iron card, for example, and you learn that you create rust. Score one for oxygen. Kind of like rock-paper-scissors, but with chemicals, dice and 66 impressively illustrated cards featuring monster-themed caricatures of chemicals.

Here’s Anshul making his articulate pitch at the TiECON.

Doesn’t he look like one kid you can love? Only that he will probably annoy the miserable beejesus out of you once he gets the $100,000 seed funding and proceeds to becoming obscenely rich from then on, hopefully before middle school ends. When that happens, our concern would be finding a good ointment to dab on our testicles as they will most probably retract in envy.

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