What is the Unknown Element in Minecraft: Education Edition?

Minecraft: Education Edition is one of the more interesting iterations of the popular sandbox game, intended for use in a classroom setting to teach topics ranging from chemistry to programming. However, the chemistry feature in Education Edition is one of the most in-depth functions, allowing players to extract, synthesize, and combine chemical compounds to create new items.

Players in Minecraft: Education Edition can utilize every element seen in the Periodic Table of Elements. Many of these elements can be extracted from everyday game blocks, which is part of Education Edition's attempt to show that the natural world comprises the very same elements.

However, this version of Minecraft also has one extra element known simply as the Unknown Element, but what is it exactly?

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Breaking Down the Unknown Element in Minecraft: Education Edition

Although most of the elements found in Minecraft: Education Edition can also be found in the real world, the Unknown Element is the one exception. This particular substance can only be found by using the material reducer block and breaking down blocks like netherrack and soul sand.

Technically, this element can be obtained in both Education Edition and Bedrock Edition when Education Edition's features are enabled in the settings. Regardless, the substance is the lone element that can't be analyzed in the element constructor block to examine its protons, neutrons, and electrons.

Even more paradoxically, the Unknown Element has no atomic number and has a symbol on the periodic table that simply resembles a black background with a few purple pixels and two question marks. This element has no known crafting recipes that allow it to be made into new items or blocks.

The fact that the Unknown Element also doesn't fit into any existing periodic table groups, such as the Alkaline Metals or the Noble Gases, is unusual. Many players have deduced as to what this Unknown Element truly is, but Mojang hasn't confirmed any assumptions made by the larger player community.

One might assume, for example, that since the Unknown Element is part of blocks not found in the Overworld, it is essentially an undiscovered "alien" element. In our world, we haven't exactly collected elements from other dimensions, so it's reasonable that we wouldn't be able to classify one well if we could.

Since the Nether and End dimensions are so incredibly different compared to the more Earth-like Overworld, Minecraft: Education Edition may be using the Unknown Element to represent the otherworldly nature of the Nether/End. Science simply hasn't advanced enough in Education Edition to measure these two disparate dimensions.

Unfortunately, part of the "unknown" aspect of the Unknown Element means there simply isn't much information surrounding it. Perhaps Mojang has plans for this substance in the future as Education Edition evolves, though so far there have been no indications.

However, players can always continue to speculate and dream up scenarios surrounding this strange otherworldly Minecraft element.