Elemental
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Top 10 Elemental Episodes
Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best Elemental episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to Elemental for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite Elemental episode by adding your comments to the episode page.
11/14/19 • 8 min
A discovery from the chemically prolific Swedish village of Ytterby, terbium produced the green on old TV sets & adds security to Euro notes, says Prof Allan Blackman from AUT in ep 85 of Elemental.
A discovery from the chemically prolific Swedish village of Ytterby, the lanthanoid terbium produced the green on old TV sets & adds security to Euro notes, says Professor Allan Blackman from the Auckland University of Technology, in episode 85 of Elemental.
For further elements named after Ytterby, see erbium, yttrium and ytterbium (although you'll have to wait for the latter two).
10/10/19 • 8 min
Ruthenium is a 'sort of' precious metal that is a useful catalyst and alloy. It is toxic and smells like ozone, says Allan Blackman from AUT in ep 73 of Elemental.
Ruthenium is a rare transition metal produced mostly as a by-product of nickel mining.
It is not widely used industrially, although it is found in some catalysts and alloys. It is more useful in the chemistry laboratory, where it has helped several chemists win Nobel Prizes.
Ruthenium is toxic and if you have the bad fortune to be exposed to it, it smells of ozone says Professor Allan Blackman from the Auckland University of Technology, in episode 73 of Elemental.
07/23/19 • 8 min
The metal manganese is a vital part of photosynthesis and is found in aluminium drink cans, says Prof Allan Blackman from AUT in ep 48 of Elemental.
The metal manganese performs a vital role in the oxidation of water to oxygen during photosynthesis - without it, life would be very different
Pure manganese metal is brittle, but it is often alloyed with other metals to add strength and workability.
Ordinary steel contains about one percent manganese, and it is also used in similar quantities in aluminium drink cans.
Manganese steel contains about 13 percent and is extremely strong. It is used in railway tracks and gun barrels where strength is very important.
The Lascaux cave paintings in France were painted with manganese dioxide.
Manganese (symbol Mn, atomic number 25) occurs as nodules on the sea floor. These numerous onion-like balls form around a tiny object such as shark's teeth and whale ear bones. The nodules could be an important source of manganese in the future, according to Professor Allan Blackman from AUT.
Chromium - colourful and shiny
Elemental
04/28/19 • 7 min
Chromium is a transition metal that gives colour to precious jewels, the shine to your car fender and your kitchen bench, but can also be a killer. All this and more in ep 21 of Elemental with Allan Blackman from AUT.
Chromium, the element, gives us colour and shine - and helped Julia Roberts win an Oscar in 2000 for the movie Erin Brockovich.
Chromium is the red in rubies, the green in emeralds and the pink in sapphires.
It is the shine on your car fender and your stainless steel kitchen bench.
Chromium III is widely used to tan leather*, while chromium XI (hexavalent chromium) has been used in textile dying and corrosion resistant coatings, and is very carcinogenic.
The story of chromium the transition metal (Cr, number 24) with Professor Allan Blackman from AUT.
*CLARIFICATON:
Chromium XI is not used in leather tanning."Basic Chromium (III) Sulphate has been used for many decades to tan over 90 percent of the world's leather. It reacts with collagen covalently via the carboxyl groups associated with glutamic and aspartic acids to give a hydrothermally stable substrate, or leather." Information courtesy of the New Zealand Leather & Shoe Research Association
Antimony - takes lives, saves lives
Elemental
03/03/19 • 8 min
Antimony can be used to take lives - and to save lives. Check out episode 4 of Elemental with Professor Allan Blackman from AUT.
Antimony can be used to take lives - and to save lives. Check out episode 4 of Elemental with Professor Allan Blackman from AUT, as he shares the varied uses of antimony (chemical symbol Sb and element number 51).
Compounds of antimony have uses ranging from hardenng lead in printing presses to the black eyeliner beloved of early Egyptians.
Antimony might ring bells if you've listened to William Ray's Black Sheep podcast from RNZ - it features in the story Poisoner: the story of Thomas Hall. And if you haven't already listened, it comes highly recommended.
05/02/19 • 9 min
Famous as the colour of blue glass and important in red blood cells, cobalt can form a permanent magnet and is vital for livestock. Allan Blackman from AUT talks about his favourite element in ep 22 of Elemental.
The element cobalt's name comes from the German word kobold, meaning goblin or evil spirit. It was named by miners in 16th century Saxony who thought they had found deposits of silver but had actually found cobalt arsenide.
Cobalt (symbol Co and atomic number 27) is a transition metal. It is ferromagnetic, which means it can form a permanent magnet.
Cobalt is responsible for the cobalt blue paint pigment and Bristol blue glass.
It is an essential trace element in animals as it part of vitamin B12.
Foer a while it was added to beer to help it maintain a frothy head, but when coupled with poor diet and lots of alcohol it led to heart problems known as 'cobalt-beer cardiomyopathy.'
Professor Allan Blackman from AUT says cobalt is his favourite chemical element as he studied it for his PhD.
11/10/19 • 9 min
Tellurium is a metalloid often found with gold and the US town Telluride is named after it, says Prof Allan Blackman, in ep 84 of Elemental.
Tellurium was one of Mendeleev's rare mistakes on the original periodic table as he put it in the wrong place.
Tellurium compounds are most famous for their nasty and persistent smell. Just fifteen milligrams of tellurium oxide taken orally will still be detectable as 'tellurium breath' eight months later. And the smell? Like bad garlic, owing to the production of dimethyltellurium.
It is a metalloid and finds uses in semiconductors, says Professor Allan Blackman from the Auckland University of Technology, in episode 84 of Elemental.
05/07/19 • 15 min
There are only two chemical elements on the periodic table named after women: curium, in honour of Marie & Pierre Curie, & meitnerium after Lise Meitner. Allan Blackman from AUT introduces the women and their elements in ep 24 of Elemental.
Marie Curie and Lise Meitner were pioneering women chemists, and the only two women to have chemical elements named in their honour.
Curium, named after Marie Curie and her husband Pierre, is element number 96, which sits between americium and berkelium at the bottom of the periodic table.
It is a radioactive, synthetic element that was discovered in 1944. It is responsible for much of the radiation of spent nuclear fuel.
Marie Curie is the only person to have received two science Nobel Prizes: the Chemistry Nobel in 1903 which she shared with Pierre, and the Physics Nobel in 1911.
Marie Curie's lab notebooks are still too radioactive to study without wearing protective clothing.
Lise Meitner was born to Jewish parents in Vienna in 1878, and moved to Berlin to work in 1912. She was forced to flee from Nazi Germany to Sweden in 1938.
Although Lise was nominated for a Nobel Prize 48 times she never won one.
The synthetic element meitnerium is atomic number 109 and symbol Mt. It was discovered in 1982 but not named until 1997. Its German discoverers named it to "render justice to a victim of German racism and to credit in fairness a scientific life and work."
Allan Blackman from AUT introduces the women & their elements.
10/01/19 • 7 min
Named after the Rhine river, rhenium is a metal with very high boiling and melting points, and it was the last naturally occuring, non-radioactive element to be discovered, says Prof Allan Blackman in ep 70 of Elemental.
The chemical element rhenium is named after the Rhine River.
It is one of the rarest elements in the earth's crust and the last of the naturally-occurring non-radioactive elements to be discovered.
Rhenium has a number of claims to chemical fame: the metal has the highest boiling point (5596 degrees Celsius), third highest melting point and is the fourth most dense of all the elements.
It finds use in alloys and catalysts, says Professor Allan Blackman from AUT, in episode 70 of Elemental.
12/12/19 • 8 min
Ytterbium is yet another lanthanoid named after the Swedish village of Ytterby, says Prof Allan Blackman in ep 95 of Elemental.
Ytterbium is yet another lanthanoid named after the Swedish village of Ytterby. It is a sister element to erbium, terbium and yttrium.
The ytterbium lattice clock is one of the world's most accurate clocks, says Professor Allan Blackman from the Auckland University of Technology, in episode 95 of Elemental.
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FAQ
How many episodes does Elemental have?
Elemental currently has 98 episodes available.
What topics does Elemental cover?
The podcast is about Podcasts and Science.
What is the most popular episode on Elemental?
The episode title 'Zinc - more useful than you realise' is the most popular.
What is the average episode length on Elemental?
The average episode length on Elemental is 10 minutes.
How often are episodes of Elemental released?
Episodes of Elemental are typically released every 3 days.
When was the first episode of Elemental?
The first episode of Elemental was released on Feb 19, 2019.
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