Radium was famously found by the Curies, and was once widely used in face creams, drinks and luminous watch dials, despite being highly radioactive, says Allan Blackman in ep 68 of Elemental. Radium was first isolated as an element from pitchblende by Marie and Pierre Curie in 1898, just two years after Henri Becquerel discovered radioactivity, although the dangers of radioactivity were not recognised at that time. Radium salts glow in the dark and were infamously used on luminous clock and watc...
Sep 26, 2019•10 min•Ep. 68
Protactinium is a rare, radioactive element that has no uses and may be the most boring element, says Prof Allan Blackman from AUT in ep 67 of Elemental. Protactinium is rare, radioactive and one of the ten least abundant chemical elements in the Earth's crust. It was an element whose existence was predicted by Dmitri Mendeleev in the first periodic table in 1869, although it took 40 years for its existence to be confirmed. Little work was done on it until about 100 grams of the element were iso...
Sep 22, 2019•7 min•Ep. 67
Despite its gruesome mythical name, the radioactive element promethium has no particular claim to fame, says Prof Allan Blackman from AUT in ep 66 of Elemental. The element promethium is named for Prometheus, who stole fire from the Greek Gods and was gruesomely punished. The name was suggested by the wife of one of the Oak Ridge laboratory discovery team. Her reasoning was that the name reflects the power and peril of nuclear energy, by symbolising 'both the daring and the possible misuse of ma...
Sep 19, 2019•12 min•Ep. 66
Praseodymium is a metal wirh the second longest name on the periodic table and not many uses, says Prof Alan Blackman from AUT in ep 65 of Elemental. Praseodymium is the second-longest name on the periodic table. The prize for the longest element name goes to rutherfordium, named after the famous New Zealand physicist Lord Ernest Rutherford who won a Nobel Prize in chemistry. Praseodymium means 'green twin', a name that relates to confusion over the supposed element didymium. Didymium appeared o...
Sep 15, 2019•6 min•Ep. 65
From levitating burnt buttocks, to excitable nerves and sure-to-rise baking, potassium is highly reactive and vital to life, says Prof Allan Blackman in ep 64 of Elemental. Potassium is a fundamental building block of life that pops up all over the place. The name comes from the English word potash, an old term for potassium salts obtained from wood ash. The chemical symbol K comes from kalium, an Arabic term for alkaline - or al-kali- plant ashes. Germanic countries went with the common name ka...
Sep 12, 2019•11 min•Ep. 64
Polonium will be forever linked with the names Curie and Litvinenko and has negligible desirable features, says Prof Allan Blackman in ep 63 of Elemental. Polonium will be forever linked with the names Curie and Litvinenko and has negligible desirable features. Polonium (symbol Po and atomic number 84) is a radioactive metal, discovered by the Curies and named after Marie's home country of Poland, in 1898, a period when the country didn't actually exist. Po210 accumulates in tobacco and as a res...
Sep 08, 2019•10 min•Ep. 63
A radioactive heavyweight associated with nuclear bombs & power, which is powering the Voyager spacecraft, says Prof Allan Blackman from AUT in ep 62 of Elemental. Plutonium is a radioactive heavyweight associated with nuclear bombs & power generation. It is mostly a synthetic element, although there are trace amounts in nature. Plutonium (symbol Pu, atomic number 94) was discovered and named in 1940 after the dwarf planet Pluto. Alternative names considered by the discovery team were 'u...
Sep 05, 2019•9 min•Ep. 62
Platinum is useful in catalytic convertors, is used to treat testicular cancer and will be useful in hydrogen fuel cells, says Prof Allan Blackman from AUT in ep 61 of Elemental. Platinum is a rare precious metal, that doesn't corrode in oxygen. It occurs in its native state in nature and was used in burial goods by South Americans about 2000 years ago. Platinum is useful in catalytic convertors, along with palladium. It is used to treat testicular cancer and will be useful in hydrogen fuel cell...
Sep 01, 2019•9 min•Ep. 61
Phosphorus, chemical symbol P, was first isolated as an element from thousands of litres of urine. Also found in guano, aka bird poo. Allan Blackman from AUT has the full story in ep 60 of Elemental. Phosphorus, from the Greek phosphoros meaning light-bearing, was the old name for Venus. It is the first element for which we know the exact year of discovery: 1669. Hennig Brand made 120 grams of phosphorus by boiling down 5,500 litres of urine, ending up with a waxy white solid that glowed in the ...
Aug 29, 2019•14 min•Ep. 60
Palladium is a pricey precious metal most commonly used in catalytic convertors on car exhausts, says AUT's Allan Blackman in ep 59 of Elemental. Palladium is a pricey precious metal that is one of a group of metals known as platinum group metals. Of these, palladium is the least dense and has the lowest melting point. It is named after the asteroid Pallas, which was discovered around the same time; Pallas was the Greek God of wisdom. White gold is alloyed with palladium. Palladium (symbol Pd, a...
Aug 25, 2019•13 min•Ep. 59
Oxygen is very friendly with other chemical elements & very helpful for life on Earth, says Allan Blackman from AUT in ep 58 of Elemental. Oxygen is one of the few elements that exists as allotropes, which are different forms in the same physical state. Elemental oxygen is O. The oxygen that we breath in air is actually dioxygen or O2. There is also trioxygen, or ozone, O3. Oxygen is very friendly with other chemical elements as it is very reactive. Elemental oxygen is paramagnetic as it con...
Aug 22, 2019•15 min•Ep. 58
Osmium is extremely rare and expensive. It is the densest chemical element, rivals diamond as being the least compressible of all known substances & has a distinctive 'pong' according to Allan Blackman in ep 57 of Elemental. Osmium is an extremely rare and expensive transition metal, and only a few hundred kilograms are produced annually. It is the densest chemical element, and rivals diamond as being the least compressible of all known substances. It doesn't have many uses, although its har...
Aug 18, 2019•9 min•Ep. 57
Most important biological molecules contain nitrogen, even though it takes lots of energy to make or break its chemical bonds, says Allan Blackman from AUT in ep 56 of Elemental. Eighty percent of each breath we take is nitrogen gas. It is ironic that the French word for nitrogen, azote, means "without life', when most important biological molecules contain nitrogen. Nitrogen molecules are held together by one of the strongest bonds in chemistry. If you could obtain the energy contained in the b...
Aug 15, 2019•13 min•Ep. 56
Niobium is a metal that is useful at both very high temperatures, as in jet engines, and very low temperatures as a superconductor, says Allan Blackman from AUT in ep 55 of Elemental. Niobium was named after Niobe, daughter of King Tantalus in Greek mythology. The element got its name because it lies above the element tantalum, named after said father. Niobium is a transition metal that is used in alloys such as stainless steel, to add hardness. It is also being used in qubits in quantum compute...
Aug 11, 2019•10 min•Ep. 55
The chemical element nickel is named after a German word for Satan or the Devil, but nickel is now more usually thought of as a North American five cent piece, says Allan Blackman in ep 54 of Elemental. The name nickel for the chemical element comes from a German word Nickel, meaning Satan or the Devil. The five cent coins of Canada and the United States are known as nickels, even though the coins contain only small amounts of nickel and are in fact mostly made of copper. Nitinol, which is made ...
Aug 08, 2019•10 min•Ep. 54
There are no known compounds of the noble gas neon, which does however produce the brilliant crimson of red - and only red - neon lights. Ep 53 of Elemental with Prof Allan Blackman from AUT. Coming in at atomic number 10, neon is the first element on the periodic table to have a full outer set of eight electrons. It is a noble gas, highly unreactive and has no known compounds. Neon gives its name, and the colour red, to neon lights. The other colours of neon lights come from hydrogen (also red)...
Aug 04, 2019•11 min•Ep. 53
Neodydmium magnets include the strongest permanent magnets known and are found in devices like speakers & headphones, says chemistry professor Allan Blackman from AUT in ep 52 of Elemental. Neodymium magnets were invented in 1982, and are the strongest permanent magnets known. A neodymium magnet can lift up to 1000 times its own weight. They are actually an alloy of neodymium, iron and boron. Neodymium magnets turn up in speakers, headphones, hard drives, guitar pick-ups and microphones. You...
Aug 01, 2019•9 min•Ep. 52
The Elemental podcast has inspired Prof Allan Blackman from AUT and Dr Rebecca Jelley from the University of Auckland, to publish a paper in the journal Nature Chemistry - here's a quick lowdown on 'The most boring chemical element.' Inspired by the Elemental podcast series, Dr Rebecca Jelley, from the University of Auckland, and podcast host Professor Allan Blackman, from the Auckland University of Technology, have just had a paper published in the prestigious science journal Nature Chemistry. ...
Jul 31, 2019•8 min•Ep. 51
Molybdenum has an essential role as a catalyst at microbial and industrial scales and is an important element in enzymes, says Prof Allan Blackman, in ep 50 of Elemental. Molybdenum's biggest claim to fame is that it is a catalyst for reactions ranging in scale from the bacterial to industrial. It is a transition metal that is also an essential element. It is vital for life and was also key to the evolution of life. Molybedenum is found in enzymes, most importantly nitrogenase, which converts el...
Jul 28, 2019•10 min•Ep. 50
Mercury is the only metal that is liquid at room temperature and atmospheric pressure, says Allan Blackman in ep 49 of Elemental. Mercury is an unusual metal that is liquid at standard room temperature and atmospheric pressure. Mercury is named after the planet, and its chemical symbol Hg comes from the Latin hydrargyrum or liquid silver. Its silver-grey colour was a familiar sight in old-fashioned thermometers and in amalgam fillings in our teeth. Mercury alloys easily with other metals, in a p...
Jul 25, 2019•12 min•Ep. 49
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 al...
Jul 23, 2019•9 min•Ep. 48
Magnesium is loved by plants, folk suffering constipation and boy-racers, as Allan Blackman reveals in ep 47 of Elemental. Magnesium is a crowd favourite, loved by everything from plants to people suffering from constipation, as well as boy-racers. Magnesium (symbol Mg, atomic number 12), is an essential element for most living things. In plants, a Mg²⁺ ion is at the heart of the chlorophyll molecule, putting the element at the base of the food chain. In the human body, it is involved in the syn...
Jul 21, 2019•10 min•Ep. 47
After a fierce struggle for naming rights, the last lanthanoid element to be discovered was eventually named after Paris, says Allan Blackman in ep 46 of Elemental. The element lutetium was named after Lutetia, the Roman name for a small town which grew to become the modern city of Paris. It was the last lanthanoid element to be discovered, and its naming was hotly contested by the three scientists who independently discovered it in 1907. There is also ongoing debate over whether it is actually ...
Jul 18, 2019•8 min•Ep. 46
Lithium is the lightest metal, and it is used in batteries and for the treatment of bipolar disorder, says Prof Allan Blackman from AUT in ep 45 of Elemental. Lithium is the lightest metal on the periodic table and the lightest solid element. Lithium (symbol Li, atomic number 3) is also the most reducing element - it has a single outer electron that it is desperate to give away so it can form lithium ions. This characteristic makes it invaluable in lithium ion batteries such as those used in ele...
Jul 14, 2019•9 min•Ep. 45
Lead is the element that took down an empire, and its sweet taste belies a metal that is dangerous for human & animal health. All this and more with Prof Allan Blackman from AUT in ep 44 of Elemental. Lead is the toxic element that helped build - and then bring down - the Roman Empire. The Romans used lots of lead, which is soft and corrosion-resistant, for plumbing. Plumbing, by the way, is a word that has lead's symbol Pb, from the Latim plumbun, as its root. The Romans also used lead in p...
Jul 11, 2019•14 min•Ep. 44
Despite giving its name to a whole group on the periodic table, chemists can't agree if lanthanum even belongs in that group, says Prof Allan Blackman from AUT in ep 43 of Elemental. Lanthanum is a bit of a 'lost' element, as chemists can't agree amongst themselves exactly where it belongs. Even though it gives its name to a group of elements known as the lanthanoids, some chemists think it should instead be one of the Group 3 elements, along with scandium and yttrium. Discovered in 1839, the el...
Jul 07, 2019•8 min•Ep. 43
In real life krypton is a noble gas which is commonly used in neon signs and laser light shows, says Allan Blackman from AUT in ep 42 of Elemental. The make-believe planet of Krypton is well-known in popular culture as Superman's home planet. But in real life krypton is an element on the periodic table. Its name comes from the Greek word kryptos, meaning hidden. Krypton, chemical symbol Kr and atomic number 36 - is a mostly unreactive noble gas, discovered in 1898 by William Ramsay, who also fou...
Jul 04, 2019•8 min•Ep. 42
Iron is formed in stars, makes up most of the Earth's core & as a result enables life as we know it to exist, says Prof Allan Blackman from AUT, in ep 41 of Elemental. Iron is the only chemical element on the periodic table to have one of the Ages of humanity named after it. Iron ornaments dating back to 3500 BCE have been found in Egyptian tombs, but the Iron Age started at different times in other civilisations. The first use of iron by humans was probably iron found in meteorites, as alth...
Jun 30, 2019•12 min•Ep. 41
Iridium is the second-densest element on the periodic table and the most erosion-resistant metal. A layer of iridium in rocks marks the demise of the dinosaurs, according to Allan Blackman from AUT, in ep 40 of Elemental. Iridium played an important role in a geological whodunnit - the demise of the non-avian dinosaurs. Iridium is present at high levels in a thin band of rocks that marks the boundary between the Cretaceous and Paleogene geological periods. The theory is that the element came fro...
Jun 27, 2019•8 min•Ep. 40
A lack of iodine causes goitre, and seafood and iodised salt are good sources of this important trace element, says Prof Allan Blackman from AUT, in ep 39 of Elemental. The element iodine is often found in bathroom medicine cabinets, where it is used as an antiseptic for cuts and grazes. It gets its name from the Greek work iodes, meaning violet. Iodine (chemical symbol I, atomic number 53) is a non-metal, and shares a group with astatine, bromine, chlorine and fluorine. Seaweeds have the abilit...
Jun 23, 2019•11 min•Ep. 39
