Allotropes – The Episodic Table of Elements

50. Tin: Your Metal Pal Who’s Fun To Be With

November 25, 2019

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Alchemy, Allotropes, Alloys, Astronomy, Crystal Structure, Etymology, Food, France, Napoleon, Nicolas Appert, Numismatics, Oxidation, Preservation, Roald Amundsen, Robert Scott, Russia

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We’ve palled around with tin for thousands of years, but you should know that it’s a fair-weather friend.

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15. Phosphorus: Dealing With The Devil

June 11, 2018

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Adenosine Triphosphate, Alchemy, Allotropes, Annie Besant, Biology, Carl Wilhelm Scheele, Cosmetics, England, Germany, Guano, Hennig Brand, Illumination, Imperialism, Labor, Matches, Satan, World War II

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The history of phosphorus is largely a tale of people getting their hands dirty. Very, very dirty.

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8. Oxygen: Take What You Can Get

March 5, 2018

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Allotropes, Antoine Lavoisier, Atomic Bonding, Atomic Structure, Benjamin Franklin, Biology, Carl Wilhelm Scheele, Classical Elements, Electrolysis, France, French Revolution, Isotopes, Jean-Paul Marat, Joseph Priestley, Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, Maria Goeppert-Mayer, Marie Curie, Nobel Prizes, Oxidation, Prehistory, Women In Science

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Element 8 brings us two different stories about a population that gets a little too swept up in the latest craze, happening to commit mass murder in the process.

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6. Carbon: The Circle Of Life

February 12, 2018

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Allotropes, Anthropology, Archaeology, Atomic Bonding, Atomic Structure, Biology, Carbon Dating, Energy, England, Gilbert Lewis, Harold Urey, Industrial Revolution, Irving Langmuir, Isotopes, Mineralogy, Nobel Prizes, Pollution, Prehistory, Radioactivity, Stanley Miller, Thermodynamics

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Learn why carbon is the foundation of all life on Earth as we investigate a chemist’s suicide, death by air pollution, and one very, very cold murder case.

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