Etymology – The Episodic Table of Elements

55. Caesium: A Brief History Of Time

February 24, 2020

6:00 am

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Atomic Structure, Benjamin Franklin, Brazil, Chernobyl, Etymology, GPS, Industrial Revolution, Nuclear Accidents, Periodic Table, Radioactivity, Railroads, Roman Catholic Church, Soviet Union, Submarines, Time

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We’ll trace the history of the most important caesium-based technology all the way back to its original roots: a stick.

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An illustration of cretinism from the 1800s, with an emphasis on goiter.

53. Iodine: Purple Haze

January 27, 2020

6:00 am

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Bernard Courtois, England, Etymology, Fallout, France, Gandhi, Gunpowder, Humphry Davy, Imperialism, India, Joseph Gay-Lussac, Medicine, Michael Faraday, Napoleon, Psychiatry

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We’ll pull in our elemental haul from the sea while Lady Jane Davy spits in the ocean.

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52. Tellurium: To Hell You Ride

December 30, 2019

6:00 am

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Astronomy, Atomic Structure, Australia, Dmitri Mendeleev, Etymology, Linus Pauling, Martin Heinrich Klaproth, Mehmed II, Mineralogy, Mining, Odor, Romania, Science Fiction, United States, Vlad the Impaler

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Collecting elements can be risky business. Tellurium is one of those elements that poses a dire threat — not to one’s health, but to the element collector’s reputation in polite society.

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51. Antimony: Can You Return An Inheritance?

December 16, 2019

6:00 am

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Alchemy, Basilius Valentinus, China, Dioscorides, Egypt, Etymology, Jons Jacob Berzelius, Medicine, Mozart, Murder, Numismatics, Paracelsus, Pliny the Elder, Poisons, William J. Robinson

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It’s like an Everlasting Gobstopper, but Willy Wonka is a fratricidal German monk.

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