France – The Episodic Table of Elements

92. Uranium: Two Untold Tales (Live At Harvard)

May 29, 2023

6:00 am

19 Comments on 92. Uranium: Two Untold Tales (Live At Harvard)

Alsos, Belgium, Church Rock, Congo, Edwin Kemble, Espionage, France, Frédéric Joliot-Curie, George Kistiakowsky, Georgius Agricola, Germany, Harvard, Indigenous Americans, Italy, Leslie Groves, Mining, Moe Berg, Navajo Nation, Nazis, Nobel Prizes, Nuclear Accidents, Nuclear Power, Nuclear Weapons, Otto Hahn, Paracelsus, Radioactivity, Samuel Goudsmit, Shinkolobwe, The Manhattan Project, Three Mile Island, United States, Werner Heisenberg, World War II

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America’s worst radioactive accident isn’t Three Mile Island, and the Nazi nuclear physicist wasn’t assassinated by the famous baseball player.

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88. Radium: Several Sordid Affairs

October 18, 2021

6:00 am

4 Comments on 88. Radium: Several Sordid Affairs

Albert Einstein, Art & Science, Cosmetics, Eben Byers, France, Frank Zappa, Frédéric Joliot-Curie, Irene Joliot-Curie, Labor, Marie Curie, Mark Twain, Medicine, New Jersey, Nobel Prizes, Paul Langevin, Paul Painlevé, Pierre Curie, Radioactivity, Radium Girls, Satan, William J. Bailey, Women In Science

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Out of all the characters who encounter radium in this episode, the only one to emerge unscathed is the guy who comes face-to-face with Satan.

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

November 25, 2019

6:00 am

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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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