Mythology – The Episodic Table of Elements

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90. Thorium: Bright Lights, Big City

February 22, 2022

8:30 am

19 Comments on 90. Thorium: Bright Lights, Big City

Alsos, Alvin Weinberg, Auergesellschaft, Candoluminescence, Carl Auer von Welsbach, Illumination, India, Jons Jacob Berzelius, Leslie Groves, Mythology, Nazis, New York City, Nuclear Power, Nuclear Weapons, Oak Ridge National Labs, Radioactivity, The Manhattan Project

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Sure, thorium could provide practically limitless clean energy, but then we couldn’t build weapons of mass destruction.

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61. Promethium: What A Friend We Have In Prometheus

May 18, 2020

6:00 am

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Art & Science, Henry Moseley, Illumination, Italy, Mythology, Radioactivity

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We’ve met mythological light-bearers before, but this one possesses a decidedly nobler spirit.

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40. Zirconium: Burning Up, Melting Down

July 1, 2019

6:00 am

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Earthquakes, Electricity, Fukushima, Martin Heinrich Klaproth, Mineralogy, Mythology, Nuclear Accidents, Nuclear Power, Radioactivity, Tsunamis

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Today, we reach the last element on the periodic table — but only alphabetically speaking.

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27. Cobalt: Mischief Managed

December 17, 2018

6:00 am

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Albert Einstein, Chien-Shiung Wu, Fallout, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Georg Brandt, Leo Szilard, Magnetism, Medicine, Mining, Mythology, Nobel Prizes, Nuclear Weapons, Parity, Radioactivity, Symmetry, Wolfgang Pauli, Women In Science, World War II

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Cobalt is a tricksy little element, which means the scientists who’ve dealt with it the most are some of the cleverest people to have ever walked the Earth.

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