Nobel Prizes – The Episodic Table of Elements

drawing of the landscape of thorns

93. Neptunium: Great Expectations

August 22, 2024

6:00 am

6 Comments on 93. Neptunium: Great Expectations

Astronomy, Benito Mussolini, Berkeley Edwin McMillan, Bruno Pontecorvo, Clemens Winkler, Coal Power, Deep Time, Dmitri Mendeleev, Edoardo Amaldi, Emilio Segre, Energy, Enrico Fermi, Ettore Majorana, Etymology, Fascism, Finland, Fission, Franco Rasetti, Fritz Strassman, Germany, Hans Rudolph Hermann, Ida Tacke, Indigenous Americans, Isotopes, Italy, Japan, Lise Meitner, Nazis, Nevada, Nobel Prizes, Nuclear Power, Nuclear Weapons, Orso Mario Corbino, Otto Frisch, Otto Hahn, Philip H. Abelson, Radioactivity, Sweden, Synthetic Elements, Tennessee, Tsunamis, United States, Walter Noddack, Women In Science, World War II

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

To the person who said, “the episodes are never too long,” I’m terribly sorry.

Continue reading “93. Neptunium: Great Expectations” →

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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

Continue reading “92. Uranium: Two Untold Tales (Live At Harvard)” →

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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.

Continue reading “88. Radium: Several Sordid Affairs” →

36. Krypton: It’s A Metric

May 6, 2019

6:00 am

3 Comments on 36. Krypton: It’s A Metric

Comics, Dmitri Mendeleev, France, Geography, International System of Units, James Clerk Maxwell, Napoleon, Nobel Prizes, Radioactivity, Space Exploration, Spectroscopy, The Cold War, William Ramsay

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Like argon, today’s noble gas coincidentally features prominently in science fiction — albeit in name only. But krypton also takes a place in the science factual story of international weights and measures.

Continue reading “36. Krypton: It’s A Metric” →