Radioactivity | The Episodic Table of Elements

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

May 29, 2023

6:00 am

16 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)” →

The exterior of Primo Autobody Repair shop.

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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

Continue reading “90. Thorium: Bright Lights, Big City” →

Nuclear fuel plates submerged in water, showing the blue light of Cherenkov radiation.

89. Actinium: The Windup… And The Pitchblende

November 8, 2021

6:00 am

18 Comments on 89. Actinium: The Windup… And The Pitchblende

André-Louis Debierne, Cherenkov Radiation, Etymology, Friedrich Oskar Giesel, Glenn T. Seaborg, Medicine, Mineralogy, Mining, Pitchblende, Radioactivity, Speed Of Light, The Simpsons

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

We all know that radioactive rocks glow in the dark, except they actually don’t, except for when they actually do.

Continue reading “89. Actinium: The Windup… And The Pitchblende” →

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” →