Russia – The Episodic Table of Elements

94. Plutonium: Weapons-Grade

March 3, 2025

6:00 am

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Astronomy, Glenn T. Seaborg, Harry Daghlian, Harry Truman, Japan, Jons Jacob Berzelius, Los Alamos, Louis Slotin, Mythology, Nuclear Accidents, Nuclear Power, Nuclear Weapons, Radioactivity, Russia, The Demon Core, The Manhattan Project, United States, World War II

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Element 94 causes a bit of a crisis for our collections.

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62. Samarium: Eponymous Honorarium

June 1, 2020

6:00 am

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Etymology, Gustav and Heinrich Rose, Magnetism, Mineralogy, Mining, Paul-Emile Lecoq de Boisbaudran, Prussia, Russia, Vassili Samarsky

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We hear all sorts of incredible stories on this podcast, but today we’ll meet the most unbelievable character of all: A friendly bureaucrat.

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54. Xenon: Ignoble Gas

February 10, 2020

6:00 am

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Art & Science, Atomic Structure, IBM, Ions, Movie Science, Neil Bartlett, Oxidation, Photography, Poetry, Russia, Sports, Surgery, Ultracold Experiments, William Ramsay

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Truly strange things start to happen when you breathe this rarefied air.

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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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