Speaker 1: Yeah, welcome to Stuff from the Science Lab from how
Speaker 1: stuff works dot com. Hey, guys, welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 1: This is Alison Leader Malcot, the science editor at how
Speaker 1: stuff works dot com. And this is Robert Lamb, science
Speaker 1: writer at how stuff works dot com. So, as you
Speaker 1: guys know, as you very well know, we are a
Speaker 1: science podcast, and as such, I really did think that
Speaker 1: we had to have a podcast that covered the periodic table,
Speaker 1: one of the awesomest pieces of paper to be put
Speaker 1: out there. Yeah. Maybe it covers a whole wall in
Speaker 1: your lab or in your room or at your office,
Speaker 1: but it's it's really kind of astounding all the information
Speaker 1: that is packed onto this one sheet of paper. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's one of those things that kind of grew to
Speaker 1: appreciate because I was kind of bored by the periodic
Speaker 1: table when I was in school. It was kind of
Speaker 1: like one more thing you have to memorize, and well,
Speaker 1: maybe not memorize. I don't know if we had a
Speaker 1: memorize Did you memorize? I don't think it memorized. No, No,
Speaker 1: you had to know because I'm remember one thing that
Speaker 1: would come to mind, like people would be like, dude,
Speaker 1: what have I got a tattoo of the periodic table
Speaker 1: on my forearm. Well, there are periodic table tattoos all
Speaker 1: sorts of merchandise. But but then it's but there was
Speaker 1: kind of like this idea that it was like like
Speaker 1: teachers wouldn't be able to like get after you for
Speaker 1: cheating if it was tattooed scan out of it as
Speaker 1: a method of cheating. Interesting. Yeah, I mean it really
Speaker 1: speaks to our desire to organize the world. I think
Speaker 1: it's one of the ultimate feats of organization that scientists
Speaker 1: have pulled off. Yeah, it's pretty spectacular. I mean, these
Speaker 1: are the building blocks of the universe. For the most part,
Speaker 1: at least, the building blocks were all matter that we
Speaker 1: regularly encounter. Let's not get into the whole dark matter thing, right,
Speaker 1: Well we're not, We're not. That's the whole Yeah. Yeah, so, um,
Speaker 1: what does it happen? It has, Yeah, all the elements
Speaker 1: on it, and so elements of course by themselves are
Speaker 1: in combination with a couple other elements make up the
Speaker 1: matter that we see. Yeah, it's good to go back
Speaker 1: to the two on the forearm. It's like the whole
Speaker 1: even like even the idea that you could have a
Speaker 1: tattoo that contained um all this data. It is pretty incredible.
Speaker 1: It just tells you how how amazing the periodic table is.
Speaker 1: It's like the the ultimate cheat sheet, you know. It's
Speaker 1: like so much data. You know. It's like you see
Speaker 1: like people who carry like a tip calculator card in
Speaker 1: your wallet or something, you know, and it's just cram
Speaker 1: full of numbers, you know, where some other kind of
Speaker 1: little bits of reference cards that people carry around, and
Speaker 1: and and you generally have to really abbreviate things big
Speaker 1: time to make it right. You have to make it
Speaker 1: really you have to make your scripts very very small.
Speaker 1: Did you ever have exams, like in college or in
Speaker 1: high school where you were allowed to bring in a
Speaker 1: cheat sheet so you would just make it teeny teeny tiny,
Speaker 1: But then you can't find anything on the cheat sheet
Speaker 1: because it was so tiny, and you're in a panic
Speaker 1: because you're trying to hustle through the test. Yeah, I remember.
Speaker 1: I think I had some classes like that where they
Speaker 1: were like you could fill up like one Q card,
Speaker 1: you know, and but that was all you got, Yeah,
Speaker 1: and then you never wind up referencing them, or maybe
Speaker 1: you did. I don't know. If I can't speak for
Speaker 1: you sneeze on them and you can't use them. First
Speaker 1: periodic table was attempted back in the late eighteen hundreds,
Speaker 1: and we have Russian chemist Dmitri mendal aev Um to
Speaker 1: thank for that. He got pretty close in six nine,
Speaker 1: and he leave the groundwork for what we have come
Speaker 1: to know and love as the periodic table. Of course, Mendaliev,
Speaker 1: who was a professor of chemistry at St. Petersburg, he
Speaker 1: got a little help from another English chemist, a guy
Speaker 1: by the name of Henry Moseley, who decided to use
Speaker 1: atomic number rather than atomic way to organize the elements
Speaker 1: in the table. But we'll get into those two terms
Speaker 1: a little bit um. Some of you guys are definitely
Speaker 1: already familiar with them, but we'll talk about them a
Speaker 1: little bit more. And some of you may be looking
Speaker 1: at a periodic table right now, which is cool. That
Speaker 1: is cool. It would help. Like, unless you're driving, don't
Speaker 1: do not pull up the periodic table. If you're driving,
Speaker 1: I have to say that a million times. Don't do it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we just that's a warning that never gets old. Periodic
Speaker 1: table and driving are not don't do it. So nowadays
Speaker 1: we have a periodic table that starts with hydrogen and
Speaker 1: it ends with an element one eighteen or nun octium.
Speaker 1: Those are really fun to say, don't you think that's great?
Speaker 1: That could be a good band name. If you're looking
Speaker 1: at a periodic table, you you notice that elements one
Speaker 1: thirteen through get these temporary names. Yeah, and those names
Speaker 1: are just Latin for the elements atomic number, So untrium
Speaker 1: for element one thirteen, that's that's just gonna be the
Speaker 1: atomic number until it gets a permanent place in the pantheon,
Speaker 1: that is periodic table. That was a lot of peas
Speaker 1: and one sentence. Yeah, it's like if you have a
Speaker 1: literate kittens born, you're just like, it's better to name
Speaker 1: them like numbers one through twelve until you're really sure
Speaker 1: sticking around right right. It's kind of this Latin limbo
Speaker 1: on the periodic table until the whole verification process goes through.
Speaker 1: So I gonna ask, what's your favorite element name? And
Speaker 1: I'm talking about true or or real elements as supposed
Speaker 1: to fictional ones. Well, there are a lot of great ones,
Speaker 1: but I think I like scandium. You do. Why do
Speaker 1: you like scandium? What it? There's like a like scandium
Speaker 1: there's a sense of like scamps and like it's fun
Speaker 1: to say scandal, scandal. It sounds kind of sinister, you know. Um,
Speaker 1: I like Seaborg Um, it's it's got a nice ring
Speaker 1: to it. It makes me think of a racehorse. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that one was actually um discovered by professor Ernest Suborg nine. Right,
Speaker 1: another mention of Ernest borgnine. No, that was named after
Speaker 1: Glenn Seaborg. And there's a great picture of him in
Speaker 1: our article which we're you know, a lot of the
Speaker 1: researches is coming from today. We have how the periodic
Speaker 1: table works, and that was written by Craig, Craig Ford
Speaker 1: and Rich So thinking Craig. But anyway, back to Glenn Seaborg.
Speaker 1: He's the he's the guy who suggested pulling out the
Speaker 1: lanthanoids and actinoids and placing them below the table to
Speaker 1: make it more compact. So not only does he have
Speaker 1: an element named after him on the table, which is
Speaker 1: no small feat, he's the one who who kind of
Speaker 1: influenced the way you the way it's laid out on
Speaker 1: the page. So it's pretty cool. So the table, the
Speaker 1: the ultimate table, has inspired a lot of fix. Yes, well,
Speaker 1: it's way it's one of your favorites. My my absolute
Speaker 1: favorite is the table of Transitional Elements from the British
Speaker 1: um a comedy Look Around You, which was I've mentioned
Speaker 1: before on this podcast. It's like a mock documentary about science.
Speaker 1: And I know this was with Leonard Hatred, right, yes,
Speaker 1: with Leonard Hatred, isn't it. And actually have a copy
Speaker 1: of this, uh this fake periodic table over my desk,
Speaker 1: and it has things like like music is on there,
Speaker 1: um and nothing is on there with an atomic like
Speaker 1: weight of zero, and just just it's just it's worth
Speaker 1: looking up. It's it's available online. It's just got all
Speaker 1: these just that everything is ridiculous. Like France, Uh it's
Speaker 1: on their water is on there. That's pretty good. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we get a lot of the periodic tables sent to
Speaker 1: us in the fake nature. I think people think, well,
Speaker 1: you know, those guys will appreciate them. Yeah, it's become
Speaker 1: an internet meme kind of thing, like like what's your
Speaker 1: favorite that you've seen? Um, when I was hungry, it
Speaker 1: was definitely the fake table of cupcakes, remember that the
Speaker 1: Katie of I don't know if I saw that, Steph,
Speaker 1: you missed in history class, Well, don't tell Katie that
Speaker 1: because I think you're emailed on there. There's also one.
Speaker 1: Then I came across it was a periodic table of swearing,
Speaker 1: which I don't necessarily advise you to go to because
Speaker 1: it's pretty graphic. I saw one and uh one for
Speaker 1: the periodic table of metal I believe like heavy metal,
Speaker 1: and this one's really interesting and that is that when
Speaker 1: when I looked it up, it's like there were comments
Speaker 1: at the bottom of the page and everybody was complaining
Speaker 1: because everybody's was like everybody's particular favorite metal act was
Speaker 1: left off or didn't have as much prominence as they
Speaker 1: thought it should have. So people were like, like, dude,
Speaker 1: we're Slayer on this or or how can please tell
Speaker 1: me Metallica was number one? Well, I don't know how.
Speaker 1: I forget how it was that was ranking, Robert, how
Speaker 1: can you not bring that critical information? Well? But I
Speaker 1: did notice that Mi Sugar was not on there, and
Speaker 1: I was like, they're really good. Why are they not
Speaker 1: on here? But I don't really know metal all that well.
Speaker 1: But but the point being is it if you set
Speaker 1: out to make a periodic table of metal, you cannot
Speaker 1: include everything. You end up leaving important to some people
Speaker 1: important things off. Are you insinuating that there's stuff left
Speaker 1: off their real periodic table? You know, I'm I'm pointing
Speaker 1: out that the real periodic table is is that awesome
Speaker 1: because it's so inclusive. It's inclusive in ways that a
Speaker 1: periodic table of metal cannot be agreed. Agreed, But I think,
Speaker 1: I mean, I do want to talk about this a
Speaker 1: little later. But I'm not sure that everything is on
Speaker 1: the periodic table. I mean, there are mysteries yet to
Speaker 1: be discovered. They're true, it's not complete. There's definitely work
Speaker 1: to be done in particle accelerators in which different elements
Speaker 1: are another but no that scientists aren't coming up to
Speaker 1: like the periodic table and like being like, dude, how
Speaker 1: come gold didn't make this list? You know? Agreed, Agreed.
Speaker 1: You know, it's like the really important stuff is there.
Speaker 1: It's just we're sort of, yeah, we're still curious. So
Speaker 1: let's break down the contents of the periodic table. What's
Speaker 1: in a box, one element at a time, and we're
Speaker 1: not going to do all the elements. Let's just take
Speaker 1: a really really really long podcast. Sorry, Jerry um So gold,
Speaker 1: Let's just go for gold, Go for the gold. And
Speaker 1: where will we find this if for people playing along
Speaker 1: at home, UM, well, gold is going to be atomic
Speaker 1: number seventy nine, So you may or may not see
Speaker 1: uh the actual element name gold written out, but we
Speaker 1: will see definitely element symbol. You will see the atomic
Speaker 1: number seventy nine, which is going to denote the number
Speaker 1: of protons that um gold has. And you're also going
Speaker 1: to see um gold atomic weight. But let's let me
Speaker 1: let me number right. Yeah, but let me back up
Speaker 1: for one second. Um it is worth spending just a
Speaker 1: second on atomic number. So like we said, you see
Speaker 1: the number seventy nine to uh demarcate gold, So to
Speaker 1: seventy online is telling you that gold has seventy one
Speaker 1: protons like I was just saying. And protons you guys
Speaker 1: remember just those particle us with a positive charge in
Speaker 1: its nucleus. So if you have a neutral atom of gold,
Speaker 1: you're also gonna have seventy nine electrons. And you don't
Speaker 1: necessarily have to remember that. The important thing there is
Speaker 1: just remember gold seventy nine protons, and those seventy nine
Speaker 1: protons are what gives gold it's spot, it's special spot
Speaker 1: on the periodic table. You're also going to run into
Speaker 1: atomic weight on the periodic table, and it's a little different.
Speaker 1: I mean, if you're to not have heard anything about
Speaker 1: the periodic table before, you might have thinked that you
Speaker 1: might have thought that this is the way that the
Speaker 1: table would have been organized by weight, right, like weight
Speaker 1: classes and wrestling or boxing, you know, or any kind
Speaker 1: of sport. Right, that makes sense, And and it and
Speaker 1: it is somewhat and and this is the mistake that
Speaker 1: the Russian chemist made because he he went and ordered
Speaker 1: the table, yes, thank you, Medelaef, he ordered it by
Speaker 1: by atomic weight instead of atomic number. And that was
Speaker 1: not quite the right way to go about it. And
Speaker 1: that's because atomic weight kind of fluctuates a little, right, Well, yeah,
Speaker 1: so you human weight. You guys are going to remember
Speaker 1: that there are a couple of different flavors of an
Speaker 1: element out there, you know, the isotopes. I wonder if
Speaker 1: scientists are cringing right now right now, hearing me called flavors.
Speaker 1: But I hope the science, like I said before, I
Speaker 1: hope the scientists are not tuning in too like, you know,
Speaker 1: refresh on what the periodic table. They should have this down,
Speaker 1: I think they do. They should have a tattooed on
Speaker 1: their forearm. So goldway is almost one and ninety six
Speaker 1: point nine six six five six nine atomic units. Got that?
Speaker 1: Got it? Okay, so seventy two atomic number and a
Speaker 1: hundred points something something something atomic units. And like you
Speaker 1: were just saying, yeah, an element has different isotopes. So
Speaker 1: think about carbon, one of the most plentiful elements on
Speaker 1: the Earth, and that has seven different isotopes. So the
Speaker 1: atomic weight really um reflects an atom's average mass as
Speaker 1: it's found in nature. Okay, got that? Got it? Yeah,
Speaker 1: So if you're in a group of the periodic table, wait, wait,
Speaker 1: you'd wind up with kind of a different table. So,
Speaker 1: for example, if you're looking at it now, cobalt and
Speaker 1: nickel would have to be switched because cobalt has a
Speaker 1: greater atomic weight than nickel. That's kind of cool. It
Speaker 1: just throws you off a little bit. Now, scientists can
Speaker 1: be tricky. They can't. Now, Some periodic tables also include
Speaker 1: mention of its physical state, right, Yeah, what it's what
Speaker 1: it's like when it's hanging around the Earth at a
Speaker 1: normal temperatures, at room temperatures. So what's gold going to be? Solid? Excellent?
Speaker 1: Solid gold? I kind of wanted you to say solid
Speaker 1: Do you remember that show, the Solid Gold's Answers. There's
Speaker 1: a really awesome musical act that goes that the name
Speaker 1: of solid gold. Yeah. Do you know any songs that
Speaker 1: you want to sing right now? I can't sing them,
Speaker 1: but they're good. Yeah. So the interesting thing about physical
Speaker 1: state is that, apart from a couple of elements that
Speaker 1: exist as liquids at room, mostly the bulk of the
Speaker 1: elements that we know of hanging out in their solid state. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they're solid, like mercury, right ye, and francium. Francium. That's
Speaker 1: a little bit of the element. Don't you think francy
Speaker 1: francium unless it's a hard see francium, But I would
Speaker 1: think that would be okay, So I'm gonna I'm gonna
Speaker 1: go with francium. If any of you guys wanna write
Speaker 1: in and tell us about the etymology of francium, please
Speaker 1: do so. And then there's of course a smaller bunch
Speaker 1: on the periodic table that we're going to hang out
Speaker 1: as gasses. So this was interesting. If you imagine making
Speaker 1: a sort of small rough triangle that's going across the
Speaker 1: top right corner of the periodic table, then you kind
Speaker 1: of have a good idea of where most of the
Speaker 1: gases are located on the table. So there's a group
Speaker 1: that you guys may remember called the noble gasses or
Speaker 1: the inert gasses, and they are the uttermost right hand
Speaker 1: column if you're looking at a periodic table. So that's
Speaker 1: what helium, neon are gone, crypton and right on. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but then you have to throw in a couple more
Speaker 1: like hydrogen and nitrogen, oxygen, chlorine and flour in and
Speaker 1: and that covers you for gasses. Okay, what else are
Speaker 1: you gonna tell? If you're looking at the little box
Speaker 1: on a periodic table, Gold's box, we might be able
Speaker 1: to tell its classification. So that's just what family it
Speaker 1: belongs to. Is it a metal? Is it a metal lloyd?
Speaker 1: Is it halogen? Is it one of those noble gases
Speaker 1: that we're just talking on. And a lot of these
Speaker 1: periodic tables us like color coding to denote some of
Speaker 1: these things. Yeah, it does vary wildly though, Like I
Speaker 1: saw one that was arranged according to the elements discovery.
Speaker 1: I should restate that the elements on the periodic table there,
Speaker 1: their place doesn't change, but the colors do. And depending
Speaker 1: upon how delex your periodic table is. Like you, let
Speaker 1: me look at your iPhone, which I was wowed enough
Speaker 1: by because I'm such a laggard in technology, and it
Speaker 1: had that really cool iPhone app that was from E M. D.
Speaker 1: I believe D a dog. Yeah yeah, yeah, free free app.
Speaker 1: There are a number of different periodic table apps, and
Speaker 1: then they're really cool because you can just you touch it,
Speaker 1: you know, pop up an element, get all the stats
Speaker 1: on it. Yeah. It gives you a ton of information,
Speaker 1: and so that's cool. So you might learn stuff like
Speaker 1: it's atomic radius, it's melting and boiling points, it's density,
Speaker 1: it's oxidation state, it's mineral hardness, ice tubes and their prevalence, ionization, energy,
Speaker 1: and electron configuration, among other things. So that's what you're
Speaker 1: gonna get with a really premium quality periodic table, a
Speaker 1: whole lot of information. Yeah, so what can you tell
Speaker 1: by looking at the whole table? Okay, So a table
Speaker 1: is going to be organized in rows. It's pretty easy
Speaker 1: to picture, and these rows, confusingly enough, are often called
Speaker 1: periods as well. So I'm gonna I'm just gonna call
Speaker 1: them rows for this for this podcast, just so you
Speaker 1: guys don't have to think about periods too. Um. So
Speaker 1: each role is going to tell you a little something
Speaker 1: about how the electrons of that element behave in their
Speaker 1: energy levels. Their shells are occupied by the electrons that
Speaker 1: you know are kind of buzzing around the nucleus of
Speaker 1: that element. Okay, so if you're looking at hydrogen and helium,
Speaker 1: that's going to tell you that it um these two
Speaker 1: elements to have a first energy level that can only
Speaker 1: hold two electrons max. So that's what that one denotes.
Speaker 1: It has that one level for electrons essentially. So let's
Speaker 1: go down one. We're gonna shift to the second row,
Speaker 1: and then you're gonna have two energy levels now, and
Speaker 1: that's where so the first energy level be filled with
Speaker 1: electrons and you're gonna have another one and that begins
Speaker 1: to fill and these there there. I should mention that
Speaker 1: these levels also have sub levels called orbitals, but this
Speaker 1: is a podcast and I feel like, yeah, we don't
Speaker 1: want to get to depth there, so that's why it's
Speaker 1: a table and not a song. So it goes all
Speaker 1: the way up to seven. Um. There are seven different
Speaker 1: energy levels, each with their own sub levels. Except for
Speaker 1: that first row, no known element yet has eight energy
Speaker 1: levels full of electrons. So that's kind of cool. So
Speaker 1: looking at your periodic table, yep, hydrogen us just that
Speaker 1: one energy level and whoa franci Um, again mentioned on
Speaker 1: the podcast, has seven. Wow. See, don't don't rule out
Speaker 1: francium just because you don't like its name. It's gotta
Speaker 1: it's got a lot going on her at least it's
Speaker 1: got a lot of electrons gone on. Francium would be
Speaker 1: a good name for a cat, I think. Okay, so
Speaker 1: we got our rows right. Well, of course we have
Speaker 1: columns because it's a table. So the columns that comprise
Speaker 1: the periodic table are called groups. How many in total?
Speaker 1: Eighteen eighteen? That's okay, that's okay. So groups I are
Speaker 1: just going to indicate, um, these families that we're talking
Speaker 1: about with similar chemical and physical properties, so like again
Speaker 1: the noble gases um. And you can also detect a
Speaker 1: couple of trends when you're looking at the periodic table. Right,
Speaker 1: So now we know about you know, different energy levels.
Speaker 1: Just by looking at it, we can tell and now
Speaker 1: we know that what family it's in because again a
Speaker 1: lot of them are metals. In fact, of the elements
Speaker 1: are roughly, the elements on the periodic table are metals.
Speaker 1: At the metal is going on, Yeah, actual metal, not
Speaker 1: not heavy metal, right, we should we should clarify because
Speaker 1: we're talking about that earlier. You can you can detect
Speaker 1: a couple of other things if you want to wow
Speaker 1: your friends with your periodic table knowledge. So, ionization energy, right,
Speaker 1: what is ionization energy? Again, it's really it's pretty straightforward.
Speaker 1: It's just the amount of energy that an element and
Speaker 1: an atom of an element has to exert to strip
Speaker 1: away the first balance electron. And that's that's the the
Speaker 1: outermost electron. That's that's farthest from the nucleus, the one
Speaker 1: that's really right for the picking. If you will write
Speaker 1: the plate of the element, if you will, so, looking
Speaker 1: at your periodic table, the ionization energy tends to decrease
Speaker 1: as you move down a column and increase as you
Speaker 1: move across a row from left to right. So you
Speaker 1: doing that. Yeah, So that's ionization energy in a in
Speaker 1: a bit of a nutshell or an orbital shell. Nice um,
Speaker 1: And you can also tell some stuff about electro negativity,
Speaker 1: and electro negativity is going to tell us about how
Speaker 1: good elements are at attracting electrons to them. So electro
Speaker 1: negativity is gonna again decrease as you go down a
Speaker 1: column and increase as you go across a row from
Speaker 1: left to right. Okay, So if you're looking at it now,
Speaker 1: you can tell ionization energy and you can tell electro negativity.
Speaker 1: You can help tell um how good it is that's
Speaker 1: stripping away electrons, and you can tell at how good
Speaker 1: it is at attracting electrons to them. Got it? Got it? Okay,
Speaker 1: So let's talk about nuclear charge. So this is going
Speaker 1: to increase as you get down the table, and that
Speaker 1: kind of makes sense considering that nuclear charge just means
Speaker 1: the attractive force between the positive protons and the nucleus.
Speaker 1: I guess that's redundant, the protons in the nucleus and
Speaker 1: the the negative electrons in the energy shells. So the
Speaker 1: more protons, the greater the nuclear charge. And I know
Speaker 1: you guys are going to remember that what is atomic number.
Speaker 1: Atomic number is just the number of protons you've got
Speaker 1: going on in an element. So hydrogen, is it going
Speaker 1: to of a really great nuclear charge? Probably not, because
Speaker 1: it hasn't a topic number one something that's you know,
Speaker 1: a heavyweight on the periodic table. Going to be a
Speaker 1: little bit better. Where is that passium? It like one
Speaker 1: oh eight would be pretty good winnt Yeah, I think
Speaker 1: that's a heavyweight. If we were just talking about this
Speaker 1: in the science for s monsters, I think hassium would win.
Speaker 1: And then shielding is just the ability of an element
Speaker 1: and it's inner electrons to shield the outer electrons from
Speaker 1: from being stripped away from being stolen. So the more
Speaker 1: energy levels, remember the energy levels increase as you get
Speaker 1: on the table, the more shielding takes. So there's really
Speaker 1: a lot of information here if you like. Some of
Speaker 1: it is pretty obvious, and some of it you kind
Speaker 1: of have to know how to look for. But yeah,
Speaker 1: basically we know a lot about electron behavior and how
Speaker 1: how good elements are taking them, taking electrons, stealing them,
Speaker 1: attracting them. So back to francium for a second. How
Speaker 1: do they choose these names? But it's a pretty complicated
Speaker 1: process and it may take years, and so they're a
Speaker 1: little superstitious about it. Scientists are I don't think they similar.
Speaker 1: I think in a Jewish culture, you you don't talk
Speaker 1: about names before a baby comes. You don't have like
Speaker 1: showers and stuff like that. You just you do it.
Speaker 1: All after the fact, and you can't just say, like,
Speaker 1: I found an element, I'm calling it um, like boning
Speaker 1: um or something. You know, you can't just come up
Speaker 1: with something. Yeah, I think that's frowned upon, unless maybe
Speaker 1: your Einstein. But Einstein back in the day, I'm not
Speaker 1: so sure he could have gotten an element name officially
Speaker 1: passed your you pack um. So it's reading a pretty
Speaker 1: funny New York Times article on Element one seventeen back
Speaker 1: when the Russians and the Americans produced it in April
Speaker 1: two thousand ton and they're working at a Russian particle
Speaker 1: accelerator and and they were pointing out that there's really
Speaker 1: involved process. So one of the quotes that I liked
Speaker 1: um until the New York Times reporter, Well, we've never
Speaker 1: discussed names because it's sort of like bad karma, she said.
Speaker 1: She it's like talking about a no hitter. During the
Speaker 1: no hitter, we've never spoken of it. Allowed. So while
Speaker 1: she was working on producing Element one seventeen, they just
Speaker 1: they didn't talk about it. It was like the big
Speaker 1: elephant or element in the room. Oh man, they should
Speaker 1: call it the Scottish pladium. I love that because make
Speaker 1: path Yeah. Sorry, And then The other interesting thing that
Speaker 1: comes out of it is, um, how do we make
Speaker 1: new elements? Well that, yeah, that's really interesting because you
Speaker 1: mentioned particle accelerators yea, and it's like basically you want
Speaker 1: to accelerate these particles and things like the large hidden collider. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm going really fast, and it's kind of
Speaker 1: like you ever watched The Adams Family. Yeah, all right,
Speaker 1: you know how go mass would set up the train
Speaker 1: tracks so that the two trains would run into each other. Well,
Speaker 1: they're doing that, except with particle streams, and the particles
Speaker 1: hit and then you get pieces everywhere, and in the
Speaker 1: wake of those pieces, things come together in uh new combinations,
Speaker 1: but only for a brief amount of brief amount of time.
Speaker 1: It's kind of like when like when couples break up
Speaker 1: and then people are on the rebound and then those
Speaker 1: those the new relationships only last for like a brief second,
Speaker 1: the rebound relationship totally. Yeah, and then you only know
Speaker 1: they existed by looking at the chaos that happened when
Speaker 1: they came apart. It's the same thing if you look
Speaker 1: for the decay products um, the aftermass of of these
Speaker 1: new elements, right right, So um again, I was reading
Speaker 1: this this New Yor Times article and they were talking
Speaker 1: about how kind of simple, well simple simple an idea
Speaker 1: um making un un septium might be. I do you
Speaker 1: feel like I'm talking any language, which I guess I am,
Speaker 1: well an old language Latin, when I say that septium
Speaker 1: so element one seventeen. So what are you gonna do.
Speaker 1: You're gonna try smashing calcium with its twenty protons to
Speaker 1: the element name for Berkeley, which I'm gonna go with berkelium.
Speaker 1: And uh, that element has protons, So what's that ninety
Speaker 1: seven plus twenty to create an element with a hundred
Speaker 1: seventeen protons, which is what un septium is. So we
Speaker 1: can make this at home in our own particle definitely,
Speaker 1: except for the fact that it's kind of hard to
Speaker 1: create berkellium berke lium, I like berkeleum. Yeah. And then
Speaker 1: the other tricky thing is, right, as you're alluding to before,
Speaker 1: it's only for a second, it's fleeting, so you have
Speaker 1: to be prepared to analyze the BKA products, and scientists
Speaker 1: are more than capable of doing that, I am happy
Speaker 1: to report. Yeah. The other interesting thing here is, I mean,
Speaker 1: we are talking about the fleeting nature of some of
Speaker 1: these new elements. But there's a theory going on the hunt.
Speaker 1: As we move up in atomic number, we're approaching this
Speaker 1: island of stability in which the heavier elements become more stable.
Speaker 1: So maybe once we reach a critical point, it won't
Speaker 1: be so hard to create these elements anymore. It would
Speaker 1: be interesting And it comes back around like we're talking
Speaker 1: about earlier. Um, it's not a finished table. Yeah, we
Speaker 1: keep discovering new things, and we'll continue to discover new
Speaker 1: things and add them to the table. So update regularly
Speaker 1: if you have that fat app right, Yeah, no doubt.
Speaker 1: I feel like we should. We should take a second
Speaker 1: to just admire the glory of the periodic table, even
Speaker 1: if it is an incomplete work. Because it is a complete,
Speaker 1: incomplete work, does that make fun? Sort of yes? Wow.
Speaker 1: So I think the only way to follow that up
Speaker 1: is to chase it down with a little listener mail.
Speaker 1: You have something there? Do? I have one from a
Speaker 1: Jordan who wrote in response to the altruism in the
Speaker 1: Animal Kingdom podcast. We did a little lot of that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and this is like choir animals nice to each other
Speaker 1: kind of things. And we also talked fine. Our humans
Speaker 1: every nice to each other, right, And one of the
Speaker 1: things we mentioned was when people donate their organs to
Speaker 1: complete strangers, and as sometimes this has been called like
Speaker 1: the ultimate active altruism um so Jordan in wartening your
Speaker 1: own life to help save somebody else's, Well, I don't
Speaker 1: know that you're shortening your own life if you're giving
Speaker 1: up a kidney giving away in Oregon, but not I'm
Speaker 1: not sure. Sometimes it's framed that way, okay, So he
Speaker 1: he wrote in to eliminate his own experience with giving
Speaker 1: away a kidney to a complete stander. So I really
Speaker 1: wanted to read this to you guys, so he writes,
Speaker 1: I thought I would write in about your altruism podcast,
Speaker 1: seeing as I have some experience with one of the topics.
Speaker 1: Last year, I decided to donate one of my kidneys
Speaker 1: to a stranger. The whole altruism topic was very strange
Speaker 1: for me. I suppose there was part of me that
Speaker 1: did it for a pat on the back, although it
Speaker 1: wasn't conscious thought. After going through all the tests at
Speaker 1: the hospital to see if I was if I was
Speaker 1: a good candidate, they called me up in the middle
Speaker 1: of an accelerated summer semester in grad school, so it's
Speaker 1: a smart kidney too, saying that they needed my kidney now.
Speaker 1: It became a logistically difficult prospect at that point, but
Speaker 1: I decided that this was something bigger than my silly grades,
Speaker 1: so I went for it. So Jordan goes on to
Speaker 1: talk a little bit about the surgery um, and then
Speaker 1: he goes I hadn't told any of my family except
Speaker 1: for my wife, that I was doing this. My brother's
Speaker 1: reaction was especially interesting. He refused to believe that I
Speaker 1: hadn't done this for money, which is very illegal in
Speaker 1: the United States. By the way, yes, I was actually
Speaker 1: a little offended. He thought it wasn't possible for me
Speaker 1: to do a selfless act. One of my family members
Speaker 1: also mentioned the concern of what if I need a
Speaker 1: kidney in the future. I found that while the majority
Speaker 1: of people think my donation was commendable, others find the
Speaker 1: idea of grotesque. Okay, you're ready for this, he says.
Speaker 1: I did get some media attention, which I hated. It
Speaker 1: was very strange to be put under the microscope and
Speaker 1: have the media break apart such a complicated and emotional
Speaker 1: topic into a sixty second newspiece. I hope and I
Speaker 1: hope that you guys don't think we're doing this. I
Speaker 1: really just wanted to share this liscertain email because I
Speaker 1: didn't think it was an interesting insight into altruism. I
Speaker 1: would never Yeah, I really appreciate his honesty and and
Speaker 1: you know, you know, just sort of talking about how
Speaker 1: it felt and throughout the process. So he mentions a
Speaker 1: little bit mare. He says at this point, I don't
Speaker 1: feel better, worse, or different for having donated. The act
Speaker 1: itself has not changed myself in it. If anything, I
Speaker 1: feel a little embarrassed when the topic is approached interestingly.
Speaker 1: I feel more proud of myself for being a donor
Speaker 1: advocate and volunteering, uh, doing some volunteer work. UM donation
Speaker 1: has become an interesting science and math game for me.
Speaker 1: My when kidney given to a stranger who started a
Speaker 1: kidney exchange that allowed seven others to acquire a kidney,
Speaker 1: that's cool. But I think if I can convince one
Speaker 1: person to do the same thing, and I'll feel proud
Speaker 1: a few more non directed donors like me and could
Speaker 1: ship away at our huge waiting list. Is this altruistic?
Speaker 1: I have no idea By the way, my grades didn't
Speaker 1: suffer and I got straight a's. That's semester Jordan's. So
Speaker 1: that's so interesting and in a cool story. I mean,
Speaker 1: I think it's very commendable. Yeah. Absolutely so, as always,
Speaker 1: we love to hear from you guys. Thank you Jordan
Speaker 1: very much for writing and sharing, uh, sharing your story
Speaker 1: with us on altruism and and kidneys. Yeah, if you
Speaker 1: want to share anything with us science or kidney related,
Speaker 1: do send us an email on science stuff at how
Speaker 1: stuff first dot com. Yeah, like pretty much anything, you know,
Speaker 1: but we're just sitting here, written and talking about science,
Speaker 1: so we love to hear. We can probably spend a podcast,
Speaker 1: you know, out of it if it's a kind of interesting, kiddit. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we have to get to some of the science quotes
Speaker 1: that people have said. Maybe we'll do that. Yeah, some
Speaker 1: really good ones in there. Yeah. And as always, do
Speaker 1: you connect with us on on Facebook we're stuff from
Speaker 1: the Science Lab and on Twitter we are Lab stuff. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So that's it. Thanks for listening, guys. For more on
Speaker 1: this and thousands of other topics, is it how stuff
Speaker 1: works dot com. Want more how stuff works, check out
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