WEBVTT - How Does Einsteinium Work?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey Brainstuff Lord

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<v Speaker 1>vocal bomb Here. On November one of nineteen fifty two,

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<v Speaker 1>a team of American scientists working for the US military

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<v Speaker 1>through the switch on a strange three story structure code

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<v Speaker 1>named ivy MIC. It was the world's first hydrogen bomb,

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<v Speaker 1>a new breed of nuclear weapon that was seven hundred

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<v Speaker 1>times more powerful than the atomic bombs they had deployed

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<v Speaker 1>during World War Two. The bomb test took place on

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<v Speaker 1>a tiny toll named in a Wee Talk in the

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<v Speaker 1>Marshall Islands of the South Pacific. When ivy MIC was detonated,

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<v Speaker 1>it released ten point four megatons of explosive power, which

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<v Speaker 1>means it was roughly the equivalent of ten point four

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<v Speaker 1>million tons of TNT. The bomb dropped in Hiroshima, for comparison,

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<v Speaker 1>produced just fifteen kilotons. The explosion utterly vaporized the atoll

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<v Speaker 1>and produced a mushroom cloud three minds or five kilometers wide.

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<v Speaker 1>Workers in protective suits gathered fall up material from a

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<v Speaker 1>neighboring island and sent it back to Berkeley Lab in

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<v Speaker 1>California for analysis. There, a team of Manhattan Project researchers

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<v Speaker 1>led by Albert Giorso isolated just two hundred atoms of

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<v Speaker 1>a brand new element containing ninety nine protons and ninety

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<v Speaker 1>nine electrons. In nineteen fifty five. The researchers announced their

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<v Speaker 1>discovery to the world and named it after their scientific hero.

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<v Speaker 1>It's called Einsteinium. Einsteinium occupies atomic number ninety nine on

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<v Speaker 1>the periodic table, in the company of other very heavy

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<v Speaker 1>and radioactive elements like californium and berkeleyem Some such elements,

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<v Speaker 1>notably uranium, exist in meaningful qualities on Earth at two

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<v Speaker 1>point eight parts per million. There's more uranium underground than

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<v Speaker 1>gold above. Others, including einsteinium, are too unstable to be

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<v Speaker 1>found in nature. All of our samples of them have

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<v Speaker 1>been synthetic. That is, created artificially by doing something like

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<v Speaker 1>exploding a hydrogen bomb or slamming subatomic particles together in

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<v Speaker 1>a reactor. When we think of radioactivity, we often think

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<v Speaker 1>of the effect that it has on us. How radium

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<v Speaker 1>or uranium can make us very sick. That's because of

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<v Speaker 1>the type of subatomic particles or waves that they give

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<v Speaker 1>off as they break down on an atomic level. So

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<v Speaker 1>what makes an element radioactive In the case of einsteinium,

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<v Speaker 1>and its neighbors at the bottom of the periodic table.

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<v Speaker 1>It's the sheer size of their atoms for the article.

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<v Speaker 1>This episode is based on how Stuff Works. Spoke with

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<v Speaker 1>Joseph Glitch, a pharmaceutical chemist who has worked extensively with

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<v Speaker 1>other radioactive elements used for medical imaging. He explained, when

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<v Speaker 1>elements get to be a certain size, the nucleus of

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<v Speaker 1>the atom becomes so large that it disintegrates. What happens

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<v Speaker 1>is that it spits out neutrons and or protons and

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<v Speaker 1>electrons and decays down to a lower elemental state. So

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<v Speaker 1>you get two effects out of this process. First, you

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<v Speaker 1>have those sub atomic particles or electromagnetic waves that the

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<v Speaker 1>element emits. These can be alpha particles, beta particles, gamma rays,

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<v Speaker 1>or other types of radiation. Some types are relatively harmless,

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<v Speaker 1>while others can inflict damage on human cells and DNA.

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<v Speaker 1>A second, as the element breaks down, you wind up

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<v Speaker 1>with different isotopes of the element. Isotopes are forms of

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<v Speaker 1>an element that have different atomic weights. An atom's atomic

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<v Speaker 1>weight is the number of protons plus neutrons in its nucleus.

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<v Speaker 1>Just for example, the einsteinium collected in the South Pacific

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<v Speaker 1>in nineteen fifty two was an isotope called einsteinium two

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<v Speaker 1>fifty three, which has ninety nine protons and one hundred

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<v Speaker 1>and fifty four neutrons. But these isotopes don't last forever.

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<v Speaker 1>They each have a different half life, which is the

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<v Speaker 1>estimated time for half of the material to decay into

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<v Speaker 1>a new isotope or a lower numbered element. Altogether, Einsteinium

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<v Speaker 1>two fifty three has half life of just twenty and

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<v Speaker 1>a half days. Uranium two thirty eight, on the other hand,

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<v Speaker 1>has a half life of four point four to six

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<v Speaker 1>billion years, which explains why it's the most common isotope

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<v Speaker 1>of uranium found in nature. It has major staying power.

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<v Speaker 1>One of the hard things about synthesizing heavy radioactive elements

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<v Speaker 1>like einsteinium in the lab and by lab we mean

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<v Speaker 1>highly specialized nuclear reactors, is that such large atoms start

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<v Speaker 1>to decay very quickly. Bleach said, As you create bigger

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<v Speaker 1>and bigger elements and isotopes, it gets more and more

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<v Speaker 1>difficult to keep them around long enough to see them.

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<v Speaker 1>That's why there was so much excitement recently in the

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<v Speaker 1>chemistry world when a team of scientists successfully held onto

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<v Speaker 1>a sample of short life of einsteinium long enough to

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<v Speaker 1>measure some of the chemical properties of this ultra rare element.

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<v Speaker 1>The scientists, led by a team out of Berkeley Lab,

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<v Speaker 1>waited patiently for a tiny sample at einsteinium two fifty

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<v Speaker 1>four produced by the Oakridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. The

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<v Speaker 1>sample weighed in at two hundred and fifty nanograms that's

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<v Speaker 1>just two hundred and fifty billionths of a gram. It

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<v Speaker 1>had a half life of two hundred and seventy six days.

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<v Speaker 1>When the COVID nineteen pandemic hit in twenty twenty, the

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<v Speaker 1>research was sidelined for months, during which seven percent of

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<v Speaker 1>the sample degraded every thirty days. Their breakthrough was the

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<v Speaker 1>creation of a molecular claw, so to speak, that could

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<v Speaker 1>hold a single atom of einsteinium two fifty four in

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<v Speaker 1>place for long enough to measure things like the length

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<v Speaker 1>of its molecular bonds and at what wavelength it emits light.

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<v Speaker 1>Both of these measurements are critical to understanding how einsteinium

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<v Speaker 1>and its heavy cousins could potentially be used for things

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<v Speaker 1>like cancer treatment in the future. Today's episode is based

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<v Speaker 1>on the article Scientists unlock secrets of h bomb element

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<v Speaker 1>Einsteinium on how Stuffworks dot Com, written by Dave Ruse.

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<v Speaker 1>Brain Stuff is production of by Heart Radio in partnership

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<v Speaker 1>with Howstuffwork dot Com and is produced by Tyler Klang.

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<v Speaker 1>Four more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app,

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<v Speaker 1>Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.