Periodic Table of Death and Mystery

Sapphires are made up of a mixture of aluminum and oxygen slightly contaminated with titanium and iron. Get rid of the contamination, and aluminum oxide is completely transparent. That’s right: Transparent aluminum. Now where have we heard that term before?

Think you’re having a bad day? Dinosaurs at the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event say, “Hold my beer.” Why? Because 66 million years ago—give or take—an asteroid approximately 50 miles wide hit the earth, catches pretty much everything on fire for 100s of miles, creates tsunamis 1000 feet high, and pitches the world into darkness for a year or two. Bye-bye dinosaurs. And how did we puny humans figure this out? The periodic table element, Iridium, and opposable thumbs. References for this episode can be found at the following website: ⁠⁠⁠https://carolpotenza.com/hydrogen-and-the-periodic-table-of-death/⁠⁠⁠ More from Carol Potenza and to sign up for her monthly newsletter, please visit her at ⁠⁠⁠https://carolpotenza.com/⁠⁠⁠ Music for the Periodic Table of Death was created by Gioele Fazzeri and published under Creative Commons License.

The periodic table element krypton is colorless, odorless, tasteless (Hey. Like iocaine powder) except it is chemically inert, which means it really doesn’t react with anything. It’s essentially harmless. OR IS IT? Refugees from the planet Krypton might beg to differ. References for this episode can be found at the following website: ⁠⁠⁠https://carolpotenza.com/hydrogen-and-the-periodic-table-of-death/⁠⁠⁠ More from Carol Potenza and to sign up for her monthly newsletter, please visit her at ⁠⁠⁠https://carolpotenza.com/⁠⁠⁠ Music for the Periodic Table of Death was created by Gioele Fazzeri and published under Creative Commons License.

You’re a (Th)ORoughly bad-a** scientist, a true (Th)ORnament in the scientific heavens. Your name is Jöns Jacob Berzelius, you’ve been proclaimed the “Father of Swedish Chemistry,” and celebrated as one of the founders of modern chemistry. So, Jöns, since Disneyland hasn’t been invented yet, what are you gonna do next? Name the NEXT element discovered after the Norse god of Thunder—THORium! References for this episode can be found at the following website: ⁠⁠⁠https://carolpotenza.com/hydrogen-and-the-periodic-table-of-death/⁠⁠⁠ More from Carol Potenza and to sign up for her monthly newsletter, please visit her at ⁠⁠⁠https://carolpotenza.com/⁠⁠⁠ Music for the Periodic Table of Death was created by Gioele Fazzeri and published under Creative Commons License.

Where would the average person get toxic exposure to Zinc? How about a breach of 3 million gallons of thick orange-yellow sludge from the Gold King mine in Southern Colorado that spilled into the Animas River in northern New Mexico? And how on earth could sunflowers help? References for this episode can be found at the following website: ⁠⁠https://carolpotenza.com/hydrogen-and-the-periodic-table-of-death/⁠⁠ More from Carol Potenza and to sign up for her monthly newsletter, please visit her at ⁠⁠https://carolpotenza.com/⁠⁠ Music for the Periodic Table of Death was created by Gioele Fazzeri and published under Creative Commons License.

Could lithium, a periodic table element used as an antidepressant, be added to drinking water to decrease violent crime? After all, added fluoride in drinking water results in stronger teeth and bones. Studies have analyzed communities with detectable amounts of naturally dissolved lithium in their aquifers, and you’ll never guess what they found. References for this episode can be found at the following website: ⁠⁠⁠https://carolpotenza.com/hydrogen-and-the-periodic-table-of-death/⁠⁠⁠ More from Carol Potenza and to sign up for her monthly newsletter, please visit her at ⁠⁠⁠https://carolpotenza.com/⁠⁠⁠ Music for the Periodic Table of Death was created by Gioele Fazzeri and published under Creative Commons License.

Modern burial rituals frown on sharing a final resting place. Since all flesh is grass, in the end, our calcium-enriched skeletons tend to remain in our lonely graves. But sometimes what’s buried can astonish. Till Death Do Us Part? Not with these couples. Music for the Periodic Table of Death was created by Gioele Fazzeri and published under Creative Commons License. References for this episode can be found at the following website: ⁠https://carolpotenza.com/hydrogen-and-the-periodic-table-of-death/⁠ More from Carol Potenza and to sign up for her monthly newsletter, please visit her at ⁠https://carolpotenza.com/⁠

In the bar, you see a drink billowing icy smoke and order one. The waiter drops your cocktail on the table, pours in liquid nitrogen at a temperature of −196°C (−320°F), and you quickly down the alcohol/nitrogen mix to the boisterous cheers of your friends. As the contents settle in your warm gut, the liquid nitrogen rapidly expands to gas at 700 times its volume and … Music for the Periodic Table of Death was created by Gioele Fazzeri and published under Creative Commons License. References for this episode can be found at the following website: ⁠https://carolpotenza.com/hydrogen-and-the-periodic-table-of-death/⁠ More from Carol Potenza and to sign up for her monthly newsletter, please visit her at ⁠https://carolpotenza.com/⁠

In 79 A.D., a catastrophic volcanic eruption rained death down on the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Superheated gaseous clouds measuring 700°C (1300°F) swept down the sides of Mt. Vesuvius, destroying everything in their paths, including every living creature inhabiting the surrounding countryside. But this podcast is not directly about the infamous eruption. It’s about the bones and teeth of its victims. Mt. Vesuvius charged the drinking water with fluorine, making their teeth perfect and their bones strong—before the volcano killed them all. Music for the Periodic Table of Death was created by Gioele Fazzeri and published under Creative Commons License. References for this episode can be found at the following website: ⁠https://carolpotenza.com/hydrogen-and-the-periodic-table-of-death/⁠ More from Carol Potenza and to sign up for her monthly newsletter, please visit her at ⁠https://carolpotenza.com/⁠

How does someone use bouncy. colorful, helium-filled balloons to pull off a homicide? Because humans are nothing if not murderously ingenious. Music for the Periodic Table of Death was created by Gioele Fazzeri and published by Pixabay under Creative Commons License. References for this episode can be found at the following website: ⁠https://carolpotenza.com/hydrogen-and-the-periodic-table-of-death/⁠ More from Carol Potenza and to sign up for her monthly newsletter, please visit her at ⁠https://carolpotenza.com/⁠