Beryllium, Fission, and the Periodic Table of Death and Mystery

In Paris, at the Institut du Radium, Madame Marie Curie, looked over graduates of the class of 1929 and selected the top student, Marguerite Perey (who was only 19 years old), to come and work as her technician. Perey discovered and named Francium, and, like her mentor before her, became a beacon for women in science everywhere. 

In part one of the beryllium (Be) story, you learned that four atomic cores were created for the Manhattan Project, but only three were detonated. The fourth core, nicknamed Rufus, continued to be used in further research … until it killed two careless scientists who mishandled the beryllium tamper. That’s when its name was changed to the Demon Core. 

This podcast was initially inspired by the 2023 movie, Oppenheimer, and the Manhattan Project which means it has a New Mexico connection (Yay!). Because, while the use of a Beryllium tamper saved the lives of numerous scientists working with radioactive materials at Los Alamos, mistakes could be fatal (Boo!).

With the rise of variable renewable energy like solar and wind, the term “variable” became an immediate problem. Solar creates electricity when the sun shines, but at night? Back to electrical generation with fossil fuels. When the wind blows there’s power, but when it doesn’t, coal and gas fill in the gaps. Thus began a concerted push for a new generation of batteries for use during downtimes. Was there a periodic table element that could be safely used in renewable power generation? Why, yes, there was! Vanadium.

Sometimes the Periodic Table of Death and Mystery comes very close to home. She was from a prominent family in her small, insular town, and he worked as the manager at a brothel. She was eighteen when they met and he was thirty-six and married. She became pregnant with his child before he was shot, dead from the lead of a bullet fired in anger. His name was José Ramirez, but everyone called him Joe.

Green obsidian—a stone as transparent as glass with iron and chromium impurities that create its rare color—was considered a luxury trade good in pre- and post-Columbian Central American culture. Archaeologists have found green obsidian hundreds to thousands of miles away from its origin. For example, it was discovered in a ritual cremation in Belize and in Mayan temples. So why was it found in the Texas panhandle and how does silicon play a role?

Some formsof chromium are incredibly toxic. Just ask Hinkley, California. Others are in your daily multivitamin because chromium plays an important role in sugar metabolism and mood improvement. So, what happens if a person doesn’t get enough chromium in their diet and does it really have a link to gummy bears?

In 1975, an obscure Iron ore ship disappeared under the waters of Lake Superior, but the tale of its last voyage became immortalized in 1976 by the singer Gordon Lightfoot as The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. It’s a heartfelt ballad that transports the listener into the gales of November and leaves them aching for the Fitz’s lost crew.

Did you know Gallium is so safe, you can buy it online and let your kids play with it? So what does it kill? Infectious bacteria! Remember those face masks we all slapped on our faces a couple of years ago? Gallium-doped fabrics and regeneration matrices are powering up anti-infection, anti-viral mediums in medicine, and preventing anti-bacterial resistance.

Host Laura Haas steps into Studio B to talk with Carol Potenza, award-winning mystery author and creator of the Periodic Table of Death and Mystery podcast. Don’t miss this rare opportunity to peak into the mind that transformed the periodic table into a playground for murder and mayhem.