Iridium, Asteroids, and the Periodic Table of Death and Mystery

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.

Arsenic? Really? Too easy since it’s one of the most toxic substances on earth. But when mixed properly arsenic creates some beautiful paint colors and dyes: rich lemon yellow, brilliant red-orange, and a gorgeous emerald green. And humans wouldn’t do anything stupid with those colors like dye cloth for clothes, decorate children’s toys, or use it in cloth book covers. Right?

Alice in Wonderland’s Mad Hatter wore a top hat made of felt—but not the felt you find in craft stores and kindergartens. This felt was made of mercury-treated animal fur. For those who prepared the felt and created the hats, mercury had a devastating effect on the brain and neurological systems. And the actual history of how mercury became a part of the felting industry is, well, yuck.

Let’s introduce Cesium casually, nonthreateningly, so I don’t scare away non-conspiracy theorists, because it looks like Cesium is going to take a dive into UAPs and USOs. Don’t know what those are? Well, my friends, a little transmedium travel on Alien Spacecraft might be right up your alley.

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.