Tantalum, Trepanation, and the Periodic Table of Death and Mystery

A metal that hardens steel and drives our batteries might also be powering “dark oxygen” in the abyssal depths of the ocean? Or is it …? Let’s dive into manganese, polymetallic nodules, and a paradigm-shifting claim that the seafloor is secretly making its own air, which could change everything we know about how life on Earth started and give us a glimpse into possible life on even the darkest planets in the Universe.

Zirconium is a silvery, heat‑resistant metal, first identified as an element in 1789 and later prized for use in nuclear reactors, turbines, and spacecraft. Today, its ceramic form—zirconium dioxide, or zirconia—is used to make strong, tooth‑colored dental implants instead of hippo ivory or human “Waterloo teeth,” a twist on this 250th Independence Day George Washington could never have imagined. So, from Washington’s dentures and battlefield tooth markets to modern zirconia implants, listen to how zirconium reshaped the story of false teeth on this episode of the Periodic Table of Death and Mystery.

Tantalum: In 1965, a Dutch medical student drilled a hole in his own skull chasing a “higher” consciousness. In World War II, neurosurgeons drilled into the already shattered heads of soldiers for a higher purpose—to make their lives worth living. Inside those wounded skulls, they slid in a strange, almost untouchable metal named for one of Zeus’s worst sons: Tantalus. In this episode, we follow the path from self‑trepanation cults to wartime cranioplasty and ask what it means to have Tantalus’s metal quietly guarding a living brain for a lifetime.

Potassium is necessary for life because it’s necessary for cellular function. Our cells are literally built on the electric charge that occurs with the movement of potassium (+ charge) across cell membranes. Simplified, yes, but the ingestion of too much potassium can kill. We know that bananas contain excellent levels of potassium. Can you put yourself in danger by eating too many bananas? This podcast does the math!

In this episode, we’re going “back to the salt mines”—literally. From Roman salarium and Egyptian natron to a Louisiana lake that suddenly drained itself into a salt dome, we’re talking sodium, salt, and how one triangulation error nearly swallowed an entire drilling operation—and 55 miners—with it.

If you played baseball or softball as a kid after the mid-1970s, you most likely swung an aluminum bat in the on-deck circle. And if you play now in an intramural city league trying to relive the glory days of your youth (don’t deny it), you will step up to the plate with a scandium-aluminum alloy bat. So, it’s not a mystery how you pulled a muscle hot-footing it to second on that very obvious single.

Is this title deliberately provocative? Maybe. After all, sex sells, hubba-hubba. The origin stories for the name “Red Light District” are wrapped in myth and mystery. From a Dodge City saloon, to old West railroad brakemen who hung the red signal lights outside the home of the women they visited during a stop. And what about oysters and dive bars? Well, that’s probably the most salacious story of all—sort of. And all these stories link to the neon signs today that draw us into places that may be a little dangerous and a lot of fun.

Boron equals boring? Maybe, but it’s ubiquitous and is literally the backbone element of hundreds of other chemicals in use today—from bleach to rocket fuel. You only thought that it was about the 20-mule team out of Death Valley days? Well, take a seat by the cracker barrel and I’ll tell you a tale...

Phosphorus, which means "light bringer” in Greek, is the “morning star” god of the planet Venus. Mass manufacturing of friction matches using phosphorous ramped up after the 1830s, and factory-manufactured matches were literally made by hand—thousands and thousands per day—the tips dipped into a chemical soup of sulfur and antimony, baked to dry, and finally coated in white phosphorus for the quick strike. But conditions in the match factories were horrible. Which led to the matchgirl strike, which led to unions. All bought to you by the Periodic Table of DEATH and Mystery Podcast.

In this episode of the Periodic Table of DEATH and Mystery, we will initially immerse ourselves in 12th-century urine (sorry), then “hops” (beer will be involved) forward to 1669 and the Alchemist, Hennig Brant, who was searching for the philosopher’s stone using urine from a biergarten, and accidentally discovered the element phosphorus (P), which he THOUGHT was the philosopher’s stone because it glowed in the dark and caught fire a lot when exposed to air.