Elemental

Zirconium is a shape-shifting tough cookie, that is a tale of gemstones, medical implants and nuclear reactors, says Allan Blackman from AUT in ep 98 of Elemental.Zirconium is a metal that is a shape-shifting tough cookie.It is found in gemstones - think zircons and cubic zirconia, often known as 'fake diamond.' Zirconia is nearly as hard as diamond and it is a refractory material that is pretty impervious to heat and pressure.Zircons are tiny geological time capsules containing trace amounts of uranium and thorium that geologists can use to work out how old they are.Zirconium alloyed with tin is used in nuclear reactors as it doesn't corrode and isn't itself radioactive, says Professor Allan Blackman from the Auckland University of Technology, in episode 98 of Elemental.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Zinc is a very useful metal that turns up in everything from sunscreen to paint, & galvanised metals to cereals, as well as brass instruments, says Prof Allan Blackman in ep 97 of Elemental.The major use of zinc is to galvanise steel in order to stop it corroding. This is because zinc oxidises more readily than iron, meaning it loses electrons more easily; chemists describe zinc as acting as the sacrificial anode, as oxidation occurs at the anode.The transition metal was well-known to the ancients who alloyed zinc and copper to make brass.Zinc is also well-known as a UV protector and turns up in sunblock (think cricketers' noses) as well as paint.You can also find zinc in car tyres, added to foods such as cereals and in anti-dandruff shampoo, says Professor Allan Blackman from the Auckland University of Technology, in episode 97 of Elemental.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Yttrium is yet another element named after the village of Ytterby and is important in the development of high temperature superconductors, says Allan Blackman from AUT in ep 96 of Elemental.Here we go again - yet another element named after the Swedish village of Ytterby with a suitably tortuous extraction process, although surprisingly it is actually not a lanthanoid; it is a transition metal.It is used in camping gas mantles along with thorium, is added to cast iron to make it more ductile, and appears in alloys used in cutting tools, bearings and jet engines.When used with ytterbium, barium, copper and oxygen, it creates a high-temperature superconductor that operates at much warmer temperatures than most superconductors.Kiwi scientists Jeff Tallon and Bob Buckley are at the forefront of high temperature superconductor research, says Professor Allan Blackman from the Auckland University of Technology, in episode 96 of Elemental.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Ytterbium is yet another lanthanoid named after the Swedish village of Ytterby, says Prof Allan Blackman in ep 95 of Elemental.Ytterbium is yet another lanthanoid named after the Swedish village of Ytterby. It is a sister element to erbium, terbium and yttrium.The ytterbium lattice clock is one of the world's most accurate clocks, says Professor Allan Blackman from the Auckland University of Technology, in episode 95 of Elemental.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Xenon is a noble gas that turns up in various lights, gets used in xenon ion propulsion systems for spacecraft & plays a key role in the search for dark matter, says Prof Allan Blackman from AUT in ep 94 of Elemental.Xenon is a noble gas that turns up in various lights.It gets used in xenon ion propulsion systems for spacecraft.Xenon plays a key role in the XENON detector which is used in the search for dark matter.Xenon is also the 'perfect' anaesthetic, says Professor Allan Blackman from the Auckland University of Technology, in episode 94 of Elemental.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Vanadium makes steel stronger & lighter, is being used in what will be the world's largest battery, and sea squirts are full of it, says Prof Allan Blackman from AUT in ep 93 of Elemental.Vanadium is a transition metal used to make steel stronger & lighter.It is named after the Scandinavian goddess of beauty and fertility Vanadis.Vanadium is being used in what will be the world's largest battery, and sea squirts are one of a small handful of organisms that contain large amounts of vanadium used in some enzymes, says Professor Allan Blackman from the Auckland University of Technology, in episode 93 of Elemental.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Named after the planet Uranus & associated with Hiroshima & nuclear bombs, uranium is the highest-numbered element found naturally in significant quantities on earth, says Prof Allan Blackman in ep 92 of Elemental.Uranium is named after the planet Uranus.Uranium (atomic number 92) is the highest-numbered element found naturally in significant quantities on earthIt is associated with Hiroshima and nuclear bombs, says Professor Allan Blackman from the Auckland University of Technology, in episode 92 of Elemental.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Tungsten's very high melting point made it an ideal filament for incandescent light bulbs, & as it is in some enzymes it is the heaviest element used in nature, says Allan Blackman from AUT in ep 91 of Elemental.Tungsten is the metal with the highest melting point and this made it an ideal filament for incandescent light bulbs.It also has the highest tensile strength of any metal.It occurs in some enzymes (in a few bacteria and archaea only), making it the heaviest element used in nature, says Professor Allan Blackman from the Auckland University of Technology, in episode 91 of Elemental.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Titanium is light, strong, corrosion resistant & is used to repair broken limbs as it is able to get integrated into the bone, says Allan Blackman from AUT speaking from personal experience in ep 90 of Elemental.Titanium is light, strong and corrosion resistant, and widely used in aircraft, bike frames, golf clubs and spectacle frames.It is used to repair broken limbs as it is able to be integrated into the bone, says Professor Allan Blackman from the Auckland University of Technology, speaking from personal experience, in episode 90 of Elemental.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

The element tin turns up in all sorts of alloys, but tin cans are - mostly - not made from tin, says Prof Allan Blackman from AUT, in ep 89 of Elemental.The element tin turns up in all sorts of alloys, especially bronze.Tin is found in tin whistles, organ pipes and with lead in electrical solders.Tin cans are - mostly - not made from tin, says Professor Allan Blackman from the Auckland University of Technology, in episode 89 of Elemental.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Isolating the element thulium was a truly laborious process that took many years, says Prof Allan Blackman from AUT in ep 88 of Elemental.Isolating the element thulium was a truly laborious process that took many years.Charles James had to carry out 15,000 recrystallisations to prepare his sample when he was wanting to determine the atomic weight of thulium, says Professor Allan Blackman from the Auckland University of Technology, in episode 88 of Elemental.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Named after Thor, the Norse God of Thunder, thorium could provide a cleaner source of nuclear power in the future, says Prof Allan Blackman from AUT in episode 87 of Elemental.Named after Thor, the Norse God of Thunder, thorium could provide a cleaner source of nuclear power in the future.All of its isotopes are radioactive, and it was the second element to be classified as radioactive, says Professor Allan Blackman from the Auckland University of Technology, in episode 87 of Elemental.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Thallium is most famous for some infamous poisoned family cases & its appearance in an Agatha Christie novel solved a medical mystery, says Allan Blackman from AUT in ep 86 of Elemental.Thallium is most famous for some infamous poisoned family cases, and used to be used as rat poison.It is highly toxic because it 'looks' like potassium to mammalian bodies.Its appearance in the Agatha Christie novel 'The Pale Horse' solved a medical mystery, says Professor Allan Blackman from the Auckland University of Technology, in episode 86 of Elemental.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

A discovery from the chemically prolific Swedish village of Ytterby, terbium produced the green on old TV sets & adds security to Euro notes, says Prof Allan Blackman from AUT in ep 85 of Elemental.A discovery from the chemically prolific Swedish village of Ytterby, the lanthanoid terbium produced the green on old TV sets & adds security to Euro notes, says Professor Allan Blackman from the Auckland University of Technology, in episode 85 of Elemental.For further elements named after Ytterby, see erbium, yttrium and ytterbium (although you'll have to wait for the latter two).Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Tellurium is a metalloid often found with gold and the US town Telluride is named after it, says Prof Allan Blackman, in ep 84 of Elemental.Tellurium was one of Mendeleev's rare mistakes on the original periodic table as he put it in the wrong place.Tellurium compounds are most famous for their nasty and persistent smell. Just fifteen milligrams of tellurium oxide taken orally will still be detectable as 'tellurium breath' eight months later. And the smell? Like bad garlic, owing to the production of dimethyltellurium.It is a metalloid and finds uses in semiconductors, says Professor Allan Blackman from the Auckland University of Technology, in episode 84 of Elemental.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Technetium was the first element on the periodic table to be synthesised. It is rare, radioactive and has only a few uses, says Prof Allan Blackman in ep 83 of Elemental.Dmitri Mendeleev predicted some of the properties of element 43, but it remained stubbornly undiscovered until l937.The reason it was hard to discover is that the radioactive element doesn't really exist on Planet Earth.Its great claim to fame is that it was the first element to be synthesised, hence its name, technetium, from the Greek tekhnetos, meaning 'artificial', says Professor Allan Blackman from the Auckland University of Technology, in episode 83 of Elemental.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

The metal tantalum is usually found with the element niobium, has a very high melting point but is a 'conflict mineral', says Prof Allan Blackman in ep 82 of Elemental.Tantalum is almost always found in association with niobium, which is why tantalum is named after Tantalus, the father of Niobe.Tantalus was condemned to eternal hunger and thirst by the Greek Gods, even when he was surrounded by fruit and water. The discoverer of tantalum thought it was a fitting name as the element, "when placed in the midst of acids, is incapable of taking them up and saturating itself with them."Tantalum has the third highest melting point of all metals, which is why it was used as an early incandescent bulb filament.The metal is inert to bodily fluids and well tolerated by our bodies, hence its use in surgical instruments and implants, says Professor Allan Blackman from the Auckland University of Technology, in episode 82 of Elemental.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Sulfur is responsible for some very bad smells, is the number one industrial chemical and is also an essential element, says Prof Allan Blackman in ep 81 of Elemental.Sulfur is associated with many bad smells, think farts and Rotorua. The smells are caused by thiols, also known as mercaptans, which are compounds with a sulfur bonded to a hydrogen. An example is the smell of H2S, or rotten egg gas, which can be fatal.However, thiols are also responsible for more pleasant aromas, such as the smell of grapefruit and coffee.Crude oil contains lots of sulfur, and when petrol or diesel with high levels of sulfur is burnt it can result in the release of the atmospheric pollutant sulfur dioxide.Sulfuric acid is the number one industrial chemical on earth, much of which is used in the production of fertilisers, says Professor Allan Blackman from the Auckland University of Technology, in episode 81 of Elemental.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Named after a Scottish town, strontium can be highly radioactive & glow-in-the-dark, but also used in toothpaste, says Prof Allan Blackman from AUT, in ep 80 of Elemental.Strontium is named after the Scottish village of Strontian and is the United Kingdom's only claim to fame on the periodic table.It is a group 2 metal that sits between calcium and barium on the periodic table, and is best known for producing a brilliant crimson-red colour in fireworks.Strontium aluminate is widely used in glow-in-dark paints and plastic because in the presence of a smidge of euroropium it can be irradiated with white light to slowly produce a long-lasting green light. This is because it is a photoluminescent phosphorescent material.Strontium salts are sometimes used in toothpaste designed for sensitive teeth.Strontium is probably best known for the 90Sr isotope formed in nuclear fission and contained in nuclear waste, says Professor Allan Blackman from the Auckland University of Technology, in episode 80 of Elemental.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Sodium is vital for life & usually found in combinaton with other more interesting elements, says Prof Allan Blackman in ep 79 of Elemental.Would you willingly eat the product obtained from the reaction of a metal which reacts violently with water and a poisonous gas that was used as a chemical weapon in World War One?Well, put like that you'd probably answer 'no', but chances are that you've already eaten some today, in the form of sodium chloride or salt.Sodium the element is a highly reactive metal - the internet is full of videos of people dropping pieces of sodium in water to see the explosion that results.This reactivity means it is never found naturally in its elemental form but exists almost always on Earth as the Na+ cation.This cation is usually found in partnership with other more interesting anions - think, sodium bicarbonate (baking soda), sodium stearate (soap), and sodium azide (used to inflate airbags in cars).Sodium is also a key part of the sodium-potassium pump in the human body, says Professor Allan Blackman from the Auckland University of Technology, in episode 79 of Elemental.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Silver is widely used in jewellery, has interesting light sensitive abilities and has antimicrobial properties, says Prof Allan Blackman from AUT in ep 78 of Elemental.Argentina and the Rio de la Plata both take their name from the element silver, whose chemical symbol Ag comes from the Latin argentum.Silver has always played second fiddle to gold as it is not always found as a pure metal in nature. It is very prone to tarnishing, although that hasn't stopped its use in jewellery, cutlery and coins. Sterling silver is silver alloyed with copper to harden it.Silver salts used to be widely used in photography and they also have use in transition glass lenses which darken in the sun.While silver nanoparticles have antimicrobial activity, consuming too much silver for its supposed health benefits is not a good idea; United States political candidate Stan Jones has famously blue skin after many years of consuming home-made colloidal silver. This condition is known as argyria, says Professor Allan Blackman from the Auckland University of Technology, in episode 78 of Elemental.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Silicon is a blockbuster metalloid with many uses, from glass to computer chips & bathroom sealants, says Prof Allan Blackman from AUT in ep 77 of Elemental.Silicon underpins modern technology and has been a ubiquitous part of our lives since the 1950s, when the silicon chip was invented.But although billions of silicon chips are produced each year, this only uses 5 percent of the world's silicon production. The rest is used in glass, concrete, brick and silicone polymers.In nature the most abundant compounds of silicon are feldspars, which are aluminosilicate materials, and quartz or silica, better known as sand.In episode 77 of Elemental, Professor Allan Blackman from the Auckland University of Technology, introduces us silicates, silicones, silicas and many other permutations and uses of silicon.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

New Zealand soils lack the vital element selenium, which also used to be important in photocopiers and bathroom plumbing, says Prof Allan Blackman from AUT in ep 76 of Elemental.Selenium is named after the moon. There is some debate as to whether it is a metalloid or a non-metal.It is a trace element that New Zealand soils are deficient in. As a result, Kiwis are recommended to eat foods such as brazil nuts and seafood that are rich in selenium.Selenium occurs as three allotropes, and the grey allotrope has the unusual property of being an insulator in the dark but conducting electricity when it is exposed to light. This led to its extensive use in photocopies during the 1970s and 1980s, says Professor Allan Blackman from the Auckland University of Technology, in episode 76 of Elemental.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Predicted by Mendeleev & useful for alloying with aluminium, scandium was involved in a famous cricket scandal, says AUT's Allan Blackman in ep 75 of Elemental.Scandium is named after Scandinavia, and it was the second of Mendeleev's predicted elements to be discovered.Scandium is the first transition metal on the periodic table. It is roughly the same density as aluminium but has a higher melting point, which means it can be welded.The most famous story involving scandium concerns a cricket bat wielded by Dennis Lillee in a cricket test against England in 1979. The scandalised cricket authorities subsequently amended the Laws of Cricket to state that the blade of the bat must be made of wood, says Professor Allan Blackman from the Auckland University of Technology, in episode 75 of Elemental.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Samarium magnets are used in headphones & guitar pickups, and samarium was the first element named after a real person, says Prof Allan Blackman from AUT in ep 74 of Elemental.Samarium was the first element on the periodic table to be named after a real, as opposed to a mythical, person.It is a lanthanoid and alloys of it are useful in magnets, which can be thousands of times stronger than iron magnets.These magnets are found in headphones and high-end magnetic pickups for electric guitars and basses.Samarium magnets were also used in the motors of one of the earliest solar-powered electric aircraft, the Solar Challenger, says Professor Allan Blackman from the Auckland University of Technology, in episode 74 of Elemental.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Ruthenium is a 'sort of' precious metal that is a useful catalyst and alloy. It is toxic and smells like ozone, says Allan Blackman from AUT in ep 73 of Elemental.Ruthenium is a rare transition metal produced mostly as a by-product of nickel mining.It is not widely used industrially, although it is found in some catalysts and alloys. It is more useful in the chemistry laboratory, where it has helped several chemists win Nobel Prizes.Ruthenium is toxic and if you have the bad fortune to be exposed to it, it smells of ozone says Professor Allan Blackman from the Auckland University of Technology, in episode 73 of Elemental.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Rubidium is a reactive metal with few uses, named 'deepest red' due to its beautiful red spectral lines, says Allan Blackman from AUT in ep 72 of Elemental.Rubidium is named after the Latin word rubidius, meaning 'deepest red.'It is a group one metal, which makes it soft, highly reactive with water and with a low melting point.Rubidium helped win a Nobel Prize in Physics in 2001 for the discoverers of Bose-Einstein condensates, says Professor Allan Blackman from the Auckland University of Technology, in episode 72 of Elemental.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Rhodium is an expensive precious metal that is used in catalytic convertors, to make the Parkinson's drug L-DOPA, create shiny jewellery and add the menthol taste to toothpaste, says Allan Blackman from AUT in ep 71 of Elemental.Rhodium is a very expensive precious metal, whose major use is in catalytic convertors, as it is very good at reducing levels of nitrogen oxides.The metal is used in mirrors and optical fibres, and as it is very shiny it is sometimes used as a coating for jewellery made from cheaper metals.Rhodium turns up in lip balm, cough remedies, toothpaste and aftershave, because rhodium catalysts are used to make synthetic menthol flavours, says Professor Allan Blackman from the Auckland University of Technology, in episode 71 of Elemental.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Named after the Rhine river, rhenium is a metal with very high boiling and melting points, and it was the last naturally occuring, non-radioactive element to be discovered, says Prof Allan Blackman in ep 70 of Elemental.The chemical element rhenium is named after the Rhine River.It is one of the rarest elements in the earth's crust and the last of the naturally-occurring non-radioactive elements to be discovered.Rhenium has a number of claims to chemical fame: the metal has the highest boiling point (5596 degrees Celsius), third highest melting point and is the fourth most dense of all the elements.It finds use in alloys and catalysts, says Professor Allan Blackman from AUT, in episode 70 of Elemental.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

The radioactive gas radon can be a risk in the basements of stone houses and used to, erroneously, be touted for its health benefits, says Prof Allan Blackman from AUT in ep 69 of Elemental.Radon was originally named 'radium emanation' by its discoverer, Kiwi chemist Lord Ernest Rutherford.It is a noble gas and is produced by the radioactive decay of uranium and thorium. People who live in stone buildings can be at risk from radon gas as it escapes from rocks - it is heavy so it tends to lodge in the basements of houses. This is a problem in some parts of the United States, where you can buy radon detectors in supermarkets, but is not an issue in New Zealand.In the early twentieth century radon was touted as having health benefits before the dangers of radioactivity were recognised, says Professor Allan Blackman from the Auckland University of Technology in episode 69 of Elemental.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Radium was famously found by the Curies, and was once widely used in face creams, drinks and luminous watch dials, despite being highly radioactive, says Allan Blackman in ep 68 of Elemental.Radium was first isolated as an element from pitchblende by Marie and Pierre Curie in 1898, just two years after Henri Becquerel discovered radioactivity, although the dangers of radioactivity were not recognised at that time.Radium salts glow in the dark and were infamously used on luminous clock and watch dials in the early twentieth century. The workers who painted the dials, later known as the 'Radium Girls', were encouraged to lick the tips of their paint brushes and later successfully sued their employer when many of them began dying from cancer and radiation-induced illnesses.Radium was also added to water, coffee, beer and even face creams, before its dangers were realised.Radium is dangerous to humans because it behaves similarly in our bodies to calcium, says Professor Allan Blackman from the Auckland University of Technology in episode 68 of Elemental.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Protactinium is a rare, radioactive element that has no uses and may be the most boring element, says Prof Allan Blackman from AUT in ep 67 of Elemental.Protactinium is rare, radioactive and one of the ten least abundant chemical elements in the Earth's crust.It was an element whose existence was predicted by Dmitri Mendeleev in the first periodic table in 1869, although it took 40 years for its existence to be confirmed.Little work was done on it until about 100 grams of the element were isolated in the early 1960s which allowed a small amount of research to be carried out.This may be the most boring chemical element, but Prof Allan Blackman from AUT suggests you listen to the 'Most boring chemical element' episode of Elemental to find out for certain.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Despite its gruesome mythical name, the radioactive element promethium has no particular claim to fame, says Prof Allan Blackman from AUT in ep 66 of Elemental.The element promethium is named for Prometheus, who stole fire from the Greek Gods and was gruesomely punished.The name was suggested by the wife of one of the Oak Ridge laboratory discovery team. Her reasoning was that the name reflects the power and peril of nuclear energy, by symbolising 'both the daring and the possible misuse of mankind's intellect.'All isotopes of promethium are highly radioactive and unstable with very short half-lives, so there is virtually none on earth.Promethium was used for a while in the Apollo Lunar Modules, in luminous paint used to illuminate some switches. However its glow ran out after just a couple of years so it was replaced with tritium-based paints, says Allan Blackman in episode 66 of Elemental.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Praseodymium is a metal wirh the second longest name on the periodic table and not many uses, says Prof Alan Blackman from AUT in ep 65 of Elemental.Praseodymium is the second-longest name on the periodic table. The prize for the longest element name goes to rutherfordium, named after the famous New Zealand physicist Lord Ernest Rutherford who won a Nobel Prize in chemistry.Praseodymium means 'green twin', a name that relates to confusion over the supposed element didymium. Didymium appeared on Mendeleev's original periodic table but turned out to be a mixture of elements, one of which was praseodymium.There are not many uses for this lanthanoid. It is used with neodymium in a form of glass known as didymium glass, that is used in welder's glasses.As well as protecting against light, it can be used to produce light such as searchlights, and it is used in magnets that have a role in wind turbines and hybrid cars.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

From levitating burnt buttocks, to excitable nerves and sure-to-rise baking, potassium is highly reactive and vital to life, says Prof Allan Blackman in ep 64 of Elemental.Potassium is a fundamental building block of life that pops up all over the place.The name comes from the English word potash, an old term for potassium salts obtained from wood ash. The chemical symbol K comes from kalium, an Arabic term for alkaline - or al-kali- plant ashes. Germanic countries went with the common name kalium for element 19 for many years.Potassium was discovered by the prolific element discoverer Humphrey Davy in 1807, who found it to be highly reactive with water. It also added a lovely violet colour to a flame, the same colour that is seen in the familiar potassium permanganate or Condy's crystals.Along with sodium, potassium is a critical part of the sodium-potassium pump, which is crucial for the transmission of nerve signals.Bananas are a good dietary source of potassium, which is an essential element.Industrially, most potassium is used in fertilisers as well as in soaps and detergents.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Polonium will be forever linked with the names Curie and Litvinenko and has negligible desirable features, says Prof Allan Blackman in ep 63 of Elemental.Polonium will be forever linked with the names Curie and Litvinenko and has negligible desirable features.Polonium (symbol Po and atomic number 84) is a radioactive metal, discovered by the Curies and named after Marie's home country of Poland, in 1898, a period when the country didn't actually exist.Po210 accumulates in tobacco and as a result cigarettes contain quite high levels of it, says Prof Allan Blackman, in ep 63 of Elemental.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

A radioactive heavyweight associated with nuclear bombs & power, which is powering the Voyager spacecraft, says Prof Allan Blackman from AUT in ep 62 of Elemental.Plutonium is a radioactive heavyweight associated with nuclear bombs & power generation.It is mostly a synthetic element, although there are trace amounts in nature.Plutonium (symbol Pu, atomic number 94) was discovered and named in 1940 after the dwarf planet Pluto. Alternative names considered by the discovery team were 'ultimium' or ''extremium, because of the mistaken belief they had found the last possible element on the periodic table. Its discovery wasn't announced until the end of the second world war.The isotope 239Pu is a fissile isotope that has led to its use in nuclear reactions.238Pu is powering the Voyager spacecrafts, which have left our solar system, says Prof Allan Blackman from AUT, in ep 62 of Elemental.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Platinum is useful in catalytic convertors, is used to treat testicular cancer and will be useful in hydrogen fuel cells, says Prof Allan Blackman from AUT in ep 61 of Elemental.Platinum is a rare precious metal, that doesn't corrode in oxygen.It occurs in its native state in nature and was used in burial goods by South Americans about 2000 years ago.Platinum is useful in catalytic convertors, along with palladium.It is used to treat testicular cancer and will be useful in hydrogen fuel cells, says Prof Allan Blackman from AUT, in ep 61 of Elemental.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Phosphorus, chemical symbol P, was first isolated as an element from thousands of litres of urine. Also found in guano, aka bird poo. Allan Blackman from AUT has the full story in ep 60 of Elemental.Phosphorus, from the Greek phosphoros meaning light-bearing, was the old name for Venus.It is the first element for which we know the exact year of discovery: 1669. Hennig Brand made 120 grams of phosphorus by boiling down 5,500 litres of urine, ending up with a waxy white solid that glowed in the dark without giving off heat. However, it wasn't recognised as an element until more than a century later.As well as white phosphorus, there are allotropes of red and black phosphorus.It is very flammable and was used in early matchsticks.Phosphates are important fertilisers, and one source of it is guano, aka bird poo. Allan Blackman from AUT has the full story, in ep 60 of Elemental.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Palladium is a pricey precious metal most commonly used in catalytic convertors on car exhausts, says AUT's Allan Blackman in ep 59 of Elemental.Palladium is a pricey precious metal that is one of a group of metals known as platinum group metals. Of these, palladium is the least dense and has the lowest melting point.It is named after the asteroid Pallas, which was discovered around the same time; Pallas was the Greek God of wisdom.White gold is alloyed with palladium.Palladium (symbol Pd, atomic number 46) is most commonly used in catalytic convertors on car exhausts, says AUT's Allan Blackman, in ep 59 of Elemental.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Oxygen is very friendly with other chemical elements & very helpful for life on Earth, says Allan Blackman from AUT in ep 58 of Elemental.Oxygen is one of the few elements that exists as allotropes, which are different forms in the same physical state.Elemental oxygen is O.The oxygen that we breath in air is actually dioxygen or O2.There is also trioxygen, or ozone, O3.Oxygen is very friendly with other chemical elements as it is very reactive.Elemental oxygen is paramagnetic as it contains two unpaired electrons.It is very helpful for life on Earth, as the oxygen cycle drives most life on earth, says Allan Blackman from AUT, in ep 58 of Elemental.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Osmium is extremely rare and expensive. It is the densest chemical element, rivals diamond as being the least compressible of all known substances & has a distinctive 'pong' according to Allan Blackman in ep 57 of Elemental.Osmium is an extremely rare and expensive transition metal, and only a few hundred kilograms are produced annually.It is the densest chemical element, and rivals diamond as being the least compressible of all known substances.It doesn't have many uses, although its hardness makes it useful in fountain pen nibs and clock bearings.The name osmium comes from the Grek osme, meaning 'smell'. Osmium tetroxide has a distinctive 'pong' according to Allan Blackman, in ep 57 of Elemental.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Most important biological molecules contain nitrogen, even though it takes lots of energy to make or break its chemical bonds, says Allan Blackman from AUT in ep 56 of Elemental.Eighty percent of each breath we take is nitrogen gas.It is ironic that the French word for nitrogen, azote, means "without life', when most important biological molecules contain nitrogen.Nitrogen molecules are held together by one of the strongest bonds in chemistry. If you could obtain the energy contained in the bonds in a mere 28 grams of nitrogen gas you could use It boil 3 kg of water (starting at room temperature).Fortunately, nature can break these bonds using the enzyme nitrogenase.Nitrogen (symbol N, atomic number 7) is an important component of some vitamins. And the name vitamins, by the way, comes from 'vital amines'; amines being organic compounds containing one or more nitrogen atoms.Nitrogen is a life-saving explosive that is used in airbags in cars, says Allan Blackman in ep 56 of Elemental.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Niobium is a metal that is useful at both very high temperatures, as in jet engines, and very low temperatures as a superconductor, says Allan Blackman from AUT in ep 55 of Elemental.Niobium was named after Niobe, daughter of King Tantalus in Greek mythology. The element got its name because it lies above the element tantalum, named after said father.Niobium is a transition metal that is used in alloys such as stainless steel, to add hardness.It is also being used in qubits in quantum computers.The elemental metal itself is very high-melting and therefore useful at very high temperatures, and is used in jet engines. At very low temperatures niobium is a superconductor, says Allan Blackman from AUT in ep 55 of Elemental.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

The chemical element nickel is named after a German word for Satan or the Devil, but nickel is now more usually thought of as a North American five cent piece, says Allan Blackman in ep 54 of Elemental.The name nickel for the chemical element comes from a German word Nickel, meaning Satan or the Devil.The five cent coins of Canada and the United States are known as nickels, even though the coins contain only small amounts of nickel and are in fact mostly made of copper.Nitinol, which is made from 55 percent nickel and 45 percent titanium, is also known as memory metal. Bend a length of nnitinol into a shape, heat and the cool it, and it will always remember and bounce back into that shape. Great for spectacle frames!Another nickel alloy is invar, which doesn't expand when heated, as well as nickel chromium which is used in toaster elements.Nickel is often used in batteries and has important biological roles, says Professor Allan Blackman at AUT.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

There are no known compounds of the noble gas neon, which does however produce the brilliant crimson of red - and only red - neon lights. Ep 53 of Elemental with Prof Allan Blackman from AUT.Coming in at atomic number 10, neon is the first element on the periodic table to have a full outer set of eight electrons. It is a noble gas, highly unreactive and has no known compounds.Neon gives its name, and the colour red, to neon lights. The other colours of neon lights come from hydrogen (also red), helium (yellow), carbon dioxide (white) and mercury (blue).Research into neon led to the discovery of isotopes and also the mass spectrometer.It can be used as a low temperature refrigerant and in diving gases, as it is less soluble in bodily fluid than helium.Neon has the smallest temperature range (just 2.5 degrees celcius) over which it exists as a liquid, says Professor Allan Blackman from AUT.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Neodydmium magnets include the strongest permanent magnets known and are found in devices like speakers & headphones, says chemistry professor Allan Blackman from AUT in ep 52 of Elemental.Neodymium magnets were invented in 1982, and are the strongest permanent magnets known. A neodymium magnet can lift up to 1000 times its own weight. They are actually an alloy of neodymium, iron and boron.Neodymium magnets turn up in speakers, headphones, hard drives, guitar pick-ups and microphones.You can also buy them online as super strong fridge magnets.Electric cars contain about a kilogram of neodymium.Some neodymium compounds have the unusual property that they appear different colours to the human eye under different types of lights.And you can thank neodymium for your green laser pointer, says Allan Blackman from AUT.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

The Elemental podcast has inspired Prof Allan Blackman from AUT and Dr Rebecca Jelley from the University of Auckland, to publish a paper in the journal Nature Chemistry - here's a quick lowdown on 'The most boring chemical element.'Inspired by the Elemental podcast series, Dr Rebecca Jelley, from the University of Auckland, and podcast host Professor Allan Blackman, from the Auckland University of Technology, have just had a paper published in the prestigious science journal Nature Chemistry.In 'The most boring chemical element' Rebecca and Allan set out to mark the International Year of the Periodic Table by finding the most boring element.The task turns out to more challenging - and interesting - than they anticipated.And? Well, as they say in the 'abstract': "Could it be boron or bohrium that is the most boring? You'll need to read to the end to find out."Or, you could listen to the podcast first for the spoiler, but then we highly recommend a read - the article is funny and enlightening (and open access). Enjoy! The most boring chemical element - the podcastYou can subscribe to the Elemental podcast for free, at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts and RadioPublic.The Elemental podcast is celebrating 150 years since the periodic table was first published by Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev.Find out more about events during the United Nation's International Year of the Periodic Table.Professor Allan Blackman is at Auckland University of Technology.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Molybdenum has an essential role as a catalyst at microbial and industrial scales and is an important element in enzymes, says Prof Allan Blackman, in ep 50 of Elemental.Molybdenum's biggest claim to fame is that it is a catalyst for reactions ranging in scale from the bacterial to industrial.It is a transition metal that is also an essential element. It is vital for life and was also key to the evolution of life.Molybedenum is found in enzymes, most importantly nitrogenase, which converts elemental nitrogen to useable ammonia. This is why it is found in fertilisers.Somewhat confusingly, the element molybdenum gets its name from the Greek word molybdos, meaning 'lead'.Moly-steel is very strong alloy that is used in things like armour plating and rocket engines, says Professor Allan Blackman from the Auckland University of Technology.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Mercury is the only metal that is liquid at room temperature and atmospheric pressure, says Allan Blackman in ep 49 of Elemental.Mercury is an unusual metal that is liquid at standard room temperature and atmospheric pressure.Mercury is named after the planet, and its chemical symbol Hg comes from the Latin hydrargyrum or liquid silver.Its silver-grey colour was a familiar sight in old-fashioned thermometers and in amalgam fillings in our teeth.Mercury alloys easily with other metals, in a process called amalgamation.It was widely used to extract gold during mining, and to plate metals with gold in a process known as gilding.Mercury is highly toxic, and there are many examples of widespread mercury poisoning incidents.The term Mad Hatter refers to the health consequences of the use of mercury by milliners and hatters in the felting process that was part of making hats, says Professor Allan Blackman from AUT.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details