Periodic Table of Death and Mystery

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.

A long-ago family history. Whispers about a man who was also a monster—not the serial-killer kind. But the explosive at-the-drop-of-the-hat temper kind whose wife probably took the brunt of his rage. Then he dies after accidentally consuming a toxic Sulfur-containing chemical that just happened to be in the medicine cabinet at a time when poisoning was an easy way to commit murder.

Rhenium is one of the rarest elements on earth with a very, very high melting point which makes it perfect to strengthen metals used in high heat situation, like jet engines. The problem is that certain fashion choices like capes can get the wearer into difficulties near Rhenium-infused spinning turbines of aircraft engines. Right, Stratogirl?

Pockets are actually a European invention found as far back as the 5000-year-old Neolithic mummy, Otzi, in the Alps. Yet there is an ELEPHANT in the Strontium elemental image that accompanies this podcast. It turns out pockets, Strontium, and elephants are linked by a fashion trend that ended ~1400 years ago. And this connection opened another mystery to be solved…

They are all retired now, some for years, this group of men. Yet because of their long-standing friendship and interests, they still meet Friday nights at the local pub for a pint and to reminisce about the good old days. All that excitement. The adulation of their criminal peers. How ‘bout one more caper for old time’s sake? One that would net them millions of dollars in gold, silver, precious stones, and platinum.

Platinum. “Rare, pure, eternal.” And expensive. A jeweler’s slogan that perfectly describes this periodic table element. Perfect for coins—or so you’d think. But platinum is actually too hard and rare. It is used for wedding rings because it doesn’t wear away as easily as silver and gold. Which brings us back to those jewelers and to a heist that netted everything but the kitchen sink—including a plethora of platinum bars.

What started out as the search for the origin of the police slang, “copper” (Copper badges?), ended up as a poignant reminder of historical pain and resilience of enslaved people during a Charleston, South Carolina archaeological dig.

Research about Titanium dioxide and a lawsuit over the candy Skittles turned out to be less than tongue-in-cheek cute. Instead, let’s stamp a disclaimer warning right up front: the information extracted from extensive reading on this topic is … concerning. Or is it?

This podcast will the introduce 4-inch-long cockroaches, giant millipedes up to 8 feet long, and dragonflies the size of pigeons of the Carboniferous era (323 to 299 million years ago) and ask the question: Why were bugs so BIG 300 million years ago? The answer in no small part is because of oxygen (O), the 8th element of the periodic table and one most life on earth can’t live without.

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.

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.

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/⁠

Remember you must die. The carbon in your body, as well as the rest of the chemicals that make you you are literally worth about a dollar, but get cremated and you can create a diamond out of your dead loved one that will last forever…Happy Halloween! 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/⁠

Fourteen-year-old Jeanne Boulet was the first victim. Next, a boy, then another girl, and another. One by one, lone men, women, and children--by varying accounts 100-300 souls--were massacred over a period of four years. Terror gripped the region, until a silver bullet ended the mystery. Or did it? 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/⁠

The lightest element, Hydrogen, was responsible for the downfall of the largest dirigible ever constructed--resulting in the death of one crew member on the ground. 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/