Elemental – Details, episodes & analysis

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Elemental

RNZ

Science

Frequency: 1 episode/3d. Total Eps: 98

To celebrate 150 years of the periodic table, get to know the back story of every element with our intrepid scientific hosts.

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🇬🇧 Great Britain - science
29/07/2025
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Zirconium - shape-shifting time capsule

Episode 98

Sunday, December 22, 2019 • Duration 12:34

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.

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Zinc - more useful than you realise

Episode 97

Thursday, December 19, 2019 • Duration 12:31

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.

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Thulium - the most laborious of the lanthanoids

Episode 88

Sunday, November 24, 2019 • Duration 09:45

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.

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Thorium - potential source of cleaner nuclear energy

Episode 87

Thursday, November 21, 2019 • Duration 09:09

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.

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Thallium - the poisoner's poison

Episode 86

Sunday, November 17, 2019 • Duration 08:27

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.

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Terbium - turns up in old TVs & new Euro notes

Episode 85

Thursday, November 14, 2019 • Duration 08:54

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).

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Tellurium - usually associated with gold

Episode 84

Sunday, November 10, 2019 • Duration 09:21

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.

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Technetium - the first synthetic element

Episode 83

Thursday, November 7, 2019 • Duration 08:45

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.

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Tantalum - a tantalising chemical element

Episode 82

Sunday, November 3, 2019 • Duration 07:23

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.

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Sulfur - king of bad smells

Episode 81

Thursday, October 31, 2019 • Duration 14:25

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.

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Elemental – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

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