Nipponium - The Element that Wasn't - Periodic Table of Videos

[@harimaj569]

Always nice to see our professor doing well. I say 'our' professor even though I have never been Uni of Nottingham student, but for all of us around the world he has been also our professor through all these years.

[@c64116]

if they need an explanation as to why he IS our professor, well then, he ISNT their professor lol. cheers.

[@jeevahacoelho6556]

*soviet anthem plays in the background

[@PlzReturnYourShoppingCart]

I really like seeing that he is doing well too

[@InvisibleJiuJitsu]

he taught me when I was at Notts uni :)

[@Bassotronics]

He is awesome.

[@CookedMeat]

Accidentally discovering a new element in 1800: "Huh not sure what is this but neat." Accidentally discovering a new element in 2020: "Guess I will have cancer then."

[@moosemaimer]

"We haven't entirely nailed down what element it is yet, but I'll tell you this: it's a lively one, and it does NOT like the human skeleton."

[@oldcowbb]

i don't think you can accidentally discovers a new element in 2020

[@gubgubgub]

@@moosemaimer control group isn't going to like that

[@gubgubgub]

or is it beam counters? i can't remember it

[@bgezal]

@@moosemaimer Moon dust is a helluva drug.

[@tekuaniaakab2050]

This is similar to the story of the discovery of Vanadium. A Spanish-Mexican scientist discovered the element in Mexico and sent it to Europe for analysis, where they (incorrectly) told him it was just chromium. About 30 years later a Swedish scientist rediscovered it and named it Vanadium. The original proposed name would have been “erythronium” which os pretty cool

[@kanishkmukherjee08]

Chemistry students are diabolically thankful of this elements non-existence(erythronium)

[@Freshbott2]

@@kanishkmukherjee08 why?

[@amiralibazdar3206]

@@Freshbott2 Vanadium is just much much easier to remember

[@ThePppp89]

Unrelated to the story, but wouldn't a Spanish-Mexican just be... Mexican?

[@雀-t6c]

@@ThePppp89 I’d say Spanish-Mexican is fine if he moved to Mexico after being born in Spain. Not really sure what it means

[@johndododoe1411]

If Nipponium had prevailed, 113 Nh would probably have been named for the prefecture, city, university or person discovering it. Similar things happened with other groups discovering multiple elements, such as the Bohr dynasty from Copenhagen/Hafnia.

[@AaronOfMpls]

Or all the rare earths named after Ytterby, Sweden, where their ores were first discovered: Yttrium, Ytterbium, Erbium, Terbium ... and then Holmium (after Stockholm, closest city to Ytterby) and Scandium (after Scandinavia in general) because they ran out of ways to get an element name out of Ytterby itself.

[@Anonymous-df8it]

@@AaronOfMpls What about Ytbium, could they have called Scandium that?

[@mushyomens6885]

@@AaronOfMpls damn didn't know about that, thanks!

[@dominiccasts]

That or something like Yamatonium, if we were still going with names for Japan.

[@RedHairdo]

All elements are named the same way: Moronium.

[@Rubrickety]

I think the professor may have achieved new peak hair. Soon he will be indistinguishable from a giant dandelion. I am in awe.

[@christmassnow3465]

Mendelev never stopped amazing me: back when the sub-atomic particles were poorly understood, his way of thinking was as revolutionary as Einstein's theories. It is worth a video of its own talking about his researches.

[@notforwantoftrying1]

I think the Professor's hair has reached its most extreme extent ever

[@Yora21]

It has reached maximum entropy.

[@polbecca]

They say the Professor actually invented being a scientist.

[@phoule76]

I love the manga tear that he's shedding in the drawing.

[@SolarWebsite]

I would love a video about the island of stability. A deep(ish) dive in what it is and especially any recent progress towards finding/creating and elements that may constitute that island. Thanks!

[@bretscofield]

would be interesting, yes.

[@klausolekristiansen2960]

There is a very pronounced island of stability at elements 90 and 92. Both have isotopes that are very much more stable than anything else above 83.

[@mealex303]

Im guessing You will only wear that coat... PERIODICALLY ? LOL

[@anarchyneverdies3567]

😂😂😂😂😂

[@Hemigloopilop7890]

I love little tidbits of trivia like this. It really helps bring a humanising character to what is essentially a property sorted database (the periodic table) and helps tell a story of chemistry.

[@RDEnduro]

Ogawa had a great mustache, thank you for the lesson Professor!

[@Hexakinase]

5:24 This hits me in my field, as well. It's amazing that our forebears were able to accomplish so much with so little.

[@samitabbakh8409]

I think this applies to all fields. I'm an electronics engineer, and I can't even imagine how people used to do electronics designs back in the old days.

[@johndododoe1411]

@@samitabbakh8409 Well, first they looked in the data book for a nice integrated tube. If not listed or too expensive, fall back to basic pentodes, then simplify to triodes or diodes.

[@ifitsrusteditsmine]

This Professor always brings a smile to my face

[@auroraourania7161]

I feel like Ogawa deserves to have an element specifically named after him, given that he didn't get this credit during his lifetime. Hopefully his name is put on one of the ones found in the future.

[@WhyDoThat]

It isn't just about finding something in science but properly identifying and understanding it.

[@astphaire]

nah

[@natalieisagirlnow]

the chart is full, what can they find?

[@slendeaway7730]

@@natalieisagirlnow It's not 'full', the row has just been completed. We can keep synthesizing atoms with higher and higher numbers of protons in them, but at this point they're so unstable and have such short half-lives that it's highly difficult to even detect them. The periodic table makes predictions, so we could hypothetically theorize an infinite amount of atoms and their properties.

[@Abigail-hu5wf]

@@WhyDoThat But, as pointed out, the second discoverers of rhenium ALSO believed they had identified technetium. Both were wrong in the same way. So this can't be the only part of the story. I would be a little wary that perhaps an element of racism played a part, honestly - it's not impossible.

[@darthrainbows]

I'm curious, if the way to determine the element present in the salts involved calculating its atomic mass, how could Re be confused with Tc, given the huge difference in atomic mass between them (186 vs 99 (roughly))?

[@Anonymous-df8it]

Can't let this comment get buried!

[@Owlrrex]

It was mentioned that there was a mistake in the formula of the salt. Given the weights are almost exactly a factor of two apart, having twice as many atoms per molecule in the wrong formula would give you half the expected atomic mass, no?

[@weckar]

@@Owlrrex Let's also not forget there's a second part no every salt. So he thought he had 2Np-X, while he actually just had Np-X. It is also possible he misidentified X.

[@LucarioBoricua]

That's close-ish to a 2 to 1 ratio, which is really difficult to measure with the techniques that were likely available at the very start of the 20th century.

[@giordy9013]

So happy to see the Professor back in his university studio, it makes the video much more scientific

[@BlackWolf42-]

Thank you for the image at 2:56 !! It helped bring to light the chem techniques used to find and isolate new elements. Intriguing af

[@u.v.s.5583]

When Sir Ramsey discovered a noble gas, he realized that all good names were gone.

[@kansascityshuffle8526]

1908 the same year a Japanese biochemist invented MSG

[@wombatkins]

Ah, the King of Flavor!

[@BackYardScience2000]

Please do more videos about elements that might have been or that never were. It fascinates me that so many were named and published about, but we're never actually discovered and disproved when the real discoverer published about them. Like Veritasium. The name of that KZbin channel is the name of an element that never really existed. It was named, used in tables and everything. But then it was proven that specific discoverer didn't really discover it. So then the element was, I guess dismounted (?) From the periodic table and a new name was given to the true discoverers element and now the old name is used as a KZbin channel name. I'd love to hear more stories like this about elements that were named, but weren't actually discovered or people were mistaken on what they've actually found. Some very interesting stories are there to be told and shared with the world. I'd love to see and hear the professor talk about them. 🙂

[@mushyomens6885]

owo i always thought veritasium(name of channel) was just a made-up name from the Latin word veritas (truth) and not that there was some history behind it

[@gcewing]

Do you have a reference for this? Everything Google is finding for me says it's just something that Derek made up.

[@BackYardScience2000]

@@gcewing after researching, you're right. I did find where "Veritas" had been considered for an element name at one point, but was ultimately rejected due to it not coming from the original discoverer. That's what I was thinking of, where he talked about that. Thank you for pointing that out and for being on the ball with the research.

[@im_outtahere]

Fun fact: element 100, fermium, is the last element that can possibly be made in macroscopic quantities. However, the heaviest element to be seen in macroscopic quantities was the one before fermium, element 99, einsteinium.

[@MGSncB]

Isn't it theorized that there might be an island of stability somewhere?

[@michaelbloom5342]

@@MGSncB Yes. But we aren't anywhere close to it yet.

[@leppeppel]

Me, reading the title: "huh, did scientists jump the gun on element 113?"

[@lewismassie]

I happen to know that 'Nippon' and 'Nihon' are both correct ways to write 日本 in english characters, so both element names are essentially the same

[@موسى_7]

Hey guys, isn't strange that Nihonium is not ニホンイウム but ニホニウム? Doesn't make sense, since Nihon is Japanese for Japan, and it is ニホン, because the n and i are part of two separate things, Nihon and ium.

[@colmonhs]

I missed you professor! Hope you have a lovely 2022 🥰

[@defeatSpace]

Since elements already use Np and the Japanese word for Japan, chemists should recognize element 75 as Ogawanum or Og for short.

[@kasuha]

I don't think we would have both Nippoinum and Nihonium in periodic table, in japanese Nihon and Nippon are two alternative readings of the same word 日本 meaning Japan. Having one already in the periodic table, the newer element would certainly get a different name.

[@photonicpizza1466]

We have terbium, ytterbium and erbium, all named after the village Ytterby in Sweden, so I wouldn't rule it out.

[@kasuha]

@@photonicpizza1466 Yes, but we don't have Ytterbium, Ytterbium and Ytterbium. There's a difference.

[@MGSncB]

Just being curious - is there a reason behind the difference? Regional accents, or maybe a quirk of the language?

[@موسى_7]

@@kasuha Nihonium isn't written with kanji. In fact, it doesn't make sense in Japanese; ニホニウム instead of ニホンイウム

[@lafcursiax]

An excellent book on this and many other cases of "almost-discovered" elements, as well as discovery claims that were later disproved, is The Lost Elements by Marco Fontani, Mariagrazia Costa, and Mary Virginia Orna.

[@syrupfin7890]

I'm so jealous of that hair tho

[@mateuszcielas3362]

actually one video about how in the olden days people could discover new elements would be great, i cant wrap my head around how they could do so not knowing some stuff

[@maxresdefault_]

I would love to hear the prof. explain the complete history of Phlogiston. Love stories of scientific advancement

[@highpath4776]

One was done (by another channel?) when speaking of Hydrogen - actually that might be a BBC Radio expisode (search the sounds website)

[@owentan6322]

I'm really hoping the next element discovered would be something like jacquenium (Jq) such that all letters are used in the periodic tables..

[@zucc4764]

That would be truly groundbreaking, as it would unlock a heavier level of elements. It would have its own row in the table

[@jpdemer5]

Mendeleev actually did use "J" for iodine (iodine is "Jod" in German.) For some reason, the English name and initial become the standard.

[@castform57]

Fun coincidence relating to the happi coat: in finnish, happi means oxygen, and it is pronounced the same way as the coat, はっぴ

[@glenngriffon8032]

Much as i would love to see him get his due credit for the discovery i bet chemists are happy they don't have to distinguish between "Nipponium" and "Nihonium". That could get confusing.

[@phileo_ss]

And it would probably be most confusing to us Japanese people!

[@tom_something]

Some scientific experiments need a _lot_ of helium. Well, even some party planning projects need a lot. But if you're a scientist who needs only a small amount, then I guess having another element that slowly releases alpha particles is pretty handy, because you don't even need a gas cylinder to contain the resulting helium. I'd like to think that if "Nipponium" had caught on, then "Nihonium" would have had a different name. To people in Japan, "Nihon" and "Nippon" are essentially synonymous. Their differences, as I understand it, are essentially contextual. It would be like having "Americium*", which there is, and also having "Unitedstatesium". But like, imagine that their pronunciation is also a little bit similar. *In this example I pretend that "America" exclusively refers to the United States. Again, the hypothetical construct is based largely on context.

[@jeffreyblack666]

Yes, some might think it is a bit ridiculous. Almost as ridiculous as "hypothetically" naming 4 elements yttrium, terbium, erbium and ytterbium after some hypothetical town called Ytterby.

[@ChemistryinaNutshell]

I love your chemistry history videos. Thanks for what you do!

[@TheFinktron]

Nihonium should have been named Japonium with the symbol ”J”. We then would have had a J for making people’s names from chemical symbols.

[@victorcristian8338]

Today is his birthday, 16th December! Happy birthday Sir Martin Poliakoff! Best wishes!!

[@johnkristian]

I don't know how it has taken me such a long time to get this, BUT HIS HAIR IS AMAZING!

[@maineeveryday3991]

Poor Professors right eye is clouding over with cataracts. 😕. We love you!

[@2112jonr]

What a lovely, and thoughtful gift :-)

[@inigoromon1937]

Being a non native English speaker It IS a joy to listen to the professor and understand so many clever things.

[@Brittunculi]

I haven't seen you for ages, Your hair,Mygodium ! Massive 🤣😘

[@AzngameFreak03]

I'm sure I subbed to you when you were 10k views. Amazing to see now what has happened. Wish you well Periodic Videos man.

[@donaldinnewmexico]

Hi, Professor. *Happy* *Holidays*

[@markanderson3740]

I am so happy just to see your face, smiling and healthy. You are among my favorite humans :)

[@ALSPEHEIR]

Nipponium, Germanium and Italyum. 3 elements that combined, create some explosive results.

[@douglasstrother6584]

... especially when combined with Americium!

[@ALSPEHEIR]

@@douglasstrother6584 Actually Americium is pretty much inert all the time. It only reacts with _Peer-Harborium_ .

[@douglasstrother6584]

@@ALSPEHEIR XD

[@TheCleric42]

And you’re forgetting about that other element synthesized in Japan: Hiroshium!

[@OGWk1097]

😂😂😂

[@jamesbarisitz4794]

Interesting sidebar to the history of the table! Thanks. 😃

[@JustAPersonWhoComments]

Rhenium (Latin: Rhenus meaning: "Rhine") was the last-discovered of the elements that have a stable isotope (other new elements discovered in nature since then, such as francium, are radioactive). The existence of a yet-undiscovered element at this position in the periodic table had been first predicted by Dmitri Mendeleev. Other calculated information was obtained by Henry Moseley in 1914. In 1908, Japanese chemist Masataka Ogawa announced that he had discovered the 43rd element and named it nipponium (Np) after Japan (Nippon in Japanese). However, recent analysis indicated the presence of rhenium (element 75), not element 43, although this reinterpretation has been questioned by Eric Scerri. The symbol Np was later used for the element neptunium, and the name "nihonium", also named after Japan, along with symbol Nh, was later used for element 113. Element 113 was also discovered by a team of Japanese scientists and was named in respectful homage to Ogawa's work. Rhenium is generally considered to have been discovered by Walter Noddack, Ida Noddack, and Otto Berg in Germany. In 1925 they reported that they had detected the element in platinum ore and in the mineral columbite. They also found rhenium in gadolinite and molybdenite. In 1928 they were able to extract 1 g of the element by processing 660 kg of molybdenite. It was estimated in 1968 that 75% of the rhenium metal in the United States was used for research and the development of refractory metal alloys. It took several years from that point before the superalloys became widely used.

[@9peppe]

It's the same story with controlled fission. First made by Fermi and his team in Rome, who never realized they'd done it. They were looking for Neptunium and Plutonium, which they called Ausonio and Esperio, and never realized that bombarding Uranium with neutrons had split the nucleus.

[@drishtantsen3724]

Wow, so good to see you again professor! The algorithm brought me to you

[@skyty0]

Weebs: 😴 Physicists: nipponium Weebs: 👀

[@drumkommandr9779]

@5:30 This sounds like a challenge for @NileRed

[@scrotiemcboogerballs1981]

If it wasn’t for the professor’s hair I don’t think I would believe anything he talked about lol jk love watching thank you all for everything you do

[@adamdaichendt3838]

Id call it the frazzled dazzle.😆Not in a rude way by any means of course.👍

[@eeronasi6516]

I work in asbestos removal can you make a video about asbestos

[@killtrigger91]

Nipponium sounds like what katanas in all anime is made out off.

[@TheFrozenedge3]

Clicked for the hair, stayed for the video.

[@rubiks6]

That was fun. Thanks again, Professor.

[@Rencol666]

Where else can we see real thorium next to fidget spinner :D

[@cm1461]

Thank you Professor Poliakoff for keeping doing these amazing videos! I had the pleasure to meet the Professor at the UoN before covid and he is truly friendly and funny as we can see in the videos! All the best

[@pollywanda]

Has anyone studied the spacing of hair filaments in an oxygen rich atmosphere and the increased chance of flammability when near a heat source?

[@curiousnerdkitteh]

I saw this video and that outfit and got really excited that there's literally a channel designed to nerding out about the periodic table's history. At the demonstration on the shirt sleeve I instantly subscribed.

[@debdude123]

Professor, you were there during the Manhattan Project, can you recall those times when suddenly so many new elements popped up out of nowhere?

[@douglasstrother6584]

You Chemistry Geeks need to write the lyrics to "Atom from Tokyo" with apologies to Deep Purple!

[@manjunathanulaganathan9152]

Okawa should be recognised for his contribution. Interesting video professor.

[@Shad0wBoxxer]

That is awesome! Thank you for the lesson

[@_Solaris]

His hair looks better than ever.

[@ChamaraVFX]

Im Sri Lankan and it's first time I'm hearing about Thorianite.. wow

[@jaysartori9032]

What a great teacher Professor is he inspire me to fall back in love with Science and art!

[@ah9338]

This guy looks like science

[@DeconvertedMan]

Science works no matter were you are from

[@tncorgi92]

Unless you're from a red state in America.

[@DeconvertedMan]

@@tncorgi92 unhelpful. :P

[@dooman230]

wholesome video

[@zachb2046]

Thank the Universe and all it's elements this timeline still has an awesome professor going strong! Thanks for the video

[@vanderburg.M]

Hi guys, I've always wanted to know how older chemists worked out what elements were contained in samples and the chemical compositions of organic molecules without the use of modern spectroscopy. In this video, you mentioned that some chemists made salts with known elements and unknown ones to work the left over molar mass (which would indicate what the weight of the unknown element). Would you do a video on all this?

[@alanh8664]

so delightful

[@wearegoingtogoseeyousoonid1891]

This man’s an icon

[@richross4781]

That was a fascinating story.

[@VeganSemihCyprus33]

The Connections (2021) [short documentary] 💖

[@polyquaternium7]

Ahh Nipponium, made from 100% concentrated Otakus that haven been sushi fed daily and massaged by cosplay maids, forged in the bowls of Mount Fuji, folded a 1000000 times a by Edo era master smith and blessed thrice by a Kyoto Shrine maiden/J-pop star before being cooled in the finest Sake.

[@eldstgilmorbarboydodellatb4413]

💚💚💚💚 bookmark/ notes: def shirt spaces from early periodic table …..ect…..tbc…… -g-b, bot

[@ExcelonTheFourthAvalonHeirs]

I can finally fulfill my dream. The creation of Nippon Steel. Sorry, I have too.

[@NoName-qx6tc]

FYI japans endonym(its name in its language) is “Nippon” which is roughly pronounced “NEE-hon”

[@philipfish50]

Hi I have a photo what I took of a cloud and it looks exactly like the professor with the hair and everything how can I post it to you so you can see it thanks phil

[@nowthatsjustducky]

I propose that we name one felonium, to show that even the realm of chemistry has a criminal element. All in favor?

[@dextrodemon]

nipponium sounds like what like car geeks would call rare japanese 90s performance cars or something, like derived from 'unobtainium' 'did you see that rx-7 bro, that's some glorious nipponium, can't get those anymore'

[@lanfrancoadreani9212]

Nipponium Is a material used in the Japanese tree in warthunder

[@موسى_7]

Hey guys, isn't strange that Nihonium is not ニホンイウム but ニホニウム? Doesn't make sense, since Nihon is Japanese for Japan, and it is ニホン, because the n and i are part of two separate things, Nihon and ium.

[@amanofnoreputation2164]

"Sir William encouraged him to name it Nipponium with the symbol Np." Gigachad.

[@meazle]

I have the same glasses as Prof. Poliakoff. It's nice to know I dress like the superstars.

[@IIGrayfoxII]

I still cant see why we cant just rename it We renamed Wolfram to Tungsten and Tungsten still bears its Original symbol of W

[@sockington1]

...just so that the americans could call aluminium aluminum

[@gomahklawm4446]

We should NEVER allow elements to be named for/about nation states. It's disgusting.

[@cherubin7th]

If Japan is really sad about it, they could just ignore the name Rhenium and call it Nipponium. Just how English people ignore the name natrium and call it sodium.

[@موسى_7]

I call it natrium to better remember the symbol. And copper cuprum. And lead plumbum. I only call it that when memorising things for myself, never when talking to other people. It makes certain things easier to remember. These names such as natrium are Latin. It's easy to associate plumbum with lead as you associate any word in one language with its equivalent in another. Connecting plumbum to lead is easier than remembering that the letters Pb link to lead; that's the case for me at least.

[@amanofnoreputation2164]

"...But there aren't any elements left to discover that we can name after Japan!" "Fine, we'll synthesize one ourselves!"

[@melekeok250]

Still I Can't belive that is a Man on Earth who looks like every female teacher with 40 Yeats experience and Brian May from Queen

[@brokentombot]

Nip this element in the bud. For Rhenium's sake. Or is it Technetium?

[@NeonRabies]

I literally moved to Japan a few weeks ago, this is a great gift, thank you Periodic Videos :D

[@موسى_7]

Pray that they will be kind to you. I heard that they are unfriendly to foreigners, and that most foreigners leave. Please prepare so it doesn't end badly for you.

[@nihonium]

that's almost me

[@DerpyLaron]

I mean did he recorded a spectrum of it? Yes. Did he not understand the data correctly and thus not came to the conclusion that is needed for a discovery also yes. Maybe it's the analytic chemist talking here, but if you read the wrong thing out of it you didn't find anything. Someone else using the date you recorded retroactively fixed your mistake. It's tragic in this case, but that's science.

[@icefire6622]

But the team that was attributed with the discovery made the same mistake. They also assumed they had created element 43.

[@jamesowens7148]

KZbin didn't notify me about this video on my subscriber page.