Berkelium - Periodic Table of Videos

We're at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory where the element Berkelium has "come home" for some cutting edge research. More links and info in full description ↓↓↓
With thanks to Professor Polly Arnold and her group for hosting us at LBNL - chemistry.berk...
And also thanks to the people at Oak Ridge National Laboratory where we have filmed previously. Learn more about Berkelium production by watching our Californium video: • Californium - Periodic...
More from Oak Ridge: • Trip to Oak Ridge - Pe...
This video also featured Professor Martyn Poliakoff from the School of Chemistry at The University of Nottingham... More about chemistry at Nottingham: bit.ly/NottChem
Videos on all 118 elements: bit.ly/118elements
Support us on Patreon: / periodicvideos
More chemistry at www.periodicvid...
This episode was also generously supported by The Gatsby Charitable Foundation
Periodic Videos films are by video journalist Brady Haran: www.bradyharan....
Brady's Blog: www.bradyharanb...
Join Brady's mailing list for updates and extra stuff --- eepurl.com/YdjL9

[@LeCharles07]

Sir Poliakoff's hair is not shrubbery; it's entropy made manifest and it's a world treasure along with the brilliant man it so wonderfully adorns.

[@zh84]

And when we get to the close-up of his hair, behind it is a book called "The Strange Story of False Hair".

[@TreeFrogOnATree]

lol

[@Waterdust2000]

The knights of Ni approve of this "shrubbery" now go find the nice small fence an etc to go with it 😋 Let's see who understands this bit..

[@zh84]

@@Waterdust2000 Ecky-ecky-ecky-ecky-f'tang-zumboing-blebleblebleblah.

[@Leophred]

Tree three incarnate

[@davidgillies620]

Glenn Seaborg was a genius. He was one of the pioneers of ultramicrochemistry. In 1941 they produced microgram quantities of plutonium and worked out the lanthanide carrier chemistry to handle it. By 1942 they had quantities of plutonium that were visible to the naked eye. By 1944 (!) the production had been scaled up to produce and isolate militarily significant (i.e. kilogram) quantities of Pu239 at Hanford in Washington. The separation process was the same one he and his team used to isolate the first samples, scaled up by a hundred million times.

[@therocinante3443]

That's absolutely incredible

[@lorenzoblum868]

Seaborgium.

[@modaljazz59]

Then in 1985 Doc Brown stole a whole bunch of it and went back in time in a modified DeLorean, meanwhile Marty McFly destroys the largest single percussion guitar amp ever constructed.

[@squishybrick]

It feels weird watching these videos now.. I used to watch them just for fun and entertainment, but after having studied the elements to such a degree and put a fair amount of work into them, I almost feel weirdly responsible for watching these videos, like I'm checking in on progress made by a colleague. I'm nowhere near smart enough or knowledgeable enough on the elements to justifiably feel that way, but I guess all the work I put in to study them has given me an appreciation for the work that's put in here.. I see it less as a cool video, and more-so a proud showing of progress that makes me smile and gives me encouragement. I genuinely want to see more work done to identify and experiment with the newer heavier elements, because more data means more possibilities.. For me and my silly project, and them.

[@jaspertuin2073]

The crystals blowing apart in mere hours is fascinating, I wonder what future scientists/chemists will be able to observe on smaller timescales with more extreme elements/crystals

[@Fr3ak_MM8BDM]

Probably not a whole lot considering many of them and their compounds cannot survive too well in the natural conditions of the Earth. Something that's really hard for us to spoof even now.

[@ORE0789]

Even with the very intense radiation, some crystal structures can be surprisingly resilient while others will rapidly be destroyed. I have crystals of berkelium I have yet to publish which were destroyed so intensely by the berkelium that you could see gas bubbles coming off the crystals in real time which were likely gaseous byproducts of the "shrubbery" being rapidly destroyed by the berkelium radiation, while others in our group had relatively stable crystals that lasted several months before being blown apart.

[@aloe7794]

pretty sure that's why astatine as an element cannot be observed; too much energy from its decay causes self-vaporization thus destroying any samples also, a fellow command and conquer fan, hello

[@lajoswinkler]

@@aloe7794 Halflife of astatine is some eight hours so the problem is making enough of it to produce a macroscopic amount. We can not make it in bulk because of this.

[@grahamhowes3912]

I absolutely love this channel. I am not a chemist, I possess a very basic (self-taught) knowledge of chemistry and I don't always understand the chemistry or the explanations given in these videos, however, I find them extremely informative and inspiring. They make me wish that I had pursued chemistry to much deeper level when I was younger. If I had had teachers like Professor Poliakoff in my youth, I feel I would potentially have made very different choices surrounding my fields of study and my career path. I hope, one day, to be able to shake your hand, Professor, and to look you in the eye and say "thank you, Sir, for everything you have taught me." Do you plan on making any videos on compound molecules in the future? Such as Metal-Organic Frameworks or Metallic Hydrogen? I would be very interested to hear what Professor Poliakoff has to say about such, or similar, research.

[@hamishwilson4927]

Couldn't agree with you more.

[@festerofest4374]

Great teachers are invaluable.

[@KrisCadwell]

I would love a follow up video explaining more about the experiments that team did and what was learned from them.

[@kentowakai1234]

I'll have to look for the paper.

[@Beryllahawk]

Definitely keep an eye out for when their paper gets published!!!

[@jeffreysoreff9588]

Yes, I'd love to hear about that too! The description of reusing the same half-milligram of berkelium atoms sounds like particle physicists allocating beam time or astronomers allocating telescope time. It isn't _quite_ at the level of allocating "atom" time, but it feels like it... 🙂

[@kidmohair8151]

the intricacies of how the universe makes itself will never cease to be anything other than fascinating

[@rjrotermund]

Great video! My son has been working with Berkelium at his lab at FSU. Watching this gives me even more appreciation for what he’s studying.

[@BradSchmor]

I am a PhD (organic) chemist who has always found the transuranics fascinating, even though I've never had the opportunity to work with them. It's not their radioactivity - quite the opposite. I see that as a huge inconvenience and hazard, not a positive. Their chemistry is fascinating in its own right.

[@stoatystoat174]

Love this channel Exciting people having to do experiments againt a half life time limit

[@periodicvideos]

cheers

[@deadzio]

​@@periodicvideoswhat happened to the sound?? Had to crankup volume to maximum.

[@michaelhansen8959]

​@@deadzioand turn it down when Polly Arnold spoke

[@ThinkForYourself2025]

I got to go on a field trip to Lawerence Livermore Labs in Livermore when I was a kid in the 1990s. One of the most amazing places I've ever been to in my life.

[@danwhite3224]

Transuranic elements are always extremely fascinating I hope in my lifetime I'll see a photo of macroscopic quantities of Fermium or Mendelevium..

[@samueldavidson6502]

Great video as always. Though the audio levels on the professor vs. everyone else should've been more balanced.

[@MelindaGreen]

Glad someone else commented on this. I hope they reupload a balanced version.

[@tango_doggy]

@@MelindaGreen Unfortunately reuploads are almost always ignored by the algorithm, which is a huge disincentive

[@Piedpiper6666]

I just started as a first year in Polly's group at UC Berkeley and let me tell you, it's been an amazing experience! They don't let first years play with Berkelium, though- just Uranium XD

[@paulbrooks4395]

The more you learn and test, the more you know and can explain things. The more you can explain one thing, the more you're likely to explain and understand another. Clever.

[@wario8855]

Fascinating! I didn’t knew that it was named after the city.. The legendary Alexander “Sasha” Shulgin were from Berckely too ❤

[@user-yw9mw9hv8o]

The periodic table is pretty cool and all. Since this is the project commited to chemistry in general though, i'd love to see you start to branch out of this heavy focus on inorganic chemistry. Series on Organic synthesis, Biochemistry, Analytical chemistry, Physical chemistry, etc. would be highly, highly appreciated. We have this focus on exotic physics like quantum mechanics, astrophysics, cosmology in pop-science, all topics that don't really concern us all too much in daily life (though some exceptions with quantum mechanics). Chemistry is all around us, we ourselves are biochemical systems, but somehow all i see in the most popular media around chemistry is inorganic chemistry and nuclear chemistry. I'd really love for more people to learn about how molecules are made in a lab, or in lifeforms, what physical and analytical techniques are used to separate them, and how we can determine what exactly we have in front of us. Like, terpenoids biosynthesized in plants, extracted in essential oils, measured through GC-MS to separate and determine them, and how they interact with our bodies, just one example that has so much fascinating stuff going on. I wish a lot more people would get to see how great that is.

[@meettheworld6241]

I love your sense of humor professor... the best jokes one can make are about themselves. Well done sir

These videos are great.

[@dapope5440]

I will not rest until I see a new video for EVERY element. I NEED MORE

[@fonkbadonk5370]

Luckily for you, they have done just that already! Those coming out nowadays are re-takes on specific elements where there have been new discoveries or other news around them.

[@WalyB01]

Great video, also very interesting that practising is mentioned. Which is in MHO important in almost any experimental science, but not really mentioned.

[@Peter_S_]

As a former resident of Berkeley, I use the Berk-lee-um pronunciation without thinking about it but either pronunciation works fine. There a very similar situation with the two pronunciations for the chief constituents of the hemp plant; canna-bin-oids or ca-nab-in-oids. I've heard top researchers use both in the same paragraph.

[@Linuxpunk81]

If it's based on an American city then it should be pronounced as it's supposed to be. This is just another case of European snobery

[@BariumCobaltNitrog3n]

I was also made in Berkeley, and for about 20 years had hair just like the Professor's. At night you have a nice view from the Lawrence Hall of Science of the San Francisco Bay Area.

[@ozmiumYT]

as someone studying radiochemistry, I always thought that all the chemistry done with the minor actinides was done with samples too small to see. being able to witness even a video of Bk is incredibly exciting, let alone hearing about the potential experiments!

[@AdersonDeFDias]

The exotic look of Professor Polly Arnold triggered in my mind the image of the highly acclaimed actress Tilda Swinton.

[@markiangooley]

Of course, Tilda Swinton can portray ANYONE but playing Polly would be easy.

[@AdersonDeFDias]

Right! And Tilda's Polly character discovers a quantum catalytic process (this is new) to scale up the synthesis of Berkelium to one quarter of a kilogram!@@markiangooley

[@christianweagle6253]

Desperately cute :)

[@peanuts2105]

Exotic??

[@AdersonDeFDias]

Yes, like an exotic element.

[@niehlsbohr]

When I was at Berkeley Chemistry around 20 years ago, Prof. Poliakoff visited and gave a talk. He seemed like a very kind and down to earth guy, but also sounded incredibly posh. Does he speak with the Oxford accent?

[@BobSmith-s7j]

If by that you mean what's called Received Pronunciation, yes he does. This accent is not specific to Oxford, and it's not the same as how people born and bred in Oxford generally speak, but it is associated with the kind of people who might traditionally be Oxford professors. He went to Westminster School and then Cambridge so it fits with his background. To me he sounds distinctly like an older speaker of the accent, different in some of his diphthongs to someone brought up to speak RP in recent decades. But it just sounds like what you'd expect from his generation and background rather than anything affected or exaggeratedly old-fashioned. As you say, he comes across as kind and down to earth so no one should conclude from his accent that he's haughty or snobbish!

[@Proxtor]

Wish I had the professor in high-school, I would of learned way more from someone who is excited about elements and chemistry this way.

[@darylcheshire1618]

I loved the book “Discovery of the Elements” and it has a section on transuranic elements in the 1940s and Seaborg. Also I have the Life-Science book “Matter” which has photos of nearly every element and has a foreword by Seaborg.

[@verdienthusiast3868]

You need to read Superheavy by Chapman, you'll enjoy it

[@darylcheshire1618]

@@verdienthusiast3868 thank you, I just purchased it on my Kindle.

[@BeCurieUs]

Looks like Berkelium249, has a its major decay branch as beta radation. And its daughter product is californium249 as a result, which is mostly an alpha emitter. Usually you have to worry about some high energy gammas these larger atoms do an alpha or beta and these 2 lack that metastable gamma factor, which is nice!

[@9a3eedi]

It's amazing how many studies people do on chemicals that are so difficult to synthesize it is hard to imagine having any practical uses for it, but of course you'll never know unless you look!

[@riverbender9898]

Thank you for all the wonderful videos!

[@PushyPawn]

I know how sad it can be when you're down to your last mg, and how exciting it is when a new shipment is coming.

[@ZeacorZeppelin]

this was really cool makes me wish I could go back to college and study chemistry at the university of Nottingham

[@Deltabreeze9]

I’m touring Lawrence Berkeley National Lab next week! Very excited for it

[@peanuts2105]

How did it go?

[@jonmarquez128]

I heard berklium can produce in small quinities if play beryllium next to Americium. Am - Cm - Bk

[@loganbartholomew6463]

So cool to see Berkeley (and Polly) featured on the channel! As a long time viewer and current organic chemistry PhD student at Berkeley, it always blows me away to see what cool science they’re doing up at LBNL.

[@GeoffryGifari]

What are the interesting things that happen when an atom decays while being bound in a molecule?

[@christopherleubner6633]

The energy may break a chemical bond or cross link to another one. One of the leading fields of study in radiochemistry is to find something that can bind to radioactive materials that can form a stable compound or tolerate the decay energy well. ❤

[@andrewdunbar828]

Woah! Every segment has a very different sound volume!

[@Karpp1nen]

13:30 when the stash is running out but the guy is coming over.

[@bigjay875]

Thanks for the update 👍

[@ianlee5812]

Polly Arnold used to be one of my chemistry professors!

[@jonummYT]

audio is all over the place in this one, please fix

[@bentationfunkiloglio]

New video drop! Wonderful Christmas present.

[@erikkarsies4851]

According to wikipedia instead of 249 Bk there is 248 Bk also with a halflife above 300 years and 247 Bk with a halflife of 1380 years , but I guess that is very difficult to produce?

[@SimonsNuclearchemistry]

Nuclear chemist here :D You get these Elements by irradiating with neutrons. And the only way to get to a "higher" Element is to have another Isotope do a beta Minus decay. Unfortunatly Cm-247 doesn't do beta Minus (to make the Bk-247), but rather Alpha or spontaneous fission. Only the Cm-249 is a beta Minus Isotope. You can get up to Fm-256 that way as Es-256 is the last known nuclei doing beta Minus decay. So you irradiate with neutrons to the point where a heavy Isotope does beta Minus, and you get the next Element rinse and repeat (starting from U-238 with a chemical separation at Cm-242). For Curium, you start with Cm-242 and finally the Cm-249 does a beta minus

[@erikkarsies4851]

@@SimonsNuclearchemistry Thank you for the explanation !

[@francoislacombe9071]

Why don't they use Berkelium 247 instead? It has a half life of almost 1400 years, making radioactive decay a negligeable factor. Is it because it's that much harder to make than Berkelium 249?

[@SimonsNuclearchemistry]

Nuclear chemist here :D You get these Elements by irradiating with neutrons. And the only way to get to a "higher" Element is to have another Isotope do a beta Minus decay. Unfortunatly Cm-247 doesn't do beta Minus, but rather Alpha or spontaneous fission. Only the Cm-249 is a beta Minus Isotope. You can get up to Fm-256 that way as Es-256 is the last known nuclei doing beta Minus decay. So you irradiate with neutrons to the point where a heavy Isotope does beta Minus, and you get the next Element rinse and repeat. For Curium, you start with Cm-242 and finally the Cm-249 does a beta minus

[@afhdfh]

How genious is the pan at 3:46 onto the book about hair just as the Professor talks about his being shrubbery. What are the odds?! :D

[@mattlogue1300]

I noticed that too.

[@dhananjaysawant4646]

4:35 could it be a possibility to produce Bk247 through irradiation of Cm244? Bk247 has a half life of a thousand years which would allow for lower stress than with a 300 day half life, even with the possibly higher cost

[@phonotical]

Be interesting to see the spectral emissions change over those 330 days

[@larry785]

PLEASE DO A VIDEO ON TRITIUM - THANKS!

[@bigsarge2085]

Awesome!

[@PopeLando]

2:11 I love Hume Cronyn!

[@conundrum51]

California represent! ❤ love this series

[@Vatsyayana87]

California has its moments, but there is a reason we call it West Korea around here. I would never live in Cali personally.

[@culwin]

@@Vatsyayana87 You call it that because you're a nutjob?

[@johngrundowski3632]

Great video ; damn FINE info. Thanks✳️

[@slyfoxchemistry]

Hiiii how are you amazing job sir love your videos😊

[@slyfoxchemistry]

Sir I would love it work there and work with so little my only problem is what is it so hard to get

[@elitestarquake3597]

Is that really of box of Persil washing powder in a blue carrier bag on the shelf over Prof Sir Martyn’s shoulder?

[@S3v3n13tt3r5]

Question: why do chemists working on these super heavies go in order of # of protons? If the end goal is the island of stability, why not skip e.g., 110-120..?

[@f1ferrarifan1]

how do you get anything signed by him or some item from his lab?

[@scorch527]

Something was wrong with the noise gate on the footage from Berkely. A shame, because I'm too distracted by it to pay attention.

[@Arycke]

Wasn't for me, but you are not alone. A bunch of other people couldn't listen apparently because of this discrepancy.

[@Ken-fw7ue]

I watch these because he calms me.

[@sathishsathish-or6gn]

Sir which chemical is anti iron?

[@Iconoclasher]

Why isn't Astatine listed as a Rare Earth element? @ 10:50

[@karhukivi]

Because it is the halogen group (17)

[@puo2123]

0,5 mg is not a small amount in nuclear chemistry. Am and Cm also have big similarities to the lanthanides

[@carnsoaks1]

Prof Poliakoff and Prof Polly Akoff?

[@maxfieldfleisher6447]

Are you still making videos? 0:03

[@phonotical]

How does the element lose its half life and becomes a higher element, they said it decays into californium, shouldn't it decay into curium?

[@droppedpasta]

Beta(-) decay. A neutron becomes a proton plus electron, pushing the atomic number up by one.

[@alexisdespland4939]

how mant elements do you jave left to do.

[@Methylenedream]

Where did you get that periodic table mug, I really want one.

[@robertclarkson6064]

Thank you 🧪🧪🧪

[@asdfasdf71865]

i have COVID and i need something else to think. thanks for this video

[@oubliette31415]

why don't you guy help me figure out what to put in my homemade ballistics gel to keep it clear and from spoiling besides hydrogen peroxide. the peroxide keeps it clear and preserves it but reacts to the bullets and turns them white and slightly foamy. I was thinking adding chlorine to the water might work instead of peroxide, but I'm not a chemist I could go through trial and error for years or accidently create a toxic mixture or stuff earning myself a Darwin. that's not desirable.

[@shawnbaxter1001]

Great stuff again! Chemistry rules!

[@medcologytutorials2636]

Its so nice so see the Professor. Please Please try increasing the frequency of uploads and can you guys try a "medicinal chemistry" series

[@utkarshaswami2859]

Babe wake up new periodic video just dropped!!

[@LaurentMaitreK]

I was wondering why they wouldn’t cool down the element to try and prolong half life, but obviously if they don’t do it I supposed it wouldn’t work. So I’d be interested to know why temperature wouldn’t influence the decay. It feels intuitive to think that the less they move around the less chance they would have to decay… thank you

[@karhukivi]

Half life is a measure of the rate of the transformation or "decay" process in the nucleus and is not affected by temperature which is the average energy of molecular vibrations.

[@Stutho1]

Love the video's but audio levels really need work

[@christopherleubner6633]

500ug of Berkelium is quite a lot for this rare transuranic element.😮

[@mrautistic2580]

0.5 milligrams!! …”Let’s do Chemistry with that sample size…!” That, everyone, is Chemistry at the top of it’s game!!!! 😯

[@TheIgnoramus]

Californium is more stable but more radioactive than its less heavy counterpart?! Would like to see that paper for sure.

[@zapfanzapfan]

I would guess Berkelium beta-decays while Californium spits out gamma rays. Edit: Seems Cf does spontaneous fission and spits out neutrons.

[@toine512fr]

Really cool video and really cool hair.

[@bentboybbz]

Is there any important science that can be, should be done with berkelium? I guess what I am asking is if there is anything beneficial or important that is not being done because there is not enough? I apologize I have a very limited knowledge of this specific element and will probably go down the rabbit hole now 😂

[@FENomadtrooper]

Something seems off with the audio. It sounds like it's been through KZbin's automatic copywriten music removal.

[@ragnarwiik2054]

Super facsinating material.

[@gdheib0430]

some rude people might describe his hair as shrubbery? Who in their right mind would be rude to this amazing man?

[@scottbruner9266]

It’s so refreshing, seeing that scientist talking about his favorite radioactive element, like it’s a childhood toy….

[@garrithsmith799]

Fascinating!

[@intrepidca80]

2:40 -- 97, 98... Berkelium, Californium.

[@rursus8354]

Einsteinium, Fermium, Mendelevium, Nobelium ...

[@JP-wx6uh]

I'm American and I like the UK pronunciation more than the US/Canada pronunciation. :P

[@AdersonDeFDias]

Me too! The American Berkelium decays faster than the British element!

[@JP-wx6uh]

@@AdersonDeFDias interesting 🤔

[@AdersonDeFDias]

Just playing with the short American vocalization of the word 'Berkelium' and the longer three syllable sound of the word pronounced by British people. Alright?

[@elementbr]

Your hair is lovely!

[@fletch88zz]

I totally underestimated the effect Berkelium has on audio levels before watching this video. Great video though and love the channel.

[@ryou6453]

Wow university of Nottingham you go get that

[@jansenart0]

The audio is so off in this....

[@eedobee]

Science is such an industrialised grind now.

[@landonova]

not a chemist. so what experiments are the students running?

[@HotelPapa100]

If Berkeley were somewhere in the UK, pronunciation of the element would be Barklium or somesuch...

[@BobSmith-s7j]

This has given me the idea to establish a world-class research facility in Llanfair­pwllgwyngyll­gogery­chwyrn­drobwll­llan­tysilio­gogo­goch so we can name an element after it and mess up the periodic table

[@der.Schtefan]

As a non-native speaker, the switch from British English narration to American English is quite amusing ;)

[@handlesarefeckinstupid]

He is Australian I believe.

[@mateuszcielas3362]

what berkelium decay into?

[@SimonsNuclearchemistry]

The Bk-249 mostly does Beta Minus to Cf-249 but also (>5%) Alpha to Am-245

[@mateuszcielas3362]

thats Cf's halftime?@@SimonsNuclearchemistry

[@Orcinus24x5]

Some severe audio problems with this video. Prof. Poliakoff's segments are WAY quiet, while others are so loud they're causing clipping and the audio crackles.

[@SimonsNuclearchemistry]

Yaayyyy more Nuclear Chemistry on KZbin 🎉☢️

[@gegamertv1239]

They're back again

[@a51mj12]

PLEASE.... the volume levels!