The Most Bizarre Elements in the Universe

[@Sideprojects]

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[@gocrazy1513]

bb!bm.

[@MindBodySoulOk]

Fascinating eggskull

[@ignitionfrn2223]

0:45 - Chapter 1 - Technetium 3:10 - Mid roll ads 4:40 - Back to the video 6:05 - Chapter 2 - Osmium 8:30 - Chapter 3 - Bismuth 10:25 - Chapter 4 - Caesium 13:25 - Chapter 5 - Beyond the periodic table

[@sydhenderson6753]

By the way, when Mendeleev made his periodic table, he didn't know that the second space below Manganese was also empty. (People were discovering rare earths which confused everything). In 1908 Masataka Ogawa announced he had discovered element 43 and named it Nipponium. Of course it wasn't element 43. For some reason, it never occurred to anybody to check if it was element 75, which is the second element under Manganese. That element was officially discovered in 1925, seventeen years after Ogawa probably found and misidentified it. (The evidence is disputed but I lean on the side that he did.) This is one of of the reasons element 113 was named Nihonium, named for another form of the Japanese name for Japan. It was explicitly to honor Ogawa. (They couldn't reuse nipponium since it had been used for another element; although neptunium is the third use of the name and that was okay.) One of the things I love about Bismuth is that the three elements to the left of it in the periodic table are deadly poisonous, as are the two above (antimony less than arsenic) and the next six are all deathly radioactive. And of course Bismuth is hardly toxic or radioactive at all and we use it for stomach aches and to substitute for lead in some things. And it's pretty.

[@nickroosa4151]

😅

[@kaylzshter6153]

This was fantastically written! I specifically like the description of how neutrons help distribute the protons to prevent them from overcoming the strong nuclear force. Simon, there was a time long ago when I was worried that your broad diversification could negatively impact the quality of your work. That worry was clearly unfounded, thank you and your team for the well researched, well written, and entertaining content!

[@Civil909]

Agreed. Him and his team really made that digestible.

[@owlredshift]

Here here, I am impressed.

[@claywest9528]

How often do we see a video about the elements? Periodically!!

[@eyetrollin710]

😂😂

[@julianaylor4351]

😆

[@baron7024]

Simon has a way of bringing things to the table.

[@Cludnugget]

Well it's not particularly advanced stuff - you study the periodic table at elementary school 😁

[@Apollocreed2076]

Damn

[@mittensfastpaw]

I always like to view the less used elements as just not useful -yet- and we will eventually find something for them down the road.

[@goosenotmaverick1156]

100% agreed on that

[@harrisonbergeron9764]

Kind of like a middle child named Jan.

[@brad2751]

@@harrisonbergeron9764 Mercury! Mercury! Mercury!

[@theoptimisticskeptic]

Some of them, its not so much that they are less useful, its that they only exist for microseconds and then only under very controlled conditions. So they exist but sometimes only technically. If I understand this correctly and I may very well NOT, the idea is to get to this predicted "island of stability" where these elements will become more stable and last longer and THEN they may become useful. But we have to get there first and these other elements are like stepping stones to get to them.

[@AifDaimon]

​@@theoptimisticskepticone element at a time

[@yates667]

Watching shows like this reminds me of being a kid in school. The science teacher was always telling me to learn that on my own time. This was pre-Internet time too.

[@BaronVonQuiply]

I was in a study hall one day, the room was one of the two science classrooms in the building with basic lab space and they were connected back to back via a small storage room. The Chem/Physics teacher came through the connecting door carrying a small bowl. He placed the bowl on the desk, lit it on fire, and it instantly turned into a pillar of smoke and flame before quickly winking out of existence. He looked at the class and said _"That was just sugar"_ and walked back to his own room, adding ""..and one other thing"_ .

[@MrMancreatedgod]

​@@OnlyMeee-gb5vvin my experience it's mostly guidance. When your parents value a pair of $300 Nikes more than a $30 basic chemistry kit what we see is no surprise.

[@jadduajones]

2:25 Check out Oppenheimer with his pipe in the top middle. Legend.

[@santoslhalper6116]

Good Job presenting this complicated material. Very interesting

[@DETHdressedInRED]

I agree.

[@Iodotoluene]

Osmium is also used in electron microscopy to coat items via osmium tetroxide

[@RonFilco.9358]

I'll take your word for it 🤥

[@dreamingwolf8382]

Congratulations on filming your one Millionth episode Simon. You win a cookie.

[@golfgrabu]

I thought it was his 1.2 millionth one.....I'll have to start counting again, damn!

[@troyevitt2437]

And totally focused. None of his monkey-minded tangents. Is this the difference between the proper use of, versus the abuse of, Adderal?

[@rhov-anion]

@@troyevitt2437 Who needs Adderal when you have cocaine.... allegedly...

[@stuartkcalvin]

This VLOG is 812K

[@koharumi1]

12:25 - 12:28 since it is metric system time, then usa probably will use their own version of time because of course they do.

[@eekee6034]

The periodic table isn't something I expected Simon to get excited about, but I'm happy he is as it's a whole lot more fun to listen to someone that's as excited about a subject as you are! :)

[@asylumental]

I have a chunk of bismuth and it looks beautiful, you can also write with it like lead

[@sydhenderson6753]

It's also replacing lead for a lot of uses since it's practically non-toxic.

[@asylumental]

@@sydhenderson6753 we we already don't use lead in our modern pencils. They're made of graphite and clay

[@sydhenderson6753]

Terbium is one property that makes it bizarre: it changes shape almost instantly in a magnetic field. So if you create an oscillating magnetic field, you can use it to make things into loudspeakers, such as tabletops, walls and windows. I suspect it will also do this to human skulls but since I don't want to be dead (if I test it on myself) or in jail (if I try it on someone else), I won't test this myself. By the way, terbium/dysprosium alloy is great for sonar, so terbium is indeed useful despite being bizarre.

[@Nefville]

I know Simon is a watch guy, a brand called Czapek made a watch with a crystallized osmium dial called the Frozen Star S. Their CEO showed up to a watch show with a $6,000,000 rock he bought that they were making the dials from. Its incredible.

[@stuartkcalvin]

I have a two dollar watch, my grandfathers. I works well.

[@Anuchan]

Is the incredible thing that a company made it or that people were fascinated by seeing it?

[@Nefville]

@@Anuchan There's a lot of things people might find incredible about such a watch. I find it incredible for a multitude of reasons, primarily its beauty and craftsmanship (and price) but I get the impression the word of the day might be incredulous.

[@alyssinwilliams4570]

My first experience with Osmium was via a minecraft mod. It was a few years later that I learned it was an actual element and not just made up for the mod.

[@BaronVonQuiply]

I had a similar experience with Deuterium. I found it mentioned in one of the Ringworld novels by Larry Niven and assumed it was fictional like Star Trek's Dilithium, partly because I'd never heard of it before and partly because it was used in the ship's fusion reactor and since we don't have fusion yet that is still sci-fi. Then one day I encountered Heavy Hydrogen, most likely via Heavy Water, and said "OH! It IS real!".

[@anthonyjoshder4395]

Mekanism?

[@marktg98]

I still have that with Starfield. I've actually started looking up new elements I find in game, really fun.

[@douglaswilkinson5700]

​@@BaronVonQuiplyMy first encounter was on a nuclear sub where lithium *deuteride* is used as the ignition fuel for hydrogen bombs.

[@cosmokramer4585]

Good old GregTech….my favorite. It has been years since I’ve played that impossible mod!! 😮

[@clogs4956]

Atoms are made up of a positive electrical charge surrounded by a shell (Hydrogen) or shells (all other elements) of negative electrical charge which give them certain properties and allow them to interact with other atoms. In effect, everything is made of nothing and sometimes it explodes. I’ve never quite recovered from my first nuclear chemistry class back in 1978.

[@davidlloyd3116]

I used Osmium tetroxide in my final year of university. It is used to coat or stain samples for electron microscopy

[@AdkAqua]

Osmium tetroxide is a very useful, and commonly used doing electron microscopy. It is a widely used in both TEM and SEM. It's also used not only as a stain, but a chemical fixative for preparing biological samples for microscopy. Osmium is rare, but it's got quite important uses.

[@O4FUXACHE]

Beat me to it 👍

[@AdkAqua]

@@O4FUXACHE I used to be an electron microscopist, before jumping into battery R&D; it's the first thing I think of when I hear osmium mentioned anywhere hah

[@O4FUXACHE]

@@AdkAqua Ditto . . . used an EM for years.

[@AdkAqua]

​@@O4FUXACHEI wish it paid better haha, was a lot of fun but other lab work pays much better and you can't pay for anything with happy thoughts

[@NealBurkard-ut1oo]

Isn't that a compound though, not an element

[@madderhat5852]

When Simon says, "Well, that's exciting" 😜

[@AcornElectron]

It’s a crazy world when we get atomic. Even more disturbing when we split those little buggers. My main question is, what are quarks and string made from and why?

[@Baldevi]

Awesome work, thanks, I was fascianted all the way through.

[@jamespope2840]

Always love your show you never disappoint, I just wish my brain works as well as yours because in less than a minute I will forget what it's all about. I have had far to many brain concussions. But I still try to learn things that I didn't know and you do such a great job I will keep coming back

[@DeadJDona]

you are building new neurons

[@markmuir7338]

Simon doesn't actually know all this stuff. He has a team of writers who are more specialized in different fields. I can tell this by how frequently he mispronounces jargon (like the names of some of the elements in this video). The whole can be greater than the sum of its parts - and deliver knowledge and be entertaining at the same time.

[@JK_Clark]

@@markmuir7338 Yeah he certainly doesn't 'know' half the stuff he presents - he understands it just like we do as it's well-written, but he's no expert.

[@CaptHollister]

Simon is capable of reading from a teleprompter, that's the extent of his brain involvement in these videos. Proof is his mispronunciation of names of people and elements. Still, he's a good presenter so we continue watching his 16 million channels (and counting).

[@Perceptious37]

15:40 this "island of stability" is beyond an asymptote, like the graph of y=1/x^2. We would need to find a way to cross the barrier. This is the "exotic matter" that is always referenced in theoretical physics and sci-fi.

[@kenjohnson6101]

"... predicted by Einstein in 1905"? That was the Special Theory of Relativity; the General Theory didn't come until ten years later.

[@YusufGinnah]

Great to hear about Tecnetium, I've had this used on me for nuclear isotope testing. 😎👍🏼

[@ClarkBK67]

More please. More explanations of all those elements we never heard of.

[@harrisonbergeron9764]

B-5 Ra-226 In-114.82 S-32.065

[@mzjalic324]

The channel Bobbybroccoli has done some really great videos on this kind of thing, focusing on stories and scandals in the physics/science community that are really well made

[@julianaylor4351]

You can buy watches that get radio signals to keep them accurate from an atomic clock, if you like that sort of thing.

[@shaungarewal8987]

Thanks for the hard work team fact boi.

[@xpndblhero5170]

7:30 - Anyone else have an OCD fit wondering how he would separate the chemical from the dirt or was it just me¿?

[@raydunakin]

I remember getting injected with technetium for some kind of medical test a few years ago. Interesting stuff.

[@Red_Genie]

You know what, Mendelev looks like a guy who stacks atoms on his free time.🤣

[@wesleyjohnson597]

Mr. Mendeleev looks like a serial killer

[@sydhenderson6753]

He should have been a mad Russian monk.

[@fep_ptcp883]

13:37 those last elements have names, formerly Uut, Uup, Uus and Uuo. They're called, respectively: Nihonium (Nh), Moscovium (Mc), Tennessine (Ts) and Oganesson (Og)

[@rdspam]

13:38 elements 113, 115, 117, and 118 were named in 2016. This periodic table, with placeholders, is way out of date.

[@yvettechevalier7089]

Ah -The element of surprise... 😅

[@ianyoung1106]

Damn you for being faster! 😂

[@AlanTuringWannabe]

The caesium-133 atom doesn't oscillate. Its outermost electron does.

[@threethousandbees7260]

Glad to see Technetium getting some attention. It's my favorite element.

[@galenicalhoover6508]

Mine, too. I make my living handling Tc-99m in a nuclear pharmacy.

[@frtzkng]

Osmium tetroxide is used in some chemical syntheses, but its use is mostly limited by its ridiculously high toxicity and high price. And the price is so prohibitively high that no one would think of intentionally poisoning someone with it.

[@mikehawke2374]

It would be quite the billionaire sociopath flex if somebody were to though. Instant Casual Criminalist episode right there.

[@ridesq]

@@mikehawke2374you should pitch that!

[@douglaswilkinson5700]

Osmium sells for about $ 20,000 per ounce.

[@sydhenderson6753]

It used to be used to detect fingerprints since it changes to osmium dioxide on contact with the residues we leave behind when we touch things. I presume this wasn't good for the health of the detectives.

[@micahcorbett7795]

Except Vlad (the poisoner) Putin

[@DETHdressedInRED]

4:37 you know... I'm glad I can skip ads (premium) but the funny thing is I kinda still watch them. I do also love my wallet.

[@matthewsermons7247]

I remember watching the Rick and Morty episode "Rick Night Shyamalan", where Rick hands over the formula for concentrated dark matter: 2 parts cesium, 1 part plutonic quartz, and bottled water. I started laughing immediately because it was an outstanding science joke, and I knew it would end badly when the ingredients were combined.

[@michaelq92]

Cyclotrons described sigmoid structure of the energy path. They are still the standard for particle acceleration, and are more of a general concept than particular type of machine.

[@XtreeM_FaiL]

Osmium mirrors? Flat erfers can't understand where the NASA's budget goes, but there's the answer.

[@GiacomoCarali]

1:04 mendeleev jumpscare

[@dakotamartin1621]

Technetium is pronounced Tek-nee-shee-uhm. There is also a Technetium-99m which is a meta-stable state of technetium-99 (essentially just an excited technetium-99 nucleus). Good stuff. It is hard to clean up if it contaminates outside soil. It loves water, so every time it rains, it seeps deeper into the ground.

[@sydhenderson6753]

Technetium 99m is the isotope used in medicine.

[@BinManSays87]

If anyone likes the looks of bismuth there's a guy known online as the bismuth Smith who makes awesome stuff out of it just for decorations which look awesome if you like that cheesy rainbow hew

[@doclewis8927]

9:01 - I wonder if this element lead to the famous staircases by M.C. Escher...

[@PokettoMusic]

how does this man makes 5 videos per day on multiple channels and multiple topics by himself?

[@Mark_Bridges]

He doesn't do it by himself. There's a team of people with him.

[@murrayscott9546]

​@@Mark_BridgesSeveral teams.

[@PokettoMusic]

@@murrayscott9546 sounds cool, but it sounds cooler if we choose to believe he does everything by himself

[@murrayscott9546]

@@PokettoMusic like Santa Claus but even he had his el elves

[@honeybadger036]

Imagine a universe an insanely long time in the future. Where everything has spread out soo much that even currently stable elements start to decay at our size perspective.

[@JK_Clark]

New stars are formed all the time

[@megaflux7144]

we use time dilation in the future to nail down most of the higher numbers.

[@coweatsman]

Sherlock Holmes had the chemical table of elements on the wall. Watson asked, "what is this chart?". Sherlock Holmes answered "elements my dear Watson".

[@claywest9528]

If Osmium were a band, it would be Heavy Metal....

[@markrichards9646]

Not likely. Donnie and Marie Osmium.

[@nathanlynch5002]

Is Polonium were a band, it would be death metal 😂

[@GeoffryGifari]

i think honorable mention should include gold (its color comes from the effects of special relativity on inner electrons, very high ductility and electrical conductivity), phosphorus in its white, red, and black forms, and mercury for being a liquid metal in room temperature and pressure its just they are well-known

[@LarsPeterA]

While GPS satellites are “slower” by 7 microseconds per day due to their speed, they are also “faster” by 45 microseconds due to the reduced gravity with a net effect of 38 microseconds.

[@mirthenary]

The most unexpected one was the element of surprise

[@DeadJDona]

8:32 BISMUTO

[@larzlarz1140]

Tech-neesh-ium. Not tech-net-ium. Ask any nuclear physicist. It is the common radioactive element used in medicine.

[@BBQLord.]

Outstanding! Love your videos!

[@epremeaux]

13:10 dropped the lead there.. this time dilation demonstrates that time is flexible, and that two objects can experience it differently. Some satellites are experiencing time slower than others, or you could say that they are "in the past" or that another is "in the future" with respect to your own frame of reference. In other words, Time travel *IS* possible, albeit in a very, VERY limited way. Superman flying around the earth super fast to slow down or reverse time has a very small kernel of truth to it.

[@markfinlay422]

Great to see chemistry Simon. But.... I'm having palpitations over some of the pronunciations!

[@Whittz.Youtube]

Would the environment surrounding the higher numbered elements effect their longevity? Forming within stars with heavier elements around it vs a lab. Pressure and magnetic fields may allow the nucleus to remain intact.

[@Shinzon23]

Depends, but that's not useful to us at all. And we can't experiment with an element if it's currently stuck in the core of a star. There is also the issue that as soon as you remove it from whatever environment is keeping its stable, the elements will most likely shred itself from the nuclear forcds trying to rip it apart, gravity, What have you and also the fact that the higher you get in the periodic table the far more radioactive and really Really wanting to come apart a atom becomes.

[@stuartkcalvin]

"Would the environment surrounding the higher numbered elements effect their longevity? " Perhaps, you meant to say "affect".

[@Whittz.Youtube]

@Shinzon23 not pointless. the point is a thought experiment with the result in creating an artificial equivalent within the lab.

[@mejuliie]

No. It is a popular misconception that you will find heavy elements in main sequence stars. Since heavy elements cannot "form" in a star, and the decay of elements is not tied to the environment around it, this is not possible. To keep it very simple - Heavy elements are generally created in supernovae or during neutron star collisions as the conditions to fuse those elements don't exist in a main sequence star. There is also a process (s-process) that allows a certain class of stars, in their post-main-sequence evolution, to create elements up to element 82 (which is lead). We have not found any element heavier than Plutonium (94) in nature/space. Theoretically neutron star collisions/mergers could create elements heavier than Plutonium, the half-life of these elements are simply too short to be found in any new star created in the vicinity. Hope that this clears up why the environment of the elements does not effect the rate of decay, and why these elements would never be found in stars :)

[@Enjoymentboy]

Personally I'm just waiting for science to finally synthesize a single atom of jumbonium. That'll be sweet.

[@RidgeWalletYT]

Burnt Titanium ftw 🔥

[@Ryarios]

Cesium has a radioactive isotope that is commonly used in medical diagnostic devices and industrial nuclear instrumentation.

[@TheSerotonine]

I might be among few lucky individuals to possess a miligram sized sample of Tc. That glass vial emits steady soft xrays from all those beta particles

[@sydhenderson6753]

Technetium has several long-lived isotopes, too, so it could be around for a few million years (or hundred thousand years for isotope 99).

[@keip4568]

I'm one of the most bizarre elements. Now EAT ME!!

[@semesabrown489]

Osmium is highly useful in organic chemistry as a hydrogenation catalyst.

[@paradox7358]

10:20 you could say it's -270°C cool 😎

[@CZOM027]

13:10 are you saying eletroseconds?

[@DrSuperKamiGuru]

11:44 Why is Europe completely dark? On the spinning globe we can see that the Americas and some parts of southern Africa are lit up but no where else.

[@noisepuppet]

I thought I had found element 43, wrote a paper on it, uploaded it to the physics preprint archive, and then realized it wasn't element 43 but Movie 43. Worst day of my life.

[@gbarnewall1]

Love a good Vsauce video, thanks Michael!

[@douglasstrother6584]

Someone better get busy writing additional verses to Tom Lehrer's "The Elements".

[@johnbillings5260]

Wait a sec... How can anything last longer than the universe it exists in? Simon!

[@Jradway3571]

The dad jokes are amazing

[@julianaylor4351]

You're gonna have to write a new song. 🎶😆

[@clivematthews95]

Fascinating… fascinating… stuff 🙏🏾

[@davidcruz8667]

This is why so many science fiction works involve going to the far reaches of the universe in search of "Unobtainium"... so many different stories have featured this fictitious element that it has become an inside joke in entertainment. But hey, if it's not in the periodic table of known elements, then of course it can only be found on Pandora, right? While you're there, bring me back some bioluminiscent flowers for my mom, would ya? Much obliged... Na-noo-na-noo, and the answer is forty-five...

[@augiegirl1]

My maid of honor’s maternal grandpa helped develop the atomic clock.

[@insanemakaioshin]

Given that there are 4 *known* Electron Shells & 7 *known* rows, each with a number of subshells equal to the shell number of the shell containing them, there are theoretically 156. Proof: The first subshell contains 2 electrons, 2nd contains 6, 3rd contains 10 & Last contains 14 7*2 + 6*6 + 5*10 + 4*14 = 14 + 36 + 50 + 56 = 156

[@jasoncrook1]

So Ozmium is officially heavier than Black Sabbath lol 😂🤘🏻😎🤘🏻

[@liamwright5021]

This video is turning me into one of the element enthusiast nerds

[@picobyte]

Like measuring light speed it's impossible to measure 'time' as we don't know our relative motion in the universal frame of reference. Now i wil play the above video 👍

[@bananacabbage7402]

The stability of electron orbitals should not be confused with the stability of the nucleus

[@franklinkz2451]

Simon Word Flubber Alerts!!! The Earth is 4 million years old. So says Fact Boy lol

[@BadYossa]

I thought that was for giggles...

[@PaulTheFox1988]

He got quite a few things wrong, but he definitely didn't say that, he said that the lifetime of the longest lived stable isotope of Technetium was 1000 times less than the earth's age, and 4 million multiplied by 1000 is 4 billion (which is still incorrect as the earth is approx 4.5 billion years old but it's not 3 orders of magnitude off like you claim)

[@YarMahNarNar]

I’m trying to figure out if this is a real comment or a joke. If it’s a joke, terrible joke. If it’s real…please go back to school. Dropping out in kindergarten wasn’t the move.

[@jamesfrankel7827]

Astatine is a chemical element; it has symbol At and atomic number 85. It is the rarest naturally occurring element in the Earth's crust, occurring only as the decay product of various heavier elements. All of astatine's isotopes are short-lived; the most stable is astatine-210, with a half-life of 8.1 hours. Consequently, a solid sample of the element has never been seen, because any macroscopic specimen would be immediately vaporized by the heat of its radioactivity. Some estimate that there is 1 gram of astatine present in the earth at any given time.

[@Beryllahawk]

Heyyy was that a Periodic Videos clip for Caesium??? (If not, well, that's ok, still a cool clip)

[@blankseventydrei]

Os is very useful for organic chemists. 😉

[@saitama_sensei9199]

The first purple chart you put up is by costarican chemistry scientist Gil Chaverri

[@ayoudle]

Simon, please do a video on element 115

[@michaelgautreaux3168]

Better living through chemistry....Grand 😆

[@dalefirmin5118]

Electrons do not "orbit" so there is no "orbital speed." (They don't "spin" either, but that's another subject.) Heisenberg showed that there is an uncertainty in the position related to the energy. If you can say precisely the position (or orbit), you can say absolutely, positively nothing whatsoever about its energy (or speed). This is often referred to as the "electron cloud." Schrödinger's atomic model shows that there is a "probability" of an electron found within a certain region around the nucleus based on its energy. Erwin Schrödinger won the Nobel Prize in 1933 so it's been almost 100 years ago now and you would think that videos like this would be up-to-date.

[@kinexkid]

I'm disappointment the periodically table used when talking about elements past what we know had the old symbols for 117 and 118

[@TinnyTiT4N]

Is that goldielax zone of stability potentially a black hole?

[@golfgrabu]

Was Danny Osmond made of osmium? Or Ozzy maybe?

[@QIKUGAMES-QIKU]

3:00 So why didn't it ignite in the original factory ? Or as he transported it back overseas 🤷 they weren't airtight back then so this doesn't add up

[@sydhenderson6753]

It was sealed or stored under oil.

[@MyRadDesign]

The cesium oscillators aboard the GPS satellites differ from earthbound oscillators due to two relativistic effects. Gravity and the velocity of the satellites. The gravity field is weaker the further from the center of the earth it is operated. Both of these factors must be considered to allow correct GPS locations to be obtained by the system.