The Gallium Man (melts) - Periodic Table of Videos

We melt a man made of Gallium - and then torch a Lego Professor!
More links and info in full description ↓↓↓
Patrons can catch some extended footage here: / 84105021
Catch our Gallium video: • Gallium (beating heart...
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From the School of Chemistry at The University of Nottingham: bit.ly/NottChem
This episode was also generously supported by The Gatsby Charitable Foundation
Periodic Videos films are by video journalist Brady Haran: www.bradyharan.com/
Brady's Blog: www.bradyharanblog.com
Music by Alan Stewart
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[@periodicvideos]

Patrons can catch some extended footage here: www.patreon.com/posts/84105021

[@ImRandomDude]

how lego prof resisted nitro cooling makes total sense, I recall a story how some scientists were doing experiments near absolute zero and all materials they used changed in dimensions and lost temperature ... until they tried lego Found it: Both superconductors and quantum computers need extremely low temperatures to function. This requires the use of materials that transfer heat as slowly as possible in order to maintain the low temperatures for as long as possible. It turns out that the plastic used to make Lego blocks, combined with their unique interlocking shape, fits this bill perfectly

[@pianoguy5110]

No Thanls 🙂

[@Physhi]

Would the professor like to explain what cubane is?

[@scotts918]

So nice of Neil to pretend as though his strength has limits, so-as not to intimidate the rest of us.

[@shawnmendrek3544]

yes. humble but not braggish.

[@pandaman9690]

that is the most important part

[@Amateur.Chemistry]

Gallium is the tutorial version of mercury

[@RobbeSeolh]

True Neutral version.

[@atomsk01]

And mercury is the hardcore version of gallium.

[@nigerianprince6638]

Except you can eat it

[@BEM684]

@@nigerianprince6638 You can eat either one. But I wouldn't advise you to do it.

[@AtlasReburdened]

And the stupidly sticky version.

[@Yezpahr]

Neil's jealousy of not having a lego lookalike of his own has culminated into a total destruction.

[@Be_Harris]

All he had to do was pop its' little hair piece off. 🥺

[@Games_and_Music]

"For science."

[@beanofknowledge2125]

What did the Lego Professor do to deserve this?

[@gabilauria7769]

I know

[@RFC-3514]

The T-0.001 _didn't_ melt from the bottom first, though. You can see the head melting (and the metal pooling at the bottom) while the feet are still intact inside that pool (once the feet start to melt, it can't stand up).

[@kamilguzik3870]

but, to be honest I would not seen that if I stand in lab. In close up video I can see it in lab not

[@PaulG.x]

@@kamilguzik3870 This behaviour is easy to see IRL .I have melted many lead items for casting , with a gas flame. Lead behaves exactly the same.

[@kamilguzik3870]

@@PaulG.x if I look from really close I probably seen that, but not standing few steps from it

[@keithyinger3326]

​@@PaulG.x ya, the item kind of deflates. The oxide "skin" on the outside stays intact and the metal melts from the inside and pools at the bottom. At least when melting old lead fishing weights and stuff like to cast new sinkers.

[@therealjammit]

I was thinking there was a skin of gallium oxide and the gallium underneath melted in this "bag" of gallium oxide.

[@sthomas6369]

I don't think I would have burnt up the Lego Professor! What a shame!

[@MmmVomit]

Torching the Lego Professor made me sad.

[@williamreffett5862]

You gotta love heat transfer. Reason why it started to melt from the bottom versus the top is because it was sitting on top of a glass petri dish.

[@Sirenhound]

🎶Gallium man, gallium man, Doing the things that gallium can.

[@MMuraseofSandvich]

What's he like? It's not important Gallium Man

[@truthsmiles]

🪗🪗🪗

[@scottvelez3154]

*I AM GALLIUM MAAAAN* 🎸

[@jamesrbushell]

Lego man, Lego man Lego man hates gallium man They have a fight, Lego man wins

[@austin1623]

I first saw this channel before I was even 10 years old, and now i’m enrolled in university biochemistry.

[@pathologicaldoubt]

And miraculously the professor stayed the same age

[@pandaman9690]

please don’t tell me the professor has passed

[@pandaman9690]

he’s working on better things i bet

[@ED-yy4te]

You’re supposed to shatter it by saying “hasta la vista, baby” then shoot it.

[@kasane1337]

I mean, shooting it with a hair dryer also works if you look as buff as Neil.

[@AkiSan0]

@@kasane1337 i read the comments before watching and then Neil walked in casually, in tanktop and suspenders. :D

[@joeylawn36111]

Or..........GET TO DA CHOPPA!

[@iteerrex8166]

Prof. you should get a two part cast for the Gallium, so after each demo, you just pour it into cast. And just like the one in the movie it’s hard to kill lol

[@VeroniaStudios]

The dramatic music swells as the gallium Lego Terminator is slowly lowered into a tiny crucible of molten metal.

[@Games_and_Music]

I actually thought that that was how they would end this video, but instead Neil basically came in and destroyed his toys and handed the remains back when he was done playing around, hah.

[@Luca_Raven]

Awww you should get a mould and make a new professor with the Gallium

[@CC-bp2hn]

After following Dr. Brady Haran for years, I'm happy to say the content is still cutting edge and phenomenal. Good to see you and the professor in good health. I'm also certain that this was just a good excuse to hang out with good friends, sneak in a cheeky star wars bit, and enjoy some time back at Nottingham. I sit here in the sofa shop wearing white gloves and bearing my Tim name tag, watching my official tommyball broadcast. Love the work you do man, and I hope your family is well.

[@ammoniahuffers]

For the first time ever, I see Neli didn't wear a lab coat 😂

[@subliminalvibes]

Today's braces were very rock and roll! 👍😎

[@Lauraphoid]

The wifebeater and pride keychain was a surprising twist!

[@Spectrolite1]

​​@@Lauraphoid Sadly, why bring that mafia culture even here

[@chillsahoy2640]

I like how the list showing the melting points of low-melting metals has gallium, and then a series of metals you PROBABLY don't want to touch. Rubidium: you might be able to melt it in your hand if you have a bad fever, but it'll be the last thing you do. Cesium: you'll easily melt it in your hand, and then the moisture from your skin will be enough for an explosion. Mercury: it's already liquid, but also please don't touch it with your bare hands!

[@byebbyeb1219]

True 😂 I guess that's the allure of gallium, the only liquid metal you can touch safely.

[@ToTheGAMES]

So what you actually need is a mold, so you can make an infinite number of gallium professors!

[@ChongMcBong]

if it only took a hairdryer to melt the terminator, and a gas flame to melt the professor, that makes the prof tougher than the terminator :)

[@feekygucker2678]

“You were the chosen one!” 😂😂😂 Darth Poliakoff?

[@Malfunct1onM1ke]

About the melting from the bottom first: when I tried to melt down aluminium-cables in the furnace of our lab, I noticed that the Aluminium would stay seemingouroly intact because of the oxidelayer. Only when you pour it out of the crucible you would notice that it had melted. My theory is that the gallium man undergoes the same phenomenon but the molten material puours out of the bottom because the gravitational pressure of the molten material is there the greatest and breaks the oxide layer on the feet apart first.

[@MultiTipsie]

Hi there, Maybe the reason of the melting from the bottom is that at first there was melting from the top and that melted Gallium went down and concentrated at the legs and feet. Maybe that melted Gallium absorbes energy faster then still solid Gallium and thus heating up the legs and feet much faster then only the heat from the dryer on top did.

[@PopeLando]

"Even Neil has a limit to his strength..." *cue Neil's guns*

[@stevelknievel4183]

At this point somebody needs to make a compilation of things the Professor has said about Neil.

[@munjee2]

​@@stevelknievel4183 don't have that but I didn't once compile a playlist of every video Neil speaks in years ago let's see if that was on this account

[@Angie-Way]

not really related to the science but Neil's outfit in this video is on point

[@marclink0]

Note to self: Do not send toys to Sir Poliakoff if you want them to remain intact

[@Christopher-N]

It's a double feature - the liquidated T-1000 from _Terminator 2,_ and _The Terminator_ burning from the trailer explosion (minus the endoskeleton recovery).

[@zachwistuk549]

Viewer from the beginning here, Neil was always my favorite. The lanyard just confirms that even more. Neil is the hidden star of this channel. Glory to Neil!!!

[@wonderpookie]

Actually, the lanyard made me lose respect for him. Keep it about the science please - I don't care for your (abhorrent) politics.

[@dk3062]

​@@wonderpookie Agreed. It amazes me when scientists lose all their ability to be objective in light of philosophy and belief and go with feelings.

[@maiabravo5978]

@@wonderpookie And we dont care for your bigotry.

[@byebbyeb1219]

@@wonderpookie Seeing as you apparently view equality as "abhorrent politics," your respect wasn't worth anything anyway.

[@Roarsta88]

Glory to Neil

[@bradhoehne8369]

I think the reason it appears to have melted from the bottom is that it, in fact, melted at the top and then ran down the sides of the remaining solid model, pushed along by the wind of the hair dryer.

[@tovenaartinus]

I think it was flowing between the solid metal and a thin oxide layer

[@davidjones6661]

@@tovenaartinus This is the right thing, Gallium makes a small passivation oxide layer, so the outside kept some structure as the inside melted out.

[@ssgeem]

I think it's the dish... i can imagine that creating a higher pressure air pocket at the bottom which transfers the heat better

[@PaulG.x]

And maybe gravity

[@tmmtmm]

surface tension

[@Zimke42]

It looked to me like there was a thin layer of gallium oxide on the outside of the terminator figure. The inside melted under the oxide layer and pooled down at the feet. While Galium has a low mt, galium oxide mt is rather high comparatively.

[@justinthomas7222]

This is hysterical! Thank you!

[@jasonmorgan661]

From the first video I fell in love with this channel... What a joy to see such intelligent and absolutely charming person...

[@Meerschwein]

Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and experiments with the world. I'm going to start a vocational training as a chemical laborant or in German Berufsausbildung zum Chemielaborant (there is no specific translation into English). And yes, your Videos are part of my wish and motivation to do that. I'm now 30 yrs old, have already learned (3.5 yrs to exam since I was 16 after 10yrs of school) construction mechanic and worked as such. But I always loved chemistry. That was weird in school. I was the only student who was happy to learn in that subject. This autumn I'll start my new way and just wanted to say THANK YOU ALL

[@rakninja]

in the US we'd probably say "lab worker," or "lab technician." unless you mean the "vocational training," part. that's a really broad category of schooling and/ or training to us, so we dont have a more specific term. other english dialects may differ.

[@riverbender9898]

Simply wonderful! Thank you all.

[@byebbyeb1219]

Love the video and also Neil's lanyard! :) Kinda poetic watching people in the comments melt like gallium upon seeing it 😂

[@pandaman9690]

I love the color red friends

[@TheGahta]

The petridish trapped the hot airdue to the curtain and it being at 90 degrees also helped it getting hotter then the head

[@octavianova1300]

If you look closely, especially if you've handled gallium before, you can actually spot that the gallium that pools at the bottom actually does originate from the top. The only reason it isn't immediately obvious is because tends to form a kind of skin (I believe an outer oxide layer) and when it first starts melting, the melt tends to occur underneath that skin while the skin itself can remain intact for a minute. So if you look closely, you can see an initial thinning of the material on the head, and the movement of material down to base, where it then breaches the oxide layer, creating the appearance that it's melting from the bottom

[@tmmtmm]

"I'll be back" *melts into a pool of gallium*

[@PlzReturnYourShoppingCart]

I love all these guys! I could literally watch videos like this every moment of every day.

[@BEM684]

They should post an address where we can mail lego professors and they'll have enough to make a new video every day lol.

[@Deipnosophist_the_Gastronomer]

Rest in Peace, Lego Professor.

[@boboften9952]

John Connor has approved the melting of this Terminator

[@acadia5898]

been watching these guys for a decade and they have educated me so much. thank you so much Professor and the crew

[@XFourty7]

Not the usual Periodic Video, nice little switcheroo. 1:45 Come on Neil, it's not dry yet put it on full blast!.. :D

[@ericheether4449]

Gallium Man, Gallium Man. Doing the things that Gallium can. Why he melts? Nobody knows, Gallium Man!

[@unvergebeneid]

That cold open! 😂😂😂

[@antivanti]

Just as I thought "YOU WE'RE THE CHOSEN ONE!" it played the sound bite... nice editing

[@hosermandeusl2468]

Q: Is this a prequel for the next Terminator movie? "ENTER THE LEGOMENTOR!"

[@KaneTheMediocre]

I think it's melting from everywhere, but the liquid is just flowing down and pooling at the bottom.

[@bustosricky]

Neil is a savage with that blowtorch lol

[@taurielv]

And the dodgy hairdryer 😂

[@Veptis]

Perhaps there is either oxidized Gallium or even Nitrogen in the mix to make the hull ofthe figuring melt at a higher temperature than the core?

[@NathainArdoin]

Professor, would simple gravity be the reason it drops and pools at the base of the lego man, because right before the heat goes from top to bottom, notice the base takes a little more time to transfer the heat from the hair drier since it is absorbed into the man. If you were to use a metal bottom or a heating element to say 18°C would it pool slower and melt at once or is there a way you could make him flash melt into a pool instead of (as the thermal image shows the temp transfer down is there) the bottom melting then it transfer up as the heat from the hair drier was deflected further than the base. ciao.

[@icab0225]

Your videos have been a contant source of joy professor

[@azrobbins01]

If you let a bunch of kids loose in the laboratory, they would do the exact same thing.

[@richinoable]

That posture will tax any human beings strength

[@WeedShaggy]

Neil used 1% of his power to show his hairdryer skills.

[@MaddAddamx]

Did you round that up, it was a neat non zero integer?

[@Systox25]

Looks like the metal on the inside melted and the oxidation layer or what that skin is, hold the form together. Probably higher melting point

[@SuiLagadema]

I didn't know you were allow to carry guns to a chemistry lab!

[@peterromero284]

Neil just being completely unable to contain his chadliness

[@jimsvideos7201]

"You were the chosen one!" 😅

[@alexmoufarrige7352]

so cool. I was watching the talk when Andreas gave you the lego model !!!

[@jeffarmstrong1308]

... and THIS is why we can't give nice things to the Professor.

[@ulfy01]

Does Neil wear those badass red suspenders over a singlet under his lab coat at all times? Please we must know!

[@TravisLee33]

Such a cool and fun video!

[@jerrysanchez5453]

I love when this channel drops a video

[@Silentspeaker3]

Gallium behaves similarly to aluminum. There is a passivating oxide layer that prevents the molten metal from flowing out. You can think of it like a chocolate bar in a wrapper. The chocolate may be melted, but the wrapper (oxide layer) prevents the chocolate from going everywhere because it has a higher melting point than the chocolate/gallium. However, as a break in the oxide layer occurs, the molten gallium begins to pool, because the oxide layer is not necessarily very strong. If you demonstrate the melting of an ingot of aluminum, you'll see the same behavior.

[@user-mg1ce4yn1w]

The red suspenders are dope!

[@Odysseus1999]

Make a mold of a lego man, fill up mold with warm gallium, cool the gallium. Boom, terminator restored!

[@justinthomas7222]

Haircut looks good, Professor!

[@DavidFMayerPhD]

Gallium has several important usages: 1. Semiconductors: as a dopant and also a substrate in the form of gallium arsenide. 2. Alloying agent with plutonium in nuclear bombs. Plutonium has several crystalline allotropes and seems to switch between them uncontrollably. Alloying plutonium with gallium gives a material with reliable and stable properties.

[@igameidoresearchtoo6511]

You forgot the most important usage GaN chargers! gallium nitride is used in phone chargers aswell as quality laptop chargers, its way more efficient and way smaller than previous chargers.

[@scrotiemcboogerballs1981]

Great video thanks for sharing

[@jondonnelly4831]

When our Robotic overloads come, they will be comming for revenge. You can be sure of it, Neil.

[@georgejones3526]

If it did melt bottom first it would most likely be caused by the plate acting as a heat sink.

[@stocktonjoans]

Who knew Neil was such a bad-ass dresser under that lab coat?

[@Blak2blue]

I had no idea Neil had such guns!! 💪🏼 😳

[@ThunderBassistJay]

ITS90 defined melting point of gallium: 29.7646 °C. It's one of the primary temperatures I use the lab. 😀

[@jamesmanning5159]

niel is absolutely shredded

[@anthonylowder6687]

It makes sense why it would start melting at the bottom rather than at the top because the air was blowing down on top of it but it was collecting in the petri dish therefore the majority of the heat was swirling around at the bottom of the dish heating the bottom faster than at the top.

[@pjeaton58]

"The final meltdown" - to the tune of "The final countdown"

[@nighthawk9264]

The hot air blew down from the top, yet. BUT, it was blowing against the petri dish, which consequentially heated up. The dish got pretty warm due to the larger surface area in the hot stream and probably the conduction from the dish to the figure was larger than the heating via the air.

[@Rubrickety]

Neil wearing a rainbow lanyard and blow drying his head is the hot new Pride gif.

[@Eddie42023]

excellent interjection around 4:40+ !

[@sebtheanimal]

The Professor will inevitably bring about Cyberdyne System model T3000 of Hemimetipolyalloy. That's how it started before it began

[@HadToChangeMyName_YoutubeSucks]

It's OK Neil, it's been a while since I was a spring chicken too buddy.

[@mikewarren5004]

Hello Professor! I really enjoy your videos.

[@phonotical]

Is this because recently they made a galium lego man that reformed itself passing through bars

[@STONEDay]

The Professor was the Fireman today

[@Tomapella]

We need a live stream of the Prof watching and commentating on Terminator 2 now

[@RFC-3514]

Bullies, melting the professor's toys!

[@ewoutpols9017]

Bit of a guess, does the dish heat faster then the air around it which makes it melt from the bottom?

[@Colkadome12]

I have some gallium. It’s very light and runny, and tends to be quite messy and sticks to things. it goes straight from solid to liquid and vice versa, no soft between state. Mercury would be more fun but it’s too toxic 😭

[@PBeringer]

Andres ... from the Royal Institution, Andres! Yay! Gives me the idea that an Andrew Szydlo/Martyn Poliakoff "crossover" would be pretty damned cool ... EDIT: Time-reversal is real. All Newtonian physics is time-reversal invariant, and subject to reciprocity. If you could impart a time-reversed equivalent of every force exerted on the Galliuminator and the Professor, you really could have them back.

[@jerry3790]

Damn. Neil has massive arms

[@dieseluk2k]

One of those moments that doesn't look as cool as you imagined.

[@shawnmendrek3544]

Your channel makes me like chemistry. Thank you as always sir! Question remains, in the future with AI, can you defeat AI robots by removing their core most likely in their chest? By EMP or removal/destruction of said core?

[@brandonisthetrivium1]

Neil should make some plastic bag bathtub juice

[@DoctorOnkelap]

make a mould of a lego professor and pour liquefied gallium into it

[@DanceySteveYNWA]

"I want T2 soundtrack !". Mum,"We have it at home" T2 soundtrack at home =2:00

[@dav1dbone]

Gallium is not the only metal that can be liquid at low temperature, there are alloys such as Wood's metal or Rose metal, there are parts of Terminator 2 that look like mercury was used.

[@SlimThrull]

2:40 I think the heat camera explains why it melted from the bottom. Looks like the container absorbed much more than the gallium did. This would transfer through the bottom of the figure and cause it to melt first.

[@ROMAQHICKS]

Love that the last few minutes is three grown men destroying a Lego man. But I would have absolutely participated as well!

[@cogwheel42]

Thermal imaging is deceptive with metals because they're bad black body radiators. Most of the information from their surface is reflected from the surrounding environment. I think the bottom of the metal was reflecting the heat from the bottom of the dish more than being hotter than the metal above it.

[@gcl2783]

That was fanciful.