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Recent items from Elemental
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Ruthenium - a 'sort of' precious metal
8:00 AM.Ruthenium is a 'sort of' precious metal that is a useful catalyst and alloy. It is toxic and smells like ozone, says Allan Blackman from AUT in ep 71 of Elemental. Read more Audio
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Rubidium - expensive and not very useful
8:00 AM.Rubidium is a reactive metal with few uses, named 'deepest red' due to its beautiful red spectral lines, says Allan Blackman from AUT in ep 70 of Elemental. Read more Audio
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Rhodium - used in cars, drugs ... and aftershave
8:00 AM.Rhodium is an expensive precious metal that is used in catalytic convertors, to make the Parkinson's drug L-DOPA, create shiny jewellery and add the menthol taste to toothpaste, says Allan Blackman… Read more Audio
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Rhenium - has a number of claims to chemical fame
8:00 AM.Named after the Rhine river, rhenium is a metal with very high boiling and melting points, and it was the last naturally occuring, non-radioactive element to be discovered, says Prof Allan Blackman in… Read more Audio
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Radon - radioactive basement risk
8:00 AM.The radioactive gas radon can be a risk in the basements of stone houses and used to, erroneously, be touted for its health benefits, says Prof Allan Blackman from AUT in ep 67 of Elemental. Read more Audio
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Radium - famous but not very useful
8:00 AM.Radium was famously found by the Curies, and was once widely used in face creams, drinks and luminous watch dials, despite being highly radioactive, says Allan Blackman in ep 66 of Elemental. Read more Audio
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Protactinium - a very dull chemical element
8:00 AM.Protactinium is a rare, radioactive element that has no uses and may be the most boring element, says Prof Allan Blackman from AUT in ep 65 of Elemental. Read more Audio
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Promethium - rare and unremarkable
8:00 AM.Despite its gruesome mythical name, the radioactive element promethium has no particular claim to fame, says Prof Allan Blackman from AUT in ep 64 of Elemental. Read more Audio
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Praseodymium - a long name but not many uses
8:00 AM.Praseodymium is a metal wirh the second longest name on the periodic table and not many uses, says Prof Alan Blackman from AUT in ep 63 of Elemental. Read more Audio
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Potassium - a matter of life and death
8:00 AM.From levitating burnt buttocks, to excitable nerves and sure-to-rise baking, potassium is highly reactive and vital to life, says Prof Allan Blackman in ep 62 of Elemental. Read more Audio
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Polonium - few redeeming features
8:00 AM.Polonium will be forever linked with the names Curie and Litvinenko and has negligible desirable features, says Prof Allan Blackman in ep 61 of Elemental. Read more Audio
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Plutonium - nuclear bombs & nuclear power
8:00 AM.A radioactive heavyweight associated with nuclear bombs & power, which is powering the Voyager spacecraft, says Prof Allan Blackman from AUT in ep 60 of Elemental. Read more Audio
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Platinum - another pricey precious metal
8:00 AM.Platinum is useful in catalytic convertors, is used to treat testicular cancer and will be useful in hydrogen fuel cells, says Prof Allan Blackman from AUT in ep 59 of Elemental. Read more Audio
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Phosphorus - P was discovered in pee
8:00 AM.Phosphorus, chemical symbol P, was first isolated as an element from thousands of litres of urine. Also found in guano, aka bird poo. Allan Blackman from AUT has the full story in ep 58 of Elemental.
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Palladium - cleaning up your car's exhaust
8:00 AM.Palladium is a pricey precious metal most commonly used in catalytic convertors on car exhausts, says AUT's Allan Blackman in ep 57 of Elemental. Read more Audio
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Oxygen - the friendly element
8:00 AM.Oxygen is very friendly with other chemical elements & very helpful for life on Earth, says Allan Blackman from AUT in ep 56 of Elemental. Read more Audio
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Osmium - heavyweight champion of the elements
8:00 AM.Osmium is extremely rare and expensive. It is the densest chemical element, rivals diamond as being the least compressible of all known substances & has a distinctive 'pong' according to Allan… Read more Audio
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Nitrogen - a vital powerhouse
8:00 AM.Most important biological molecules contain nitrogen, even though it takes lots of energy to make or break its chemical bonds, says Allan Blackman from AUT in ep 54 of Elemental. Read more Audio
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Niobium - useful at high & low temperatures
8:00 AM.Niobium is a metal that is useful at both very high temperatures, as in jet engines, and very low temperatures as a superconductor, says Allan Blackman from AUT in ep 53 of Elemental. Read more Audio
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Nickel - more than just a 5 cent coin
8:00 AM.The chemical element nickel is named after a German word for Satan or the Devil, but nickel is now more usually thought of as a North American five cent piece, says Allan Blackman in ep 52 of… Read more Audio
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Neon - the red of neon lights
8:00 AM.There are no known compounds of the noble gas neon, which does however produce the brilliant crimson of red - and only red - neon lights. Ep 51 of Elemental with Prof Allan Blackman from AUT. Read more Audio
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Neodymium - the secret behind supermagnets
8:00 AM.Neodydmium magnets include the strongest permanent magnets known and are found in devices like speakers & headphones, says chemistry professor Allan Blackman from AUT in ep 50 of Elemental. Read more Audio
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The most boring chemical element
5:00 PM.The Elemental podcast has inspired Prof Allan Blackman from AUT and Dr Rebecca Jelley from the University of Auckland, to publish a paper in the journal Nature Chemistry - here's a quick lowdown on… Read more Audio
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Molybdenum - a catalyst at bacterial to industrial scales
8:00 AM.Molybdenum has an essential role as a catalyst at microbial and industrial scales and is an important element in enzymes, says Prof Allan Blackman, in ep 49 of Elemental. Read more Audio
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Mercury - mesmerising quicksilver
8:00 AM.Mercury is the only metal that is liquid at room temperature and atmospheric pressure, says Allan Blackman in ep 48 of Elemental. Read more Audio