Berkelium in Berkeley (new) - Periodic Table of Videos 

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

These videos are great.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

Polly Arnold used to be one of my chemistry professors!

Glad to see the Prof looking so well!

Thank you for all the wonderful videos!

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

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

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.

PLEASE.... the volume levels!

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

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!

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.

New video drop! Wonderful Christmas present.

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

Thanks for the update 👍

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.

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!

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

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.

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.

Great video ; damn FINE info. Thanks✳️

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.

Awesome!

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!

Fascinating!

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

Thank you 🧪🧪🧪

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?

Great stuff again! Chemistry rules!

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

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

Woah! Every segment has a very different sound volume!

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?

Super facsinating material.

California represent! ❤ love this series

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

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

2:11 I love Hume Cronyn!

Really cool video and really cool hair.

PLEASE DO A VIDEO ON TRITIUM - THANKS!

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

Hiiii how are you amazing job sir love your videos😊

Your hair is lovely!

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

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

All irregularities will be handled by the forces controlling each dimension. Transuranic heavy elements may not be used where there is life. Medium atomic weights are available: Gold, Lead, Copper, Jet, Diamond, Radium, Sapphire, Silver and Steel. Sapphire and Steel have been assigned.

Wow university of Nottingham you go get that

They're back again

That’s so cool

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?

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

Ni ! Roller coaster sound in this one !

Babe wake up new periodic video just dropped!!

Hahaha shrubbery! Every video makes me laugh and makes me love learning; bravo!

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

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..?

Thank you legend

With all the shrubbery talk, I'm reminded of the Knights of ⁵⁹Ni.

Yaayyyy more Nuclear Chemistry on RU-vid 🎉☢️

Whoops! Dropped it.

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

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

Amazing!

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

Love the video's but audio levels really need work

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

i remember this same man from when i where a little kid

Awesome! ^_^

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

Science is such an industrialised grind now.

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

basically a chemistry speedrun

Should do some chemistry in that cup it’s rotten 😂

The CC has a real problem with Berkelium! Love these... more precious now that they're less often.

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

I wish I could hear what is being said.

Prof Poliakoff and Prof Polly Akoff?

Would be cool to see the crystals blow apart with a high speed camera 😃

I love a 4 year old video is still labeled old. Why yes it is.

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

Yus!

Sounds like the most expensive element in the Universe

As an American that deals with elements daily and that sells them, I can assure you that I know absolutely nobody who says Berkelium like that, not in my near decade in the elements business. That said, I could see certain individuals saying it jokingly. Lol