They turned chemistry into a puzzle game... 

"If helium is so rare, why are we filling party balloons with it?" And that, RCE, is an actual, honest to god issue. Helium reserves were nationalized decades ago but our (US) companies forced the feds to open up the reserves for their own interest and subsidize the cost of helium prices, otherwise the cost of helium would be astronomical. Also because of that, we're slowly running out of helium that is needed for vital uses.

>>"What is just four oxygens stuck together?" As a chemist, the answer is 'a very very angry molecule'

13:30 A degree in chemistry gets you to the point where you start turning cotton balls into cotton candy, your own urine into artificial sweetener, toilet paper into moonshine, vinyl gloves into hot sauce, paint thinner into cherry soda, and calling that a meal!

I think it would be more fun if it told you the name of the molecule you just made, and the fun fact was about that molecule.

Two atoms are talking about their recent experiences. Atom 1: "I think I've lost an electron!" Atom 2: "Are you sure?" Atom 1: "I'm positive!"

Ngl watching your brain fall apart at naming h2o2 had me in pieces 😂

"What do we do when chemists tell their final joke and pass on?" "We barium."

4:00 I know this one, America has been liquidating its supply of helium for quite some time, selling it at a very low price because the government simply has no use for it anymore (Idk what they even needed it for in the first place), which means that due to supply and demand things like helium balloons for birthdays were a viable product. Once they sell it all though then helium balloons will be super expensive. Also that fact about helium on the moon is worded pretty poorly. The only reason why we would want to go to the moon for helium is because theres lots of helium-3 there. The helium we use normally is He-4, which coincidentally makes up 99.99% of helium on earth. The only practical use for lunar He-3 would be as a fusion feedstock (right now we use tritium, which is radioactive and apparently quite difficult to work with), but considering we haven't even solved sustainable fusion yet, its a moot point to mine it on the moon

SpaceChem was the ultimate chemistry based puzzle game

Some notes for those interested about Matt's questions 1:20 Bonds sort of like that exist, but you probably mean the 1.5 (actually 1.33) _bond order_ in CO3(2-) or molecules like that. 1:35 Some elements are rare on Earth, some in the universe, and some in both. Some elements are also not in large amount on the surface of Earth, but may be in larger amounts on asteroids or under a planet's surface. Some elements occur naturally in rocks and minerals that are hard to refine into the element. Some elements are the combination of several or all of the above. That makes them hard to obtain, expensive to mine, extract, and use, and so they are "endangered" in that they are hard mine, extract, and their ores are in limited amounts on Earth. 3:45 Helium is not made by a lot of natural or artificial processes on Earth. It is mostly made by nuclear reactions (fissions and fusions), only some of which can happen on Earth, so much of Earth's helium still comes from the sun and universe around us. As it is a very light and small (almost as much as hydrogen) element and chemically practically inactive (it comes from the group noble/inert gases on the right of the periodic table), so it can be used in a lot of ways, but it also easily slips through all of atmosphere (and all sorts of other materials, even solid) to the edge and then out of it. It is also quite easy to find still, and to make in some smaller quantities. But you are right, it still does not make much sense. Similar to indium and other elements and chemicals. But humans often don't make too much sense. 4:14 Formaldehyde (systematically methanal). Similar to methane (hence the systematic name), but 2 hydrogens are replaced with 1 double bond to 1 oxygen. 6:50 Water is technically systematically named dihydrogen monoxide (but even in systematic nomenclature the mono- prefix is often omitted). This molecule is called peroxide and not dioxide, because the prefixes express the number and types of bonds present. A per-oxide has a O-O bond, a di-oxide is just oxide twice, and oxides have always 2 O-X bonds (X being any other element, but O). It helps chemists to imagine the molecule, even if there are no alternative bonding structures really possible/probable. 7:35 Some of the most efficient molecules to bond with many metals are found in biochemistry, so often even in our bodies. That is also part of the reason, why are so many metals toxic (like cadmium, lead, or mercury). They change some molecules they bond to well, which then harm us, or they displace those metals we need (like iron or calcium) from molecules, that bond to those beneficial metals. 8:00 Close. That would need one more oxygen atom. This is nitrous acid. A less stable and more dangerous acid of nitrogen. 8:50 Hydrazine is similar to and derived from ammonia. Its use in rocket fuels is partly because of the stability of N2 molecules and the reactivity of N-H bonds. 11:40 Iron(III) oxide gets easily hydrated by water, even just the moisture in the air. It makes iron(III) hydroxide, which is also reddish brown and quite similar in many ways to the oxide. In fact, iron(III) compound are often red, brown, or orange-yellow. 12:05 The plus probably means it's a hydrogen atom without one electron, thus a cation H+. As a matter of fact, hydrogen has only one proton and one electron, so a hydrogen cation is often (except for the isotopes of hydrogen, deuterium and tritium, which have a proton and some neutrons) just a lone proton. 12:20 As with the 1.33 bond order in CO3(2-), electrons can be shared in a bond between 2 atoms in all sorts of weird ways. Technically, one such bond could between a hydrogen atom and a hydrogen cation, a bond consisting of one electron of the bond order 0.5. 13:30 Ions, and ionic bonds specifically, seem relatively easy on the elementary or high school level, but is in fact quite more complex to the extent, that some aspects of them are still not fully understood and are still a bit debated today. 14:55 Cat-ions, an-ions. You say it like it's built - _ion_ plus the prefix cat- or an-, which you say like you say _cat_ or _an_ 17:20 A very odd (ironically) molecule that. Very unstable too. You would call this specifically a cycle - a cyclic chain molecule of oxygen. The previous attempt would be called a linear chain molecule (or just a linear molecule/chain v cycle/cyclic molecule). As oxygen tends to react and combine with most atoms of most elements around it, this molecule is not very likely to exist unless in very special environments with high oxygen concentration (such as pure oxygen atmosphere or in liquid oxygen, maybe). 20:30 Another quite unstable and unlikely to be found in nature molecule, trioxidane

What do acid and the military have in common? They both neutralize bases Two chemists walk into a bar, the first asks for h2o, the second asks for h2o too, and dies

Helium is rare on earth because its so light it escapes our atmosphere when released. In our lab we use a lot of liquid helium. We have a recovery system, so we pay 25 euro per litre of liquid. If we hadn't, we would have to pay 45.

Reminds me of a more simplistic version of the game SpaceChem... which started out fun and interesting, then very quickly got to a level of mind boggling mad.

I might suggest this to my chemistry teacher this looks very fun to do if it’s available for free. And here’s a fun fact that wasn’t mentioned yet: Certain elements have to be diatomic meaning they can’t exist in nature without it being bonded to itself. The best way to learn it is with the acronym: Br.I.N.Cl.H.O.F (Brinklehof). Bromine, Iodine, Nitrogen, Chlorine, Hydrogen, Oxygen, and Flouride.

As a chemistry major in college currently, I can confirm. Chemistry is confusing and hard

Engineering has nothing on chemistry. *Chemical Engineers have entered chat*

17:11 That's a square, Matt.

Helium-4 on earth is so rare, there was a shortage not long ago. Helium-3 is present on the moon and has a lot of potential for fusion.

I did know the part about birds and capsacin, apparently there is a species of shrew that has evolved to not be effected either.

12:05 you used the wrong formula to get the correct answer. Plus sign means it's positively charged, i.e missing an electron. And hydrogen atom without electron is just a proton.

When I did A-level chemistry, the first thing the teacher said was “everything we taught you about before, forget it, we lied”. Obviously it’s good to know the basic concepts but a lot of stuff you basically have to relearn

15:00 I was always taught that cations were positive since cats->pawsitive

21:54 "Capskin" 😂😂

The "bond and a half" thing you were thinking of might have been hydrogen bonds. There is a covalent bond between the oxygen and hydrogen of the same molecule, but there are additional bonds (hydrogen bonds) between the oxygen and hydrogen atoms of separate water molecules. Hydrogen bonds are a lot weaker than covalent bonds, but they're a lot stronger than normal intermolecular forces, and they're the reason why water is a liquid at room temperature rather than a gas despite its low molecular weight. The molecule with 2 oxygens, 1 nitrogen, and 1 hydrogen is actually called nitrous acid. Nitric acid has 3 oxygen atoms. The positive charges on ions aren't extra protons, they're just missing electrons (often called "holes" in electronics). If an atom had extra protons, it would be a different element - e.g. oxygen with 2 extra protons would be neon. This game reminds me a lot of THE CODEX OF ALCHEMICAL ENGINEERING, which is a cool game that I think you should play (especially since it has engineering in the name). You have to build and program a machine to manipulate the alchemical elements (how people previously understood elements before modern chemistry) and make them bond together into specific structures. It was originally built in Flash, but can still be played on a website called numuki using emulation (it used to work in Kongregate with the ruffle emulator, but doesn't seem to any more).

I was a Chemical Engineering student later changed to Psychology, but this part of Chemistry just tingles my mind and I miss balancing chemicals now

18:40 That's also why some people will put older copper pennies (actual copper content) into their small pet water dishes, as it combats bacteria growth and stops it getting scummy as quickly

HAHAHAHA Laughs in SPACE-chem at this puny game

CHEMICAL ENGINEER>CIVIL ENGINEER>ARCHITECT?

06:35 RCE nerd sniping himself with the "Hang on, I need to google this" :D

Irony when you're doing chemistry battery jokes then say you're running out...

Day 41 of notifying people that the Discord server's Suggestions forum is a better place to suggest new games to Matt. (Just don't ping him!)

1:46 " Do I need to worry that their spinning" 😂they have been spinning the whole time Matt lmao

I discovered you last year and can quite honestly say that your videos help me laugh every aingle time, during quite a rough moment I am going through. Thank you for being so genuine.

*@Real Civil Engineer* If you liked that game, you will love: *SpaceChem* It is basically the same, but you can do many more things with the molecule creators.

The new "Fun Fact with Matt" is amazing. Really love it 🤯

Not only is rust responsible for Mars red hues, it was also a key player in the early earth and life's earliest days. See, the atmosphere was largely made up of inert gasses, such as diatomic nitrogen, carbon dioxide, and methane, common components of volcano outgassing. Life at the time was anaerobic, meaning it didn't use oxygen in it's metabolism in any way, but the oceans were *rich* with iron. Just floating around in the water, chillin. Suddenly these new bacteria come along and start photosynthesis proper, using sunlight to break apart CO2 molecules and turning them into sugar and O2. And boy oh boy did they pump out a LOT of O2. So much so that it started seeping into the oceans, and in turn binding with all that free floating iron. This kept the atmospheric levels of O2 at low enough levels that life was able to adapt to the oxygen entering the atmosphere, but scientists estimate it could have wiped out up to 80% of any life that existed up to that point. It's called the Great Oxidation Event, if anyone wants to look into it. It's pretty neat.

11:48 Wait until Matt learn that the same reaction (iron oxide/rust) also happens in our blood and that's why blood is red.

Answering the important questions: The He we use for party balloons and other "common uses" is different to the "rare" one we need for specific lab uses (like cooling MRI machines). Different isotopes.

6:41 Made me think of an actual technical term in biochemistry: disulfide bridges. Sulfur loves making extra bonds, so some amino acids with sulfur in them will bond to each other inside a protein adding structural integrity to the whole protein. Edit: 13:30 I did my undergrad in chemical engineering and biochemistry and between the two covered about 3/4ths of the chemistry degree requirements. TBH the most confusing part of chemistry is the beginning because there are tons of rules and you don't have a foundation or framework to piece everything together. Organic chemistry is fairly straightforward, there's just a ton of it. Same thing with biochemistry. Physical Chemistry is a lot of backfilling the "why" of the rules from gen chem. Quantum mechanics of bonding is admittedly a bit crazy but in an undergrad degree you don't really explore it at all.

Matt: (reading caption) "No cling-ons under this boat." Me: Cling-ons? What about Romulans? 😀 (I know, stupid joke.)

I love doing chemistry puns but i never get a reaction 😢. 6:34 2 scientists walk into a bar, 1 ask for h2o and the other wanted some h2o too. The other died. Why? I am stealing ALL of these jokes and tell them to my science teacher.

8:16 Matt's best Star Trek joke

Organic chemisty is all molecules. All other chemisty is just cleaning glassware and pushing buttons on an instrument and waiting for the instrument to do all the work for you XD

7:52 i just begun chemistry, but i believe it is called nitrous acid

6:23 RCE: "THERE'S A BRIDGE!" me: "Bridge review??"

Fun fact about helium: helium is rare due to two factors 1) the rapid depletion of sources by humans, and 2) due to helium being lighter than air it just keeps going once released into atmosphere until it disperses into space

The name Hydrogenperoxide comes from the charge of the Oxygen Atoms. Normally they are 2x negative charged, forming normal oxides. But when they are only 1x negative charged the form an Peroxide like Hydrogenperoxide.

15:14 cat-ion and on-ion

Also the bond between H and O is strong as the oxygen is highly electronegative, attracting the electrons more, so the O becomes slightly -, the H becomes slightly +

Genius Video! Thanks a lot! 🥰🤗

Time Stamps: 0:20 making dihydrogen 0:59 making water 1:43 making ammonia 2:34 making methane 4:13 making formaldehyde 5:14 making water again 6:20 making hydrogen peroxide 7:41 making nitrous acid 8:31 making hydrazine 10:33 making nitrous acid again 12:03 making dihydrogen again 13:35 making water again 14:18 making water again 15:09 making nitrous acid again 16:03 making tetraoxygen 17:55 making nitroxyl 18:52 making methane again 20:06 making trioxidane 21:13 making ammonia again

Great video. Nice game. 😊 I don’t know what’s worse: Matt telling chemistry puns or no, no, that’s the worst. 😂 You can call the plus circles orbiting the atom “holes” as they are just the absence of electrons. Then you can do all kinds of hole related innuendos. 😂

Imagine you could connect them differently and it makes a different elements it'll take forever to figure out all the combinations

Your bond with editors is showing really well in this one, Matt.

17:40 Don't let your editors fool you, RCE, your humorous jokes and intriguing insights are much appreciated.

Im not sure what was worse, organic or inorganic chemistry. Learning the chemistry of medicines was a ballache

Day 32 of asking Matt to play Simpleplanes

21:03 you have summoned the whole fandom

matt deserves a chemistry degree at this point

Helium fits though the ozone layer and just floats off into space as far as I can remember

I wish i knew about this game when I took chem in high school. I bet my old high school teacher would've loved this.

This is awesome. As many have mentioned, based on another great old game

The + near "atoms" (they're actually called ions now) still means the atom has lost an electron, not gain a proton. If it gained a proton, then that would make another element.

I think I've seen a documentary once about Helium3 on the moon, called "Iron Sky"

Your jokes are so insanely great, I am having a blast every single time.

8:09 Tubthumping plays

Pretty sure that the amount of dots circling it has something to do about chemistry itself, though I could be wrong.

I died on the inside when I heard him say... cations (cash-ions) and anions (onions)... it's supposed to be cations (cat-ions(as in ion)) and anions (an-ions). 💀😂

As a first sokobond game and spacechem fan this game is just perfect :>

Fun fact the helium on the moon is helium 3, a possible source for cheap and easy fusion

1:29 there is a set amount of mass in the universe it does not increase or decrease the mass simply changes form so this would mean a lack of access to this element

Finally, fun chemistry.

"Ohh we unlocked epsilon levels!" "I'm not actually feeling the brown, poo levels" 💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀

4:13 That would be formaldehyde. 7:46 is nitrous acid. Nitric acid has one extra oxygen atom.

If I had this game in college, maybe I wouldn't have failed organic chemistry. 😅

Endangered means it’s on the edge of extinction and extinction means completely gone which means there’s no more of that certain animal

My favorite part of these videos is when Matt’s editors make fun of him 😂

4:12 - CH2O is _formaldehyde_

15:00 And the opposite is cat-ions which is positive because cats make people happy.

I love the chemistry puns

"FuN fAcT wItH mAtT" is actually funny (backround)

I've made all those jokes and then some back in highschool chem, I was really in my element. Though I made sure to only make those jokes periodically. At least I got a reaction from those jokes, my others were inert. That or my other classes were full of nobles...

That last joke was reachin'.

Making tires out of dandelions?! That's wizardry for sure.

I can confirm that out of all my science and maths Alevels I did to get into university, chemistry was the hardest and my worst grade by a long way. First year wasn’t so bad. Second year was me sat in class thoroughly confused

4:14 it is methanal

Those chemistry puns were amazing! you certainly out-punned me.

Need a game full of pun and Matt non stop having fun of reading it

18:52 We still got the brown stuff, so we got to keep everything inside.

This game reminded me of SpaceChem! What a game that one is

The most helium is captured from natural gas. It's considered a big problem in the future because we need it in the spectrometer to check the safety of foods. Even helium leak tests are a problem because they are so wasteful.

Confess you said so many chemistry jokes to get a "reaction" from us

21:03 oh hey an Owl House reference 🦉

7:22 as a student in chemistry its not the fact its a mouth full its based of how they are bonded

matt coming closer from playing Opus magnum

Came to the channel for the games, bridges and Pad, staying for the chemistry puns.

Alternate source for helium (instead of harvesting it from the moon) is tritium, AKA radioactive hydrogen, which decays into helium. Tritium is a fairly common byproduct from cooling nuclear fission reactors, and has a relatively short half-life of 12.5 years. (over the course of 12.5 years, half the tritium in a given volume will decay into helium) The only problem with sourcing helium from tritium is that nuclear reactors are being shut down because people fear a repeat of a certain intentional "accident" with what is now an antiquated reactor design, and because certain groups continue to spread misinformation about the topic.

I'm a bit surprised there was no bridge review.

19:00 OH is the most basic pun. 🤓

If you like this, then the next level of Chem games would be the old "SpaceChem" on steam from 2011, it was legendary on doing this, but also somewhat more difficult. 😉