This is the race for the periodic table.
Where else you can find me:
/ bobbybroccole
/ bobbybroccoli
Big thank you to @CGFigures for the Blender geonodes help: • Blender for Scientists...
Further reading:
“Superheavy” by Kit Chapman. A decade by decade history of the labs who raced to fill out the periodic table. Excellent introductory text.
“The Transuranium People” by Glenn Seaborg, Al Ghiorso and Darleane Hoffman. An insider account of the element race.
“When Science Goes Wrong: Twelve Tales from the Dark Side of Discovery” by Simon Levay. Chapter 12 is dedicated to the Ninov scandal and has some interesting (and antagonistic) interviews with Ninov himself after the scandal.
“The Disappearing Spoon” by Sam Kean. One chapter very briefly touches on the Ninov scandal.
“Committee on the Formal Investigation of Alleged Scientific Misconduct by LBNL Staff Scientist Dr. Victor Ninov”. The Berkeley report on the fraud.
"Observation of Superheavy Nuclei Produced in the Reaction of 86 Kr with 208 Pb", the retracted Ninov paper in Physical Review Letters.
Nucleide chart dataset: people.physics.anu.edu.au/~ec...
Music tracks are a mix from the KZhead Audio Library and Epidemic sound. Tracks in order of appearance:
Know Myself- Patrick Patrikios
Blacksmith - Godmode
Boards - Francis Preve
Fugent - Lupus Nocte
Knowpe - Noir Et Blanc Vie
September Pass - Asher Fulero
Long Road - Futuremono
Stranger Danger - Francis Preve
19th Floor - Bobby Richards
Sun Awakening - Futuremono
Grasshopper - Quincas Moreira
The Beaten Path - Andrew Langdon
Dark Matter - Chasms
Venetian - Density & Time
No Good Right - Freedom Trail Studio
Bonos - Coyote Hearing
MydNyte - Noir Et Blanc Vie
Seductress - Francis Preve
Last Echoes - Nylonia
Hiding DNA - Skrya
Absolutely Nothing - Jeremy Blake
Beyond the Lows - The Whole Other
Control Sample - Skrya
Ether Oar - The Whole Other
Familiar Things - The Whole Other
Fortress Europe - Dan Bodan
Insular - Nylonia
Komorebi - Futuremono
Far Away - Lucention
0:00 The Mistake
6:54 The Sea
13:00 The Captain
20:50 The War
27:15 The Island
34:00 The Miracle
49:30 The Goose-Chase
1:04:25 The Fallout
1:13:15 The End
The rumours are indeed true, I have a Twitter and Patreon. Check the description for the links. Also, ask me questions for my (very delayed) Q&A! FOOTNOTES BELOW, THEY HAVE SPOILERS SO BEST READ AFTER WATCHING ********************************************************** 1. You’ll notice I didn’t mention a neutrino as part of the beta-minus decay. This is partly because I was lazy, but also because the neutrino wasn’t a widely accepted concept at that point, and Fermi actually had a paper rejected for trying to account for its existence. 2. The nuclide half-life data included in my version of the chart was sourced from NuBASE 2020, Chinese Physics C45, 030001 (2021). This dataset distinguishes between known half-lives, estimated half-lives, and nuclides whose half-lives are so small that they are unknown. I removed the nuclides with unknown half-lives for my chart. See the link in the description for an interactive version of the table. 3. Only a select number of isotopes on the nuclide chart have labels. I labelled every stable isotope (in brown), and for the unstable isotopes I only labelled the one with the longest half-life for each element. Note that the isotope with the longest half-life is not necessarily the one that was created for each element discovery. 4. The half-lives on the 3D nuclide chart are not plotted linearly (or logarithmically for that matter) as it would be impossible to show the differences between half-lives in the realm of nanoseconds and half-lives in the realm of years in a way that didn’t completely flatten half the chart. The standard way to plot them is to use the quantile method, where you take all the values (~3000) and rank them from smallest to largest, which the height of each pillar being their rank (so 1, 2, 3…3000). I then made a color gradient using 10 distinct colours, and if a pillar was in the first 10% of the population they got the darkest blue, the next 10% got a lighter blue, etc. 5. The following elements were first synthesized in labs before they were discovered in trace amounts in nature: Technetium, promethium, astatine, neptunium, and plutonium. For many years it was assumed that Uranium was the heaviest naturally occurring element, but this was actually disproven by Darleane Hoffman, when she found trace amounts of Plutonium-244 in ancient pieces of rock. 6. The Lanthanides and Actinides (the two seemingly detached rows of the periodic table) are a bit misleading. They’re put below the main table for space reasons, but really they fit right in the middle of the table next to Barium and Radium, leading to a table that is comically wide, too wide to be printed cleanly in a textbook. It should be noted that the periodic table during Fermi’s time didn’t look like the modern one I showed in the video. For a long time the correct position of the Actinide and Lanthanide groups were a bit of a mystery. It was actually Glenn Seaborg’s suggestion in the mid-1950s that put them where they are today, which was one of his most important contributions to chemistry. 7. Berkeley should technically also have a claim to element 43, but they just didn’t realize it. Emilio Segre, one of Fermi’s protégés, borrowed a spare filter from one of Berkeley’s accelerators. He found a lump of element 43 on it that they had unknowingly created, and he got the credit for detecting it. Many labs other than Berkeley worked to fill in the gaps of the periodic table, as well as filling in the gaps in the nuclide chart. Finding new elements gets you the glory, but finding new isotopes is also important for getting a full understanding of an elements properties. 8.If we’re being technical a superheavy element is one which has an atomic number greater than 103. This term distinguishes them from elements 90-103 which make up the Actinide series. In my version of the periodic table I group every element above 103 in the same category for simplicity, but there are other ways you could group them. If you check with Google for example they actually call 104 to 108 part of the transition metals, and everything higher is considered unknown. In theory everything up to 112 should also be part of the transition metals, but that’s mostly going off of the table’s columns and not so much measured observations. 9. The price for one gram of an element is going to vary a lot depending on the specific isotope. Also Einsteinium isn’t commercially available to buy anyway, and it’s only ever been produced in the order of micrograms, so Jeff Bezos couldn’t just drop $27 million out of nowhere. 10. The California town of Livermore is home to another strange oddity. A firehouse contains the world’s longest burning lightbulb. It’s been going since 1901. It could burn out tomorrow, or maybe even 15754 years from now. 11. Technically it’s 221 totals winners for the Nobel prize in physics now, didn’t beat the announcement for this year. 12. Masataka Ogawa seems to have misidentified element 75 as element 43 back in 1908 (both of which were undiscovered at the point). Both elements are in the same column but different rows, so the chemical properties would be similar. If it had been correctly identified Japan would have 2 elements under its belt, not just 1. 13. During the IUPAC naming section I mention that 9 elements needed official names, even though I only show 8 getting named. When writing this I forgot that Mendelevium was not officially recognized as the name for #101 until 1997, even though Berkeley had the only real claim to it. IUPAC just lumped it in with the rest of the contentious elements (102-106). 14. Lawrence Livermore Labs had in fact teamed up with Berkeley for the discoveries of prior elements, so they were not new to the element hunt. However their team-up with Dubna gave them a huge leg-up over Berkeley and eventually made them the leading US lab in the element hunt. 15. Victor Ninov was fired in May 2002, but the public retraction of the paper did not go through until July 2002. It was only at this point that the media picked up on the story. Berkeley initially did not name Ninov as the reason for the retraction but the media was able to put 2 and 2 together. 16. Flerovium is technically not named after Georgy Flerov. The Americans refused to let an element be named after someone who was integral to developing the first Soviet nuclear weapon, so the element is actually named after the Flerov Laboratory (which itself, it named after the man). 17. I mention in the first chapter that it was a group in Berlin that figured out Fermi’s mistake, and explained it by describing nuclear fission. This group included Otto Hahn and Lise Meitner. Hahn went on to win the Nobel for this, while Meitner did not, despite being nominated a few dozen times (Hahn and Meitner were good friends, so he wasn’t happy about this either). It’s one of the most clear-cut cases of sexism in the Nobel ceremony’s history. To make up for this, she is now the namesake for element 109, one of only two women to have that honour.
My guy Bobby is the only youtuber I've ever met with footnotes that if read aloud would be its own 20 minute video
"or maybe 15754 years from now" gee that seems like an awfully specific number, sure it's just a coincidence though
As someone who doesn't use Patreon - do you have a PayPal Adresse where I can send Donations to? I always thoroughly enjoy your Videos, no matter how long they are.
These footnotes were treat to read.
Getting an element named after you is objectively more pompous than a Nobel prize. Instead of just being on a list, your name will bore chemist students for years, a few of them will certainly ask "wait, why this name?" and one Google later will get amazed by your history
I completely forgot this was about a fake element, I got so invested in the element race
i straight up looked up the periodic table for spoilers
@@tinyboop wow
ikr
Pfp is very fitting
Same.
"Hey, uh, Fermi? I've got good news and bad news. Bad news, you didn't make new elements. Good news, you created a whole new branch of science."
"Even worse news: that whole new branch of science might be going to be used to end the world."
Somewhat better news: It can also be used to make Clean energy when used properly.
@@celldh0825Some in-between news, even then it is risky though
Even worse news: nobody is gonna use it properly
“whoopsie”
science is insanely interesting when you're not being forced to learn it
most things are better that way. I dropped out of spanish after two years and now I’m suddenly interested in learning it with my own time
Yes. being forced to learn is terrible. Learning because you want to is the best feeling in the world.
To be fair... actually _learning_ this stuff is to learn the math behind it, to practice it. You can learn _about_ chemistry, or geology, or aerodynamics, or math, or what have you, from a KZhead video, but you won't actually learn it until they do the experiments and crunch the numbers. The main way we've figured out how to teach that so far is school, unfortunately.
@@incognitoburrito6020true. Like oh my gooood I’m a genius after watching this video I could never learn this much in school! When in reality “learning” is actually a lot harder and unpleasant
@@zyzyx4157but this is learning? This is history. And the sentiment still remains. Learning about history is a lot less boring when you aren’t being forced.
Thank you Fermi for a world without the element "fascium".
Mussoulini really did everything BUT be helpful to the Axis
@@carpetjuise Mussoulini really did everything BUT be helpful
@@kvolikkorozkovMussoulini really did everything BUT
@@ThatWheatMussoulini
@@leo-jo4bt Muss
Nobody has considered the possibility that the reason Ninov kept happening to detect new elements whenever he was around, and the detections stopped when he left, is because his body simply emits exotic matter
I think... I think you're right
Man they should hire more gays then
The dude's an SCP. Maybe he'll get a new number that way
@@justadumdum guys*
@@seltascare4713 "exotic matter." Gays was intentional
It must've been a real roller coaster of emotions to win the Nobel Prize for the elements you discovered, then be told you didn't find new elements, only to then be told you just... exploded a whole atom.
and subsequently fed fire to the war that you needed to flee
E
E
as of the like before mine,this comment has 777 likes.. well not anymore. 😈
Its like winning bronze, then told you actually didn't win it but then your told you won the gold medal.
R.I.P. Albert Ghiorso, the man who discovered 12 elements. 1915-2010.
What a man. Meanwhile I'm still figuring how life works 😂
That poor woman Darlene. They screwed her around early in her career, pushed out again at a landmark moment, only to be kicked in the gut towards the end of her profession. Damn shame.
Can’t believe how people could be so pointlessly malicious towards others. Human malice is truely unbounded 💀
Not shockingly, it still happens.
That's misogyny for ya
What's it called when men are shitty to men?
Damn right. My heart hurts ☹
The only decay chain that Ninov actually witnessed was that of his own credibility.
LMAO THAT'S A GOOD ONE
this is the best comment
OOF!
U must be good with girls considering such jokes :)
hah, very good :D
My takeaway from these documentaries is that the most dangerously tempting source in physics is "I made that shit up"
"Just trust me bro" is always the most tempting soirce of data.
"MY SOURCE IS THAT I MADE IT THE FUCK UP"
@@espaciobarra i understood that reference
It came to me in a dream
It is the most dangerously tempting source in every debate. Which is why finding sources for every random claim is important if you care about it.
21:06 "so true bestie" in regards to an Einstein quote took me tf out
I only caught it on a rewatch and absolutely, lol, me too
Worth noting: While Enrico Fermi discovered Fission, he dismissed it outright until Hahn and Meitner confirmed it themselves, and then he realized what he'd done.
Even though it’s an amazing discovery I feel like if I was him I’d resent it so much
As a bulgarian i just want to say, faking an element is the most bulgarian thing ever
Не само един, а чак пет! Тоз палячо високо се цели.
How😂
@@ariannepady3962 idk ask the bulgarian himself
Sorry mate, unless said Bulgarian is also Jewish, your wrong!
bulgarian
I hope this doesn’t get buried, but my dad was one of those people working at Berkeley at that time! You can see his name on the paper at 48:44, J.B. Patin. As I was watching the video, I was talking to him about it, and he mentioned, “being on a balcony with Sigurd in a city somewhere it Switzerland” when Sigurd confided in him that he looked back at Ninov’s old work. It’s so crazy to get recommended this video after hearing parts of this story FOR YEARS. Amazing video!
Wow that's neat
What's your first name?
@@crabohato4954 mario
@@crabohato4954 ask for his social too while you are at it
That is so cool!!
I’ve watched this video countless time but I just realized that the weird signal you mention at 36:58 is ninov’s attempt to fake 112 you talked about later at 1:07:10. This video is so well made!
came to the comment section excitedly to see if anyone else also picked up on the foreshadowing!
holy shit your right
Oooh, nice catch!
I love how he structured the video like a story. It’s got foreshadowing and everything lol
Sometimes its easy to forget just how fascinating everything is. Being able to have a visual representation of the elements is just a tiny part of what composes everything. It's a bit overwhelming knowing that we live in harmony between so much things that happen all around us without even noticing it.
Imagine being a student while all this was happening, gotta keep re-memorizing the periodic table
Albert Einstein was once asked if he had memorized the speed of light. He said something along the lines of "No. Why bother. If I need it I can just look it up in a book."
Most chemists don't even memorize more than half the periodic table, the half that we do memorize are the common elements such as elements 1-20, halogens, alkali and alkali earth metals, and maybe some common transition metals. That's why there's a periodic table in every lab.
Memorizing random info is for schools to pretend to teach us. Looking up info as you need it is how the real world works
Memorizing the periodic table is about as practical as trying to make a superheavy element
really anything after 90 will probably never be needed in any chemists life
The fact that this entire documentary was filmed on two locations: The periodic table, and the timeline is so impressive, considering how interesting it is
The graphics are indie documentary perfection.
I think he did the Jon Bois Google earth thing
Wow, that's true! I was so immersed that I really didn't realized that. Amazing!
Its done in such an amazing way
@@AlexK-jp9nc what’s that?
I was learning chemistry in school around at that time. We had a periodic table on the wall went until 108 or 109 (I don't remember clearly, I only remember, that bohrium was already there, but I'm not sure about hassium and meitnerium). The one in the textbook went further but elements 110-118 were kinda funny: they had dotted lines and their names were stuff like unununium and ununpentium - basically the Latin name of their number. I asked my teacher, why these ones aren't featured on the periodic table on the wall and why they look and are named different than the others (I also learned Latin in school, so I knew where they names came from). My teacher said, that elements are still discovered to this day and there are some arguments about how they should be named, that's why they use these placeholder names. This was the time, when rutherfordium was still called kurchatovium in some textbooks (I grew up in a former Eastern Bloc country), so we were aware of naming controversies. I've never thought, that my teacher was refering to this, when he was talking about "some arguments"... On the other hand, it's understandable, that he doesn't wanted to talk about a still ongoing scandal in the scientific world with a group of 13 year olds who just started to learn chemistry.
We had that too! It's ironically easier to remember than the new names like ununoctium and stuff. These are the placeholder names, so 103 would be called unilltrium
Amazing way to drag us in - you want to reach somewhere in a raging sea, and you have historical figures of your captain. After you make it, they give you an entertaining story of a dramatic event involving fraud, and then they close the book with the final phrase “We do it because why not?” Amazing video!
Fermi’s story was fascinating like, imagine trying to discover something and then being like “actually you’ve discovered a new form of energy and also have enabled the creation of a great and terrible weapon that will end the war”
"And start a new one"
Or imagine being Flyorov like wow I love reading about my favorite little physics interests I wonder what will happen when we harness the power of the atom... hey why has all publishing on this subject suddenly ceased? ...oh God
Fermi: But I still get to live in the US, right?
The idea that the nuclear bombs stopped the war is untrue. The members of the Japanese war council didn't care at all that two cities had been nuked. The reason they surrendered was in part because of the Emperor's word, and in part feeling confident that the Emperor would not be killed or tried for war crimes and such after the surrender.
WW2 was already over when the soviets entered Berlin. The bombs just ended the "Japanese conflicts" part of the war.
The idea of Seaborg living in old age with an element named after him makes me believe in happy endings
Yuri Oganessian, too.
and for AL it was heartbreaking
Every once in a while I find myself coming back to this video because it's so well made. I never do that for video essays. You've definitely become one of my favorite channels!
This video kicked ass. I’ll admit that it’s been recommended to me by YT for awhile now, and I kept assuming that it wouldn’t be a story interesting enough for an 80min runtime. That was wrong! You told this story beautifully, balancing the technical science of these discoveries with the stories of the humans behind them. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time, as much as I could while operating a sewing machine. And your use of graphics was perfect; just the right amount of graphics organized to keep the beats of the story accessible in mind and provide context to their relation in time. Also the 3D isotope table was such a cool way of visualizing them! 10/10, will watch again.
Fun fact! The University of Texas has a big drum used by the university band at football games. Her name's Big Bertha and she's mildly radioactive because she originally belonged to the University of Chicago and was ALSO under those football bleachers along with Fermi.
That is so brilliant lmao. "Here's Big Bertha, she's radioactive."
I wonder if the drum was named after the bell, which was in term named after Rockefeller's mom
@@westheriault3797 The drum was named after the WW1 German artillery piece nicknamed Big Bertha! (in reality the 42cm kurze Marinekanone 14 L/12)
I initially read this as, "Her name's Big Bertha and she's mildly attractive"...
BIG RADIOACTIVE DRUM CALLED BIG BERTHA
This genuinely felt like a documentary that would be shown in a high school science class, Great Job.
@@lingeshranjith665 cool teacher!
it's much better than most of the docs my school showed us
@thatCapN Crunch just because you had shit high school teachers doesn’t mean we all did
@thatCapN Crunch This was a compliment to BobbyBroccoli. I preferred when we watched a documentary in science class, and we typically watched some sort of NatGeo or Bill Nye. Bill Nye was enjoyable as hell, and the NatGeo stuff was at least well made, at most enjoyable *and* well made. I'm truly sorry that you don't enjoy science, but I do, and that would be due to my highschool science teachers putting on well made and enjoyable documentaries, that this one reminded me of.
@@getbaited2898 Thanks. This was a lot more concise than I was
22:45 $0.13 you say... I may not have a brain gentlemen, but I have an idea.
I mean….👀
"The computer GOOSY runs on was incapable of processing at 40 Mbps" Jesus christ how scarily fast technology has advanced
I love youtube for the sheer fact that you can sit down to watch a highly polished 1+ hour long thoroughly technical documentary, then during the intro you can see "presented by bobbybroccoli". incredible. it's like going to the theatre and seeing "directed by xXsniperwolfXx"
Plenty of famous writers and actors have used fake names, they just tend to choose more normal sounding ones like Marilyn Monroe, John Wayne, or George Orwell
@@pretzelbomb6105or Shania Twain
and then when you've finished the video, and exit out of fullscreen, you see "Cats Being Jerks Supercut" recommended... truly amazing
Thanks u/rimjobsteve
kzhead.info/sun/dZhro9Osgoqidn0/bejne.html
I’m surprised to see this on KZhead but you have done a good job of describing the situation. I was part of the small team at Berkeley doing computer forensic analysis of Victor’s computers to try and figure out what happened. In the end there were text editor log files that showed him manipulating the data to create the results he wanted. I was surprised he was not smart enough to delete those log files.
nice
That's very interesting
Cool
Hi! I'd like to ask you someting if you do not mind (and I hope I am able to express myself properly, sorry if not, I am not a native speaker and not living in an English speaking country): raw data files that I know from (modern) analytical software is hard to manipulate due to having the raw data in databases and not having "plain" data to directly manipulate as well as audit trails. Was the raw data on the software used in your case much easier to manipulate, like, directly just exchanging a few numbers an he (Ninov) was done? (Thanks in advance)
@@fleischidambach He did not edit the raw data, just a text file of the final results.
i dropped out of chemistry but I didn't drop out of watching these videos again and again wish me better luck for next year
This is hands down, one of the best documentaries/video essays i have ever watched in my not very few 13 years of living. I have only recently gotten interested in physics/chemistry and this type of content only pushes my interest further. Thanks for making this!
38:34 “They were on a quest to visit every Italian restaurant in Darmstadt, where they would always order the spaghetti carbonara and rank them.” Well, he might’ve faked the element, but his contribution to popular culture of making the first modern-day Tier List was real.
I need that ranking, i'm from Darmstadt :)
Can I just say how awesome this style of video is where we basically never leave this space and just accumulate more information into it, but it also has a 3d model in it?!
The Jon bois method
kzhead.info/sun/dZhro9Osgoqidn0/bejne.html
it reminds me of prezi but interesting
@@philipwarpzer0630this guy gets it
Jon Bois influence
Fun fact the element missing in the 1930’s period table between 84 and 86 is astatine(AT) which is also the rarest element to naturally find. In fact, they discovered it by making it synthetically and it was later on they found it naturally. To this day only 25 grams maximum has been discovered naturally at once. It is also very much radioactive and has no uses currently but is being tested for research with cancer and is synthetically made. The most “stable” isotope of astatine is astatine-210 which only makes it a little over 8 hours. Its fast decay rate is why it is so rare. Enjoy this random chemistry fact or facts
bro took fake it til you make it literally
That visualization of the elements was actually really well done
Best use of a Segre chart ever
He could have made it better by only revealing the isotopes that had been discovered by that point, but I agree
@@rsyvbh Tracking down the first creation of every isotope would've been extremely time consuming and it honestly wouldn't have made that much of a difference.
What is that orange square below deuterium?
@@scientiaestpotentia2007 most likely a bug, but if you really wanna call it something, it could be a dineutron
I worked in this lab about 10 years after this incident. I have my name on a couple papers, including the 2009 confirmation of element 114 (yes, partially for simply monitoring the cyclotron, although I did some other stuff was well 😂). I was so pleased to see Darleane Hoffman get a positive shout out; she is a wonderful woman and actively participated in lab group meetings while I was around. This incident was never mentioned to me in the course of my work - I learned about it randomly in a separate context while I was working in the lab. I haven’t had a chance to watch the entire video, but look forward to going through in detail.
Darleane Hoffman does seem like a great person. I wish her all the best.
So someone at your lab conned the making of a element? Nice. Should have gone for element 115 instead of 114 but Bob Lazar had dibs on it so its understandable why you backed off on it :)
E
So you know Jan Dvorak?
@@casketman14 yep, and his wife who also worked in the lab.
This video was so compelling that I just had to leave a comment. I loved the analogies of searing and mountaineering, and how you kept cycling back to them. It really helped tie things together (and of course the pun with Seaborg being the captain of the ship lol) This was a great watch, I look forward to seeing what you make in the future!
These documentaries are incredible. I love how you are able to give intuitive explanations of science without distracting from the human side of all of these stories. It's all perfect, the storytelling, narration, visuals, everything. It clearly took a lot of hard work and talent to produce something like this. Thanks for everything you do.
It is INSANE that this video is less than a year old for how classic it is. This type of documentary - as it should be recognized as more than an average KZhead video - has really raised my standards for what content I can officially recommend to people. The visuals, the writing, the audio - all of this was executed to a damn near perfect degree.
felt the same things too
Just over a year when i'm watching, but same thing
I could not have said it better myself. I'm barely halfway through and it occurred to me how awesome the overall quality is.
turtle 🐢
"This data isn't physical, this is goofy" absolutely killed me
more like the data is goosy
goofy ah data
goosy ahh uncle productions
I read this right before he said it 😭
I watched the entire video just to understand this joke
You created a new element: 😀 Just kidding no you didn't: 🙁 You actually found a way to split atoms: 😃 That was just used to create weapons of mass destruction: 😨
Not only is this a fascinating a story; but that's largely because this video is a masterclass in storytelling! Great work.
That part where he said " He didnt create a new element but nuclear fission " gave me goosebumps
Nuclear fishing
The part where he said "it's fission time" also gave me goosebumps
@@rpgamezzz270 And then he radiated o0n everyone. Truly one of the moments of all time
@@rpgamezzz270 the part when i missed the part where thats my problem also gave me some parts of my body part goosebumps
@@rpgamezzz270 When he goes " I'm Fissionus " and he shoots electrons at people while shouting " It's fission time! " is my favorite part.
I was actually so excited when you mentioned we needed a captain I started yelling "SHOW ME SEABORG" and started cheering when I was right.
I'm glad at least one person had this experience
Fermi also made those bad nuclear power reactors that always melt down I dont know if its mentioned in the video
kzhead.info/sun/dZhro9Osgoqidn0/bejne.html
@@BobbyBroccoliwas the pun intended?
@@NAATHAAN Yes very intentionally
I keep coming back to this channel despite being consistently mediocre in my science classes. the way you explain scientific processes just clicks with my brain in a way that my teachers techniques unfortunately don't. and of course, i can't deny i live for drama. thank you Bobby for all that you do!
I just discovered you yesterday and I'm binge watching in between preps for lectures. You have such clarity in discussing scientific ideas plus a real clear voice in story telling. Truly golden! Science is always fascinating, so sad that usually discussions about science (and scientists) are often presented rather boring (especially at schools) when they make such great stories... Keep it up! 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
Bobby doesn't have to explain the science to us, he could just give us a layman's rundown of the drama, but he puts in the work to teach us anyways. 10/10 quality edutainment. We stan a king.
It's like getting a cake with your perfect coffee, with extra whipped cream and a cherry on top _and_ extra whipped cream on your coffee and a side of whipped cream for when you want extra.
@@stylis666 truly a fantastic start to my day
@@stylis666 I drink black coffee and I don't like cake
@@Jeff_Biden But you enjoy quality edutainment apparently, and that's what's important. We stand united!
@@stylis666 i think you just like whipped cream
As a complete layman, that intro portion about Fermi was impossibly fascinating and I thank you for including it.
I'd always known about him and the Fermi Paradox, but very interesting to hear more about him beyond that
Same here! I'd mainly heard his name in reference to the Fermi Paradox. I assumed he had garnered a significant amount of credibility in the scientific community because of the prevalence of that particular theory. I had no idea what his other achievements were though! I have been recommended this video several times but kept getting distracted before I actually watched it. I am genuinely impressed with this creator and very happy with the way he laid out this video!
Yeah it was cool. Interesting that a scientist, not attempting to further war research at all, accidentally pretty much set the Cold War in motion.
It's such a good parallel cause he faked an element too it was just on accident
I'm not chemistry fan myself but this video just made me sit through an 1 hour and 18 min of an element race.... that basically was made for "fun" and curiosity to the point of just lab rivalry and it was just Soo interesting to see, and God if I was completely interested and on those times when it happened I would be bamboozled completely. Just the most interesting video essay I'll see Good job made with the explanations of all of it to the single atom to protons got be whole Island of elements and you just made it so easy to comprehend, making it feel like a soap opera ( at least to me) Hope you keep the good work and keep making videos in in such an interesting way
this is an absolutely fascinating, well explained, and well structured video essay! the graphics and jokes made it an even better watch. literally had me captivated and rewinding to get every detail of the puzzle. thoroughly enjoyed, amazing work.
I genuinely feel so bad for Darlene, all of that hard work for her to get her hopes up and just to find out it was all for nothing.
Sorry im laughing so hard at the pfp from kirby anime
If it's any consolation, she has received a lot more contemporary recognition for her many accomplishments in her career, and thankfully she's still alive and has had the opportunity to actually witness that recognition.
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Btw actually writing to Stalin directly wasn't uncommon in the USSR. My great grandma used to write to him asking him to deploy her on the naval ship instead of as an infantry unit (she was a medic and I shit you not her reason for redeploying her was to meet a captain/admiral and marry him, AND IT WORKED!) Another time she wrote because she wanted a flat in St. Petersburg, which was also granted to her. She wasn't even remotely as important as Georgii Flyorov, it boggles the mind, but people actually just wrote to Stalin to ask him to do some shit, and they would get a response usually. I'm not writing this to undermine your work btw, I love your videos. I just felt like the reality of writing to Stalin was so bizarre I had to share it
@@sovietcupcakes328 Aw come on relax, not a lot of people knew that you could write to Stalin in USSR, Bobby clearly respects people regardless of their origin. You're attributing malice to something where it's most likely just ignorance. I don't think it's a good idea to immediately put a label on the guy and bash him over it, makes you look very immature at least in my opinion
that's cool asf
What the absolute hell. That is one hell of a story.
Damn I should see a movie about this, called "Stalin's Letters" or something like that or a series and this could be the story of one of the chapters
Same in the GDR! People would write to the „Staatsratsvorsitzende“ Erich Honnecker with their problems, like troubles finding an appropriate flat for taking care of a sick family member (huge flat shortage back then), and he or rather his team would help out - no kidding 😅
This was such a fascinating video. As someone who has always admired science from a distance, I was intrigued when I saw it pop up on my recommended. Definitely not disappointed and was so worth the watch! You made everything incredibly easy to understand and it was way more entertaining and digestible than anything I ever learned in my actual chemistry classes. Thank you so much for sharing all this and for putting so much effort into this video! It’s definitely one of the best video essays I’ve seen in a while, fantastic job.
I got this recommended mutliple times and always thought that it wouldnt be something I enjoy I did, amazing video Bobby!
1:12:44 "Sigurd thinks Ninov meant it as a joke." "So you faked discovering a new element, greatly damaging the credibility of your institute and ruining your own career?" "It was just a prank bro" Really good documentary on the discovery of new elements
I think he is the kind of people who do this for the "rush". To see how far you can push doing something "bad" and get satisfaction from it.
E
@@EEEEEEEE E
@@gamelaine E
He was just doing a bit of trolling
I haven't been filled with this much righteous indignation about the physical sciences since the Rosalind Franklin thing -R
BWAHAHAHA
you guys were the last channel i expected to comment on this video tbh
I don't know what that is. Can you enlighten me?
Since your entire channel functions on righteous indignation, I'm confident that you will not only be okay, but you will find a way to turn into a deconstructive rant on this, that or the other.
didn't expect YOU here, but hey that's really cool
Your visual layout of the periodic table completely changed the way I, a layman who missed a ton of school, understand chemistry. It's awesome, and looks like it took forever. Perfect periodic table classroom poster.
The graphics for this video is insane. I am actually in awe of this work
Thanks, the beta decay and alpha decay explanation was responsible for me getting an A+ in chemistry, thanks
Try and go for extra credit and show your teacher this video
Excellent work deku im proud of u
Whats the timestamp?
@@CyberedCake 2:20
@@dungeonfungeongaming9971 I found it. I hadn't watched the video in a few months but happened to scroll past the comments again and didn't realize it was only three minutes in.
Seaborg getting his name on the periodic table honestly choked me up a bit. I can only imagine the emotions he must have felt. The pride of seeing his legacy standing hand in hand with so many other amazing pioneers of science. What could compare?
kzhead.info/sun/dZhro9Osgoqidn0/bejne.html
I mean head from a goth chick is pretty epic bro
@@Lunar-fx1ukOr like a really really good tuna melt update: had a shitty tuna melt. I think I'd rather have head from a goth chick now.
@@chxrryfxygo3630 but what if you got shitty head from a goth chick?
@@chxrryfxygo3630Idk, a perfect hot pocket tops that tbh
For those thinking of getting it, i can only highly recommend the book "Superheavy" by Kit Chapman. I bought it after watching this video a couple of times, and ive already read it twice. Over about 300 pages it gives an amazing story of how all the transuranium elements were made, and is easy to understand, even if you only know the basics of chemistry
I love this channel so much because i enjoy learning about these types of situations but i dont know much about science and you always portray it in a way thats easy to understand and doesnt feel like youre assuming your audience already knows how this stuff works
I feel really bad for Enrico Fermi. Dude accidentally invented the scariest weapon we've ever made.
@Youngboy Better Let's take the time to be accurate here. This is a serious video. He actually said "È l'ora di Fermi!"
@@allanturmaine5496 shut up creeper
He also invented the cleanest energy source we have even to this day. The world refuses to use the nearly unlimited clean energy, yet threatens to use it to destroy the world. The same thing will happen with any future energy sources unless we change.
It is a huge leap to go from observing fission (he wasn't even trying) to building a bomb. Might as well blame the Curies then.
@@michaelrhodes258 Science isn't the problem, humans are.
That was awesome. Definitely one of the best videos I've seen in a long time.
Agree!
same
sup dawg
Heisenberg at home
YEAH!
Bro, I absolutely love that you are clearly a Jon Bois fan! I’m so glad that his style of video has inspired others to do the same! You do a very good job of bringing your own identity to it too! Thank you for your contribution to telling important and impactful stories!
This was such an excellent and interesting documentary. KZhead has come so far as a platform. Thank you for spending so much time and effort on putting this story out there for free.
God, Darleanee's story feels me with such rage but also pride, they threw whatever they could at her but still couldn't knock her down. What an icon, full respect for her only.
E
Hearing her story was just so... unbelievable. Like the shit she had to endure was *cartoonishly evil*. Like Jesus christ how can people be that blind and cruel to someone?? So happy she finally got the credibility she deserved in the end though.
Imagine the advances mankind could have made if there wasn't this academic segregation throughout most of our history, it's devastating to see what these great minds had to go through.
It's good that this idea is upsetting people but unfortunately as I listened to her story it was very much "Well yeah, that's just how we get treated in an academic setting. Do you think this is unique? It is the standard to discredit and segregate women in stem." Very frustrating but don't mistake it for an extreme case, this is just what academia is for us
@@driphearts8035 Everytime I think "no one could be that cartoonishly evil" it's almost always followed by "oh wait"
Holy crap, the “atomic sea” visualization helped me understand the periodic table and how isotopes of elements work fully. This should be shown in every chemistry class ever. I had a very good chemistry teacher in high school but never fully understood the relationship between stability and neutron values of any given isotope. Also, radioactive decay chains, how they jump between rows, etc. I knew all of that enough to pass a test, but seeing it like your visualization really helped me understand it. Thank you!! Edit, this is one of the best KZhead videos I’ve ever watched. Interesting, informative, well presented. A+++ to you, Mr. Broccoli. Looking forward to more.
They actually do, under an inverted framework: the valley of stability. Remember: stability = low energy state, the lower the energy (valley) the more stable they are
same
Yeah, 3D graphs generally should be used everywhere. They weren't in the past because they really require video (and 3D visualization capacity) to be appreciable.
I wanna build one
Holy smokes, what a documentary! Agree with OP. Top notch for content and explanatory viz
Probably the best animation and storytelling I have ever seen on KZhead. Just discovered your channel with this video but I will absolutely subscribe to it. Thanks for the amazing content !
This video is so well made, and the story is told so that it never feels boring or confusing. Amazing video.
I am a chemistry teacher who will be showing this film every year from now one during the isotopes unit - such amazing visualization. Thank you for making this!
Please come back again to this comment and report on how the students respond 🙂👍
They loved it, they made me rewind to rewatch the isotope graph being built scene
@@shelllee5926 that's great to hear! 🙂
@@shelllee5926 Amazing, glad I spent extra time on that
i wish you were my teacher
the quality of these videos is honestly beyond youtube, feels like a production team, incredible work.
exactly!!
Can't believe how amazing and straightforward the storytelling is.
@@twotails im honestly more in awe at the amazing visuals
It’s pretty standard
@@-i6313 💀™️🦷
i never thought that i would rewatch an hour long video about chemistry, but its just to entertaining this is probably my favourite video on youtube i love it
This is possibly one of the best video essays on KZhead
I haven't heard of most of these elements above 100 since I was a kid. Back then they were named by their atomic numbers - it's surreal and in a way, feels like watching a kid grow up to see "Ununoctium" finally get an official name. Why are atoms making me emotional.
right? not the same, but i remember being in middle school and manually drawing in 108 when it was confirmed because our school couldn't afford to buy a new periodic table, especially when the element hunt was ongoing and fruitful. I remember being so insanely impressed even by the concept of the element hunt :)) (
atoms always make you emotional, snöiller. any partner breaking up with you, any person dying. those are atoms making you emotional.
Element 126 might be the way to unlocking FTL, or Fusion. Exciting to see what future to behold...
@@leonmic2146 True, maybe even discover a better element to hold electricity, making some si-fi tech possible, like hoverboards that cannot exist because we dont have batteries powerfull enough for it.
E
Can I just say, the creative decision to subtly coat this beautiful educational video into an outrage take of "that b*tch did WHAT", so beloved by youtube algorithms, is GENIUS. No way it would have been thrown into random recommended otherwise. Thank you for the video, you've done a tremendous work.
I was just thinking this! I was halfway through the video and laughing about the ridiculous amount of context when it hit me:
wait what, i clicked the video because i wanted to hear about physics
I call it the Jon Bois Style, and I mean that positively. Find a particularly interesting topic for yourself, something you can sink your teeth into, like famous athletes named "Bob". Then present your information mainly through, voiceover to avoid distractions (and cut down on editing). You use simple infographs and images to help explain concepts without breaking flow, and a couple of easy listening instrumental tracks to enhance mood, while keeping attention. Boom, you got something you can either listen to as a podcast style, watch as a documentary, and you walk away knowing something you haven't before. SummoningSalt also does this but includes video clips of speed runs. Defunctland is also starting to do this with his video essay on lines/queueing. I personally love this long format, single subject vids
KZhead's reccomendation engine had been shoving this video in my throat for a while but I hand't seen it. I wish I had seen it earler. This is by far the best video-documentaries I have seen in a very long time.Subscribed!
This is one of the best documentaries I've ever watched. Thank you for this gift of a production. Much love.
You really never disappoint. Another fantastic deep dive into science history in a way that I just don't see anyone else doing. It was a privilege to contribute even in the smallest way.
my knowledge of science isn't too strong so I'm not sure exactly which graphics you've helped with, but I'm sure you did a great job because all of this is brilliant 💯💯
Sick animation
These videos remind me of historia civilis a little bit in terms of delivery and music
I strongly agree
@@orangeants I think he helped with the graph
I’m only 12 minutes in, and I have to say this “mountain trek” visualization is an absolutely fascinating way to tell this story. Seriously this is one of the best science video essays I’ve ever seen! Amazing!
I'm basically at the same point and all I can think is there is a stability valley with peaks of instability all around. The Uranium chasm could also be described as a rock scree, an unstable location where every step forces you down the slope. I'm still early in so maybe I'll come back and delete this or offer further thoughts. But as a first impression I like things falling down to a point of stability for my visualization. (that said loving the video and the way its presented it's still super interesting and cool, have just hit subscribe)
You should check out the other BobbyBroccoli videos, like the 2-part Bogdanov Brothers epic or the 3-part Jan Hendrik Schon Nobel-fraudster expose! I'm a total bimbo, but his method of visualized storytelling helps me follow every step of his narrative without losing my attention in the tech explanations.
i am 1 hour in its Soo good
yeah... that's about the point i was at when i just went ahead and smashed that subscribe button
It looks like it's inspired by Jon Bois on the youtube channel Secret Base. Their "history of the seattle mariners" has a similar visualization
Usually I put videos on in the background while doing other stuff but this is too fascinating and the visualisations are top notch. Can't look away, 10/10!
" I don't think my audience has much overlap with football fans" proceeds to reference chart party which is basically a style guide for the creator's videos.
(It's a joke)
@@BobbyBroccoli Egg on my face, I get it now! Can't believe you replied to this comment while I'm still watching the video, what a legend.
@jjscheckel2 No worries! Most of my early fans knew me as being inspired by Jon so it was a nod to that
What amazes me the most is that, of all the things you could fake, he choose one where scrutiny and you know, peer review, was bound to happen!
the weird thing is how long it took for anyone to check his work imo
@@marnenotmarnie259 he was trusted in the lab and people didnt even consider it being faked for a second until they realised it was a lie
@@NflCfbFan Reminds me of the guy who almost faked his way to a Nobel prize
To me its weird that he wrote some software that as part of its audit logs notes a manual change when he intended to manually change the data. Like did he just forget?
You guys missed the part that explains this... He was guessing at what he thought was a sure bet. Fake the data and assume that someone else was going to find it anyways and he would get credit like he had before. They were taking his word for what he was claiming which is not good checks, and he was gambling that someone else would find it. He lost that bet when nobody could find it. So he was not so much relying on nobody trying to reproduce so much as he was betting that it would actually work and that they would just not check his to see if he had actually done it like before.
I remember asking my chem teacher in highschool what's up with the elements that is separated from the others and she answered "it's complicated and not real just ignore it," I guess she is kinda right
Well this isn't totally true. The block of elements that's separated from the rest of the table in its usual form is called the Lanthanides and Actinides, or Rare Earth Metals, or f-block. It does contain some of the trans-Uranic elements (those with an atomic number higher than Uranium, which are all at least somewhat unstable). From Mendelevium (101) onward, these elements are only produced via synthetic nuclear fusion as described in this video, so only a couple atoms of each have ever existed. (Fermium (100) has been found in mushroom clouds and Einsteinium (99) and lower can actually be produced in measurable quantities in nuclear reactors (albeit this is literally micrograms).) The actual reason for the f-block is different: the periodic table is arranged so elements with similar properties are in the same column, and in chemistry a lot of properties are determined by the outer electron orbitals. The noble gasses have full outer orbitals so they are very averse to reacting at all. The Halogens (column before) are only missing one electron so they react well with the first column where elements have one extra electron. But orbital shells aren't the same size. There's the s orbital, p, d, f, and others, but each has a minimal energy level and so only occurs in atoms with enough electrons. The s orbital can only hold 2 electrons and is present in all shells. This is why the first row of the periodic table only has two elements. The p orbital however can hold 6 electrons, but it only exists in the second shell and onward. This is why the second row and onward have the block on the left of the periodic table. It's also why helium is sometimes placed over Beryllium instead of Neon. The d orbital holds 10 electrons but only occurs starting at the 4th shell; it corresponds to the central block of the table, the Transition Metals. The f orbital is the last one which occurs in any element we've discovered or synthesized, holding 14 electrons starting in the 6th shell. The exact numbers involved here come from the quantum numbers of electrons in a spherical potential. IIRC element 121 would theoretically have one g-orbital electron, but d and f orbital electrons are less chemically significant than s and p, and for elements with very high atomic numbers their chemistry is even less cut and dry.
facts
Also, another reason the f-block wasn't always included wasn't just because some of the elements in it are not naturally occuring or because the "Rare Earth Metals" are actually rare, but rather because their chemical properties are so similar that it was actually difficult to separate them historically.
@@hacatu bro a genius...........
@@hacatu i would put a nerd emoji but thats interesting
How does this channel not have more subscribers the quality of content coming out of this feels like a 5 million subscriber channel. Ridiculous I love it.
This video is amazing! I keep coming back to this video every now and then, props to Bobby for making this!
Video reveals Ninov is a Blugarian - Me: "woooooow never knew we had such a modern chemistry superstar" Video reveals Ninov is a master fraudster - Me: "Dude I'm not even surprised..."
He did still co-discover 3 elements which is quite an achievement. Sad he had to resort to fraud in the end.
@@ivanb493 actually only 2 (I count 110 and 112 as halves even if he doesn't deserve it because he tried to fake those too)
@@arkcliref ninov was also on the 111 paper
Where's Blugaria?
@@BoyProdigyX I never even knew that was a country.
36:55 Rewatching this for the n-th time and I just now realized what the "weird reading" meant, since it's thrown in so off-handedly, and then mentioned way later at 1:07:09. That's exactly why I love your documentaries so much - the attention to detail is staggering.
Chekhov's weird reading
kzhead.info/sun/dZhro9Osgoqidn0/bejne.html
i'm on my third or fourth rewatch of this documentary now, and it's as compelling, informative, and entertaining this time as it has been every time. i saw this vid recc'd to me for months, and finally that simple yet intriguing thumbnail + title got me to click... and i've NEVER been so glad to have checked out a random video on a whim! all of your documentaries are so well made, thrilling, and i learn so so much from them (and every rewatch i pick up on something new, too). incredibly excited for your next project, as i was when i saw your most recent one drop. i'm more hyped up about these videos than i am about most other kinds of media announcements and stuff. this is top tier, 11/10 content. every time i see the thumbnail for this video pop up in my reccs, it's a battle in my mind for whether i should watch it AGAIN... and it's a battle i don't mind losing from time to time!
I was just thinking about this video the other day, I'm so glad I found it again. You taught me so much in such an understandable way. Bless you, fr
The nuclide chart reveal was an absolute masterpiece in video production, it's details like this that make you my favorite content creator!
And it looks so beautiful! You can immediately see why nature isn't as random and chaotic as we often observe it. Everything you see going on in the chart has fairly simple logic to it that (in certain aspects) isn't much different from the simple physics we see in everyday life. The bigger something is, the easier it falls apart and it seems that the right ratio of neutrons to protons helps keeping things together, but too much neutrons will make it unstable also. Which makes total sense to me. You can build a wall with bricks and cement, but just using one or the other will fall apart easily. And when your wall is tiny, extra neutrons will just make it wobbly. And it never occurred to me that with a higher number of protons the stable elements have a few more neutrons than protons. It's very intuitive and easy to understand and seeing the alpha and bèta decay on the chart made so much sense to me. It's super obvious that it works like that, but when do you ever picture it like that in the context of other elements around it? Schools should beg mr. Broccoli to let them use that chart to explain the periodic table and radioactivity. You could show that chart to a 10 year old and they'd understand and be thrilled that they do.
Stuff like this is amazing
I studied graphic design, I've always been fascinated by information visualization, and these graphics really scratch that itch for me. I love how it suddenly opens up a whole new world of understanding. I can't seem to completely process stuff until I connect it to something visual.
had me pausing the video to go look it up. We’d all seen the periodic table hanging up in classrooms but damn, there really shoulda been one of these. Might’ve been in a different career
@@cs40660 if brocc starts making merch, this should be a poster.
A fun fact, at 14:40 if you translate Sjöberg into English, it actually means 'lake mountain'. So Seaborg is actually a really good compromise for Sjöberg if you wanted to anglicize the name, keep the some of the meaning of it, but also preserve the general sound of it.
Reminds me of the Harry Hole situation in the movie for The Snowman, where they went the other way around and instead of translating it to Harry Hill or preserving the original pronunciation, they spent the whole movie having Fassbender being called something sounding like "hairy hole".
It just goes to show that the majority of government employees are and forever have been roughly equivalent to Starbucks baristas
Ellis island officials never actually changed the names, this is a myth. The immigrants themselves would, as it would help assimilate them and make their names more appealing to employers
@@tommymaddox6785 don't worry the 1177 hill gang will catch em out back (The sea people's from bronze age collapse fame, they were hole people)
Not only that, but sjö can mean both lake and sea, so that puts it even closer.
i saw this last year as soon as it was published ,im from italy precisely Modena and i go to enrico fermi's school ,after this video i got inspired to do the chemestry triennium . Bobby you lighted the spark for my love for chemistry and curiousity to it . Stay safe and keep doing good content 👍
Enrico Fermi Modena it's the school's name
You made me love chemistry and start my curiosity for it
This is the first hour long video that kept me hooked the entire time
This 3D visualization of the periodic table has enlightened me, full stop. It's such a beautiful way to show all of the known atoms, I wish I had seen this when I was taking chemistry in school!
38:25 - So, I met and knew Victor in 2007 while I was a flight instructor in Oakland, California. While I knew (from Wikipedia) the story of the Element 118 debalce, I never asked him about it. For what it's worth, he is absolutely a "dude you'd like to have a beer with" (although not before or during any flying), highly intelligent, and would give you the shirt off his back if you asked him. And while what occurred with 118 was definitely bad, I am still honored to count him as a friend.
All the story would have not happened if he was suspicious or anything like that 😂
@@basharahmed2249 - a very fair point. Nevertheless... 🙂
i feel like most people, even if they've done shitty things, are still gonna be polite/friendly to you if you interact with them. i dont think that's something notable, that's just a standard you should hold people to. it would be more notable if he was an asshole to you
Charm is a great asset for manipulators. I doubt he would have been able to decieve everyone if he was generally mean, disrespectful or even reserved/shy.
@@roelin360 there’s that 3 part video on this very channel about one of the biggest scientific fraud done by a reserved guy
I did not expect to have tears in my eyes multiple times in a documentary about the periodic table and more specifically the Ninov scandal lmao Bravo