@@julieezold93I did the math on the neutron flux trap, if we take 23 days as a minimum, multiply by 4, that's 92 days. 60*60*24*92=7,948,800 seconds. that times 2.5*10^15 equals to 1.99*10^22 or 19.9 sextillion neutrons.
This channel has never succumbed to any TH-cam bs that changed its style. It's pure content getting to the point immediately. Actually rigorous documentary work and investigation. Brady continues to ask exactly the right questions of experts for the viewer at exactly the right time. Zero decline. If anything it's only gotten better since 2008.
We can thank the patrons for that who help fund this labor of love of chemistry. I can't fault people who look for sponsors to help produce videos, a lot of youtubers are people who, this is their main source of income. Martyn is still a professor and i doubt he'd quit teaching to become a full time youtuber. Though the idea of him playing minecraft is funny. "Oh look, i found some lapis lazuli. The history of lapis lazuli is really quite interesting..." And then he stops playing for several minutes to educate the viewers. "Here we have found a block of iron ore. Iron is an element with a long history and a wide range of applications..." And then stands there holding an ore block telling us everything he knows about elemental iron. Best minecraft player ever.
“It’s ya boi, Marty P coming at you for another banger of a video! Hit that like button and don’t forget to subscribe! Before we start this video on Silver today, I’ve got to give a big shoutout to this channels sponsor: Raid Shadow Legends! Coincidentally they’re also giving out free silver if you sign up with my link below!”
It's by no means as expensive as californium, but one of the byproducts of that process, iodine-131, is used to treat thyroid cancer and hyperthyroidism. It's even used in veterinary patients!
I had I- 131 twice for that. Saved my life. Ironically I got sick from DOE research as employee under EEOICA act and was cured by the very thing that made me ill. 🙃
@@AboveEmAllProduction Uh...buddy if you are buying/eating iodized salt that has been iodized with I-131, you better go to the doctor asap. 🤣 That is a highly radioactive isotope and it's only used for specific scientific or medical procedures. 131 is not the common and abundant main isotope.
How she casually describes the element as "pretty dosey" to say that it will probably kill you if you hold it for too long. Nuclear chemists are badass!
I imagine that radiation workers see it as more of a frustration, since they are required to stop working after a very small dose, much less than would actually pose a real health risk.
I think people hopefully learned their lessons from the radium girls. I wish they didn't have to die such horrific deaths for us to take slow radiation poisoning seriously.
Hello professor and Brady. For the past five years I have gone through and watch each of your videos at least five times. I have become disabled and your explanation of chemistry has just absolute piqued my attention. And I so look forward to everyone of your new videos. They are exciting and for the few minutes that your videos Last, I am out of pain. Professor I know that you're not able to do what you used to do. I am in the same boat I can't walk anymore. My hands my feet are in searing pain. But as I just said, watching your videos takes me out of that pain for just a few minutes and you have my brain totally engulfed in what you're teaching. Please never stop. I don't know how much longer I have to live but I do live for not only my Lord and Savior Christ Jesus. But, I live to hear what you and Brady and your staff, all of the students that you're teaching all of the new physicists chemists your entire team that you work with is just absolutely exciting. I pray for you professor and your team. And please stop making Messes in the lab.🙃 God bless you and keep up the wonderful wonderful videos they're exciting to me. God bless you Professor God bless you Brady and God bless you Neil and all of the rest of your staff...!!!🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏
I have a Master’s degree in Chemistry, and find all your videos to be tremendously pertinent and entertaining. I regularly learn new things from them. I can’t emphasize enough how positive this is for science and for the human race in general to have the means (internet and YT) to reach everyone with this kind of information. Thank you.
Interesting timing on this video. I’ve literally been working for over a year on a project at work to replace our 10 year old Cf-252 neutron source that we use to calibrate neutron dosimeters. Cf-252 is now insanely expensive. 1500 microgram source is a cool $1.3 million
This is such a fantastic video. Oh my gosh. Why have I only now seen this? What incredible footage, incredible scientists, incredible analysis, such deep insight and access and the always extraordinary professor, all coming together to form this amazing piece of scientific video LITERATURE. This, in my mind, is better than a journal review article. This is better than art. This should be considered on the same level as a review article as far as I'm concerned. Wow. Thank you, to everyone that made this possible. And to youtube - get your algorithm together and spread this to more scientists. We don't want BS, this is the antithesis. How it has escaped me and millions of others for years now is disturbing, because what an amazing production. BRILLIANT WORK!!
I work as a Carpenter in a lot of Cement plants. They have these restricted areas where the machine is housed so no one gets near it. So cool to understand how the analysis happens during the separation process.
Im a grad student who currently works with Cf-249 among other rare isotopes like this. Very excited to see this video! If anyone has questions feel free to ask!
I've watched this like 20 times in the past 2 years. I love how fluent the knowledge is, and the further I go in science, the more I understand and see without thinking. This is amazing. And to be fair, the first year I was in lots of biology with some chemistry. Wasn't sure what i'd want to get into.
I wonder how much Californium actually exists around the world at the moment... And also at the mention of Fermium a few times in the video, I hope at some point a visible amount of it can be created enough to be photographed before it decays.
@@mastershooter64 The known picture of einsteinium was 300 micrograms of einsteinium-253, which has a half life of only 20 days. 300 micrograms is about 0.0003 grams. So, I still have hope that we will possible be able to assemble at least 100-300 micrograms of fermium-257!
@@zygarde718 They also believe, with a high enough neutron flux (1000× greater than any created so far in any reactors), it may be possible to skip past the "fermium gap" they call it (along with another "gap" at around element 106), and create macroscopic amounts of even higher elements (maybe copernicium, nihonium, and flerovium, in the island of stability)! It is all theoretical, but it is a spark of hope.
I also wonder if someone could make some sort of timelapse that somehow shows elements decaying into other elements. Of course, the elements would have to be distinguishable from each other, so probably a noble gas decaying into an alkali metal or halogen (fluorine and chlorine would be hard to see). The isotope may have to have a long half life in order to have an amount of it to be timelapsed, so it may take a long time (maybe years).
These videos remind me how lucky I was to get the chance to do research at Lawrence Berkeley Labs as an undergrad; just the level of science and history oozing from the walls is crazy. No jokes, Fermi's old cyclotron is just laying outside in the center of a round about, and there are reserved parking spots for Nobel laureates in front of every other building. Hope I can visit Oak Ridge one day (and Nottingham too!!).
It's always a treat to see a new video from this channel, and as an undergrad recently studying actinide complex chemistry the information on a californium metallocene was fascinating!
Always on the mark and very informative. I love these videos, been watching them for some time now. In a perfect world, this kind of content is what TH-cam would really have been created for, not all of that other mindless rubbish that you typically find.
As a biochemist, I have deep respect for that chromatography. It is next level. I thought separating materials differing by less than 1 kDa to be high resolution. This atomic weight separation puts that to shame! Not to mention the ion exchange chemistry involved.
Depends on what elements are in it, what the half-life is. The dime itself would be silver if it's dated 1964 or earlier, so even if it's not radioactive it's worth holding onto.
Quick Google suggests it lasted 4 minutes and only silver coins could be done which they did a lot of. Though its done in some dedicated device and not a reactor still cool though.
How do they change the lightbulbs in the cubicles? What sort of hazmat gear is required to do that? Is it the janitor’s job or does it require a PhD? Fascinating lab and chemistry, brilliant staff, amazing content as usual. Thanks for the insight into a local facility!
I’ve been a geophysicist for over 4 decades and relish these presentations. I feel like a sponge trying o to absorb all that I can…as I once did as a starry eyed 12 year old. The host captures the enthusiasm for science that is the fuel that powers curiosity.
The Oak Ridge visit was one of my favourite videos, I really loved how detailed the description of the reactor was, and ofcurse seeing the huge blue cherenkov radiation was the best
The way the ORNL scientist is describing the process sounds simple, but I can't even begin to fathom how it was developed. All I know is that lanthanides and actinides are something that none of the students in the chemistry fraternity I was a part of really ever discussed, it was predominantly organic chemistry because that was huge at the time. These heavy elements were like "yeah they're there, they play by different rules", and that was it.
I believe that tiny amounts of californium is used in certain designs of home fire alarms. I'm not sure exactly how it functions but I believe it is to do with how it detects the smoke.
Questions about the container: if I understand correctly the polymer stops the thermal neutrons and the tungsten is to shield gamma. I noticed this independently when running thoriated tungsten rods under a spectrometer it was able to almost entirely shield my 1uCi cs-137 sample from detection. Ironically 2.5 mm of W seems equivalent to 12mm of Pb.
Los Alamos National Laboratory is located in my birthplace/hometown. I was never sure what was going on at the sister lab in Oak Ridge. This video helped fill in the gaps.
It would be interesting to get a color correction card into one of those shielded workrooms, then use software to color adjust for that greenish glass so you could see what it looks like if you were in there.
Wonderful video, as usual. I have a quick question: At the 3:41 mark, there are two half-lives of Cf-249 given, each with relatively different durations. Why are there two listed? Thanks!
Not in to chemistry or the elemental sciences. I was unaware that there was active process' to engineer and redesign the elements. Wonders how this fits into the science-fiction of product replicators for the future?
Cf is used to investigatie explosives f.e. whether a grenade is filled with a conventional explosive charge or with a chemical or biological charge. The inspection effectiveness of ²⁵²Cf is useful with a thermal flux greater than or equal to 10⁷ n/cm² s. This means that there will then be about 22 micrograms of ²⁵²CF in the detector, corresponding to an activity of 436 MBq. Furthermore ²⁵²CF is used in clinical neutron therapy for cancer treatment (i.e. brachytherapy).
Californium 249 appears to have two half-lives, the first one (351 y) likely being the correct one. Or there is some really interesting chemistry / physics I don't know about this isotope :)
Cf-249 can exist in two states, ground and excited. The same particles but arranged differently, a 'nuclear isomer'. In extreme cases like one isotope of tantalum, the ground state is insanely radioactive while the excited state can be stable for millions of years. It's curious stuff.
Hello, you do not know me but I believe you taught a certain CHAP and now he is my chemistry teacher. He often uses your videos in our class and I hope to see more videos soon :)
I love the Professor's White hair and I love his knowledge when it comes to the Elements , Gases and Metals including Arsenic , Copper , Antimony , Californiaum, Uranium ect... I love the Periodic Table of the Elements and learning about the Periodic Table
Did anybody else notice that 249Cf was twice on the half-life list at 3:43? One with 45 microseconds and one with over 13 years. Can anybody explain what that means or was is just a mistake?
That's for two energy levels, 'nuclear isomers' of the same isotope. One has a higher energy than the other and decays in a different fashion with a different half life. The higher energy state is often labelled as 'm' for 'metastable'.
Could you please do a video on how the current Ukraine-Russia war and the sanctions against Russia affect research into these elements? Dubna was mentioned in this video as well as another laboratory in Russia. Has the shipping of samples between the USA and Russia ceased, hampering research?
3:42 into vid: it lists 249Cf twice; first time, it says half-life 351 years; second time it says half-life 45μs. That's because with the second mention, they mean californium-252m (252mCf); m means metastable, or isomer; such things ar usually very short-lived.
The windows are filled with mineral oil and probably made of lead glass themselves. Both are slightly yellow, so at this thickness it becomes pretty dominant
One is for the ground state of Cf-249, the other for a higher energy excited state, which decays to ground by emitting a gamma photon. It is less stable. These are known as 'nuclear isomers'.
This seems like a pretty fulfilling field to work in. Not many people get to say that they make totally manmade radioactive elements in their lifetime. Might as well be a spacecraft engineer.
That lady from the californium factory was very good at explaining their process! She seems to love her job.
Thank you! I do thoroughly enjoy my work at ORNL.
@@julieezold93 Thanks for sharing your knowledge ! So the biggest consumer of cf252 is thermofisher for their cba ?
@@julieezold93 Outstanding explanation of the facility and process. Well done.
And loving that scarf!
@@julieezold93I did the math on the neutron flux trap, if we take 23 days as a minimum, multiply by 4, that's 92 days. 60*60*24*92=7,948,800 seconds. that times 2.5*10^15 equals to 1.99*10^22 or 19.9 sextillion neutrons.
This channel has never succumbed to any TH-cam bs that changed its style. It's pure content getting to the point immediately.
Actually rigorous documentary work and investigation. Brady continues to ask exactly the right questions of experts for the viewer at exactly the right time.
Zero decline. If anything it's only gotten better since 2008.
We can thank the patrons for that who help fund this labor of love of chemistry.
I can't fault people who look for sponsors to help produce videos, a lot of youtubers are people who, this is their main source of income.
Martyn is still a professor and i doubt he'd quit teaching to become a full time youtuber.
Though the idea of him playing minecraft is funny.
"Oh look, i found some lapis lazuli. The history of lapis lazuli is really quite interesting..."
And then he stops playing for several minutes to educate the viewers.
"Here we have found a block of iron ore. Iron is an element with a long history and a wide range of applications..."
And then stands there holding an ore block telling us everything he knows about elemental iron.
Best minecraft player ever.
@@glenngriffon8032 these videos could start with 4 minutes of preamble about what we are here to see
Excellent observation.
@@guillaume5313 I think he was speculating what the professor would be like. But in fact he is not a TH-camr.
“It’s ya boi, Marty P coming at you for another banger of a video! Hit that like button and don’t forget to subscribe!
Before we start this video on Silver today, I’ve got to give a big shoutout to this channels sponsor: Raid Shadow Legends! Coincidentally they’re also giving out free silver if you sign up with my link below!”
It's by no means as expensive as californium, but one of the byproducts of that process, iodine-131, is used to treat thyroid cancer and hyperthyroidism. It's even used in veterinary patients!
That I-131 is made in a very different way so it is pharmaceutically pure.
Yeah they put it in salt
I had I- 131 twice for that. Saved my life.
Ironically I got sick from DOE research as employee under EEOICA act and was cured by the very thing that made me ill.
🙃
@@AboveEmAllProduction Uh...buddy if you are buying/eating iodized salt that has been iodized with I-131, you better go to the doctor asap. 🤣 That is a highly radioactive isotope and it's only used for specific scientific or medical procedures. 131 is not the common and abundant main isotope.
@@Nudnik1 wow, what research were you doing?
How she casually describes the element as "pretty dosey" to say that it will probably kill you if you hold it for too long. Nuclear chemists are badass!
I imagine that radiation workers see it as more of a frustration, since they are required to stop working after a very small dose, much less than would actually pose a real health risk.
We take radiation safety very seriously-we have a healthy respect for it.
@@julieezold93 thank you for giving us a glimpse of your fascinating work and thanks for taking the time to go through the comments!
@@unvergebeneid you're welcome
I think people hopefully learned their lessons from the radium girls. I wish they didn't have to die such horrific deaths for us to take slow radiation poisoning seriously.
Julie is great at explaining the whole process, not dumbing it down too much but not getting very techincal either. I loved this whole video!
Hello professor and Brady. For the past five years I have gone through and watch each of your videos at least five times. I have become disabled and your explanation of chemistry has just absolute piqued my attention. And I so look forward to everyone of your new videos. They are exciting and for the few minutes that your videos Last, I am out of pain. Professor I know that you're not able to do what you used to do. I am in the same boat I can't walk anymore. My hands my feet are in searing pain. But as I just said, watching your videos takes me out of that pain for just a few minutes and you have my brain totally engulfed in what you're teaching. Please never stop. I don't know how much longer I have to live but I do live for not only my Lord and Savior Christ Jesus. But, I live to hear what you and Brady and your staff, all of the students that you're teaching all of the new physicists chemists your entire team that you work with is just absolutely exciting. I pray for you professor and your team. And please stop making Messes in the lab.🙃
God bless you and keep up the wonderful wonderful videos they're exciting to me. God bless you Professor God bless you Brady and God bless you Neil and all of the rest of your staff...!!!🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏
Julie explained the chemical processes so well. This is an interesting video for sure!
Thank you 😊
I have a Master’s degree in Chemistry, and find all your videos to be tremendously pertinent and entertaining. I regularly learn new things from them. I can’t emphasize enough how positive this is for
science and for the human race in general to have the means (internet and YT) to reach everyone with this kind of information. Thank you.
When I clicked on this video I had no interest in Californium or how it was produced and used.
Now I have!
Carry on the good work!
Interesting timing on this video. I’ve literally been working for over a year on a project at work to replace our 10 year old Cf-252 neutron source that we use to calibrate neutron dosimeters. Cf-252 is now insanely expensive. 1500 microgram source is a cool $1.3 million
@William "Bill" Overbeck me too
Wow! They were saying in the video that it's $27 million a gram - from what you're saying is that it's actually more than $800 million a gram!
22 minutes about californium, I could cry, I love so much when you update old videos, plus there's very clever science behind this one
This is such a fantastic video. Oh my gosh. Why have I only now seen this? What incredible footage, incredible scientists, incredible analysis, such deep insight and access and the always extraordinary professor, all coming together to form this amazing piece of scientific video LITERATURE. This, in my mind, is better than a journal review article. This is better than art. This should be considered on the same level as a review article as far as I'm concerned. Wow. Thank you, to everyone that made this possible. And to youtube - get your algorithm together and spread this to more scientists. We don't want BS, this is the antithesis. How it has escaped me and millions of others for years now is disturbing, because what an amazing production. BRILLIANT WORK!!
The radioactive elements are cool, but the engineering that went into this facility at ORNL (and other national labs, I'm sure!) is just incredible.
I work as a Carpenter in a lot of Cement plants. They have these restricted areas where the machine is housed so no one gets near it. So cool to understand how the analysis happens during the separation process.
I awoke to a 22 minute video from my favorite professor! What a great day to be here.
This is the best video I have ever seen and I am watching you from 2008.Cheers
What an amazing and complicated process, I can't even fathom how many great minds had to work together to make it happen.
Love the professor. Truly an inspiring human being. So much thanks to him and Brady for all the videos they've made over the years.
Man, i want to do plumbing there. I understand this may come off as an odd statement. I find these topics, equipment, and process fascinating.
me too dude, you know how much nuclear welders make?
@@md4luckycharms I would do it for free! Just to be a part of it.
Im a grad student who currently works with Cf-249 among other rare isotopes like this. Very excited to see this video! If anyone has questions feel free to ask!
Is BBQ sauce an acceptable ice cream topping?
@@bobby_greene absolutely, the tangyness BBQ sauce compliments the sweetness of the ice cream very well.
@@ORE0789 thank you for the prompt reply, I yeild the floor for further questions.
Are you at Berkeley?
@@musicrinda Nope not Berkeley, probably wouldn't be hard to narrow it down though for chemistry like this ;)
14 years damn, this is almost a super og channel, so great to see this channels still going strong!!
I love the longer videos like this! Hope you enjoyed visiting Tennessee.
I've watched this like 20 times in the past 2 years. I love how fluent the knowledge is, and the further I go in science, the more I understand and see without thinking. This is amazing. And to be fair, the first year I was in lots of biology with some chemistry. Wasn't sure what i'd want to get into.
I wonder how much Californium actually exists around the world at the moment...
And also at the mention of Fermium a few times in the video, I hope at some point a visible amount of it can be created enough to be photographed before it decays.
at least 0.1 grams
@@mastershooter64 The known picture of einsteinium was 300 micrograms of einsteinium-253, which has a half life of only 20 days. 300 micrograms is about 0.0003 grams. So, I still have hope that we will possible be able to assemble at least 100-300 micrograms of fermium-257!
Me too. I hope we make massive discovery about these elements and more transfermium elements.
@@zygarde718 They also believe, with a high enough neutron flux (1000× greater than any created so far in any reactors), it may be possible to skip past the "fermium gap" they call it (along with another "gap" at around element 106), and create macroscopic amounts of even higher elements (maybe copernicium, nihonium, and flerovium, in the island of stability)! It is all theoretical, but it is a spark of hope.
I also wonder if someone could make some sort of timelapse that somehow shows elements decaying into other elements. Of course, the elements would have to be distinguishable from each other, so probably a noble gas decaying into an alkali metal or halogen (fluorine and chlorine would be hard to see). The isotope may have to have a long half life in order to have an amount of it to be timelapsed, so it may take a long time (maybe years).
New Periodic Video makes me happy like child seeing candies.
So many fascinating aspects. I had no idea what went into making Californium.
Love seeing the professor still kicking it! Thanks for creating such an awesome and lasting learning resource. Y’all are awesome
completely, completely fascinating. well done, folks 👏
Man I love this. My grandfather worked at that laboratory. Amazing.
These videos remind me how lucky I was to get the chance to do research at Lawrence Berkeley Labs as an undergrad; just the level of science and history oozing from the walls is crazy. No jokes, Fermi's old cyclotron is just laying outside in the center of a round about, and there are reserved parking spots for Nobel laureates in front of every other building. Hope I can visit Oak Ridge one day (and Nottingham too!!).
It's always a treat to see a new video from this channel, and as an undergrad recently studying actinide complex chemistry the information on a californium metallocene was fascinating!
This transmutation is absolutely mind blowing.
Incredible peek behind the curtain (or leaded glass, as it were) at Oak Ridge - great stuff!
Always love hearing about ORNL, it’s about 30 or 40 minutes from my neighborhood
Always good to see the Prof. Cheers to Brady and Prof. P and everyone at Nottingham
Always on the mark and very informative. I love these videos, been watching them for some time now. In a perfect world, this kind of content is what TH-cam would really have been created for, not all of that other mindless rubbish that you typically find.
Great video! I use Californium-252 on a near daily basis for my work doing calibration and R&D on Gamma and Neutron detectors.
As a biochemist, I have deep respect for that chromatography. It is next level. I thought separating materials differing by less than 1 kDa to be high resolution. This atomic weight separation puts that to shame! Not to mention the ion exchange chemistry involved.
You Mister are the best chemistry teacher in the world!
The sheer scale of accumulated knowledge to get to this point is staggering to me.
The Prof is Alive and kickin'!
But will you in 3.46 years?
Prof I just want to say you are the best!
“Dosey” is a wonderful adjective.
Hi, Professor. I have a dime that was irradiated at Oak Ridge Lab in the 50s. Would it still be radioactive today?
How did you get it? Were they giving away irradiated dimes as souvenirs?
Depends on what elements are in it, what the half-life is. The dime itself would be silver if it's dated 1964 or earlier, so even if it's not radioactive it's worth holding onto.
@@periodicvideos Yes they did. It is encased and has Oak Ridge Lab and Irradiated written on the encasement.
@@busimagen I am a member of the Professor's fan club. There is a "join" button just below the video.
Quick Google suggests it lasted 4 minutes and only silver coins could be done which they did a lot of. Though its done in some dedicated device and not a reactor still cool though.
How do they change the lightbulbs in the cubicles? What sort of hazmat gear is required to do that? Is it the janitor’s job or does it require a PhD?
Fascinating lab and chemistry, brilliant staff, amazing content as usual. Thanks for the insight into a local facility!
Martyn, what do you think about Julie's scarf?
I’ve been a geophysicist for over 4 decades and relish these presentations. I feel like a sponge trying o to absorb all that I can…as I once did as a starry eyed 12 year old. The host captures the enthusiasm for science that is the fuel that powers curiosity.
Causally having a sign on the window, 11:49,
"Oh that bucket 0542 contains Plutonium, please don't tip it over!" :D
"Shh, the Plutonium is sleeping." 😂
Really great video. Production of these actinides is a fascinating process.
Fantastic video, really interesting. I love the explination of the purification process. Excellent job!
I'm so glad on this subject matter. Thanks on your update.
I learn something new from EVERY VIDEO holy crap, new favorite channel
This is the best channel on TH-cam
The Oak Ridge visit was one of my favourite videos, I really loved how detailed the description of the reactor was, and ofcurse seeing the huge blue cherenkov radiation was the best
Happy to see you healthy and sound dear prof.
i love videos like this. Thank you so much.
Brady! you should start another channel named "Sixty Cymbals" where you talk about musical instruments lol
😹
Or "Periodic Stereo"
Make a note of that.
First video titled : It needs more cowbell
Amazing. The visit at ORNL was super interesting!!!!
The way the ORNL scientist is describing the process sounds simple, but I can't even begin to fathom how it was developed. All I know is that lanthanides and actinides are something that none of the students in the chemistry fraternity I was a part of really ever discussed, it was predominantly organic chemistry because that was huge at the time. These heavy elements were like "yeah they're there, they play by different rules", and that was it.
I believe that tiny amounts of californium is used in certain designs of home fire alarms. I'm not sure exactly how it functions but I believe it is to do with how it detects the smoke.
Actually, the radioisotope in smoke detectors is the alpha emitter Americium-241
I had no idea they could produce this in sufficient quantities to be useful for industrial applications
Questions about the container: if I understand correctly the polymer stops the thermal neutrons and the tungsten is to shield gamma. I noticed this independently when running thoriated tungsten rods under a spectrometer it was able to almost entirely shield my 1uCi cs-137 sample from detection. Ironically 2.5 mm of W seems equivalent to 12mm of Pb.
Los Alamos National Laboratory is located in my birthplace/hometown. I was never sure what was going on at the sister lab in Oak Ridge. This video helped fill in the gaps.
I’m hoping and pleased that you are still working after the past 2 years.. cheers!
I can’t believe I’ve been watching these videos for over ten years
It would be interesting to get a color correction card into one of those shielded workrooms, then use software to color adjust for that greenish glass so you could see what it looks like if you were in there.
Wonderful video, as usual. I have a quick question: At the 3:41 mark, there are two half-lives of Cf-249 given, each with relatively different durations. Why are there two listed? Thanks!
Awesome. Really like these videos about the elements
Not in to chemistry or the elemental sciences. I was unaware that there was active process' to engineer and redesign the elements. Wonders how this fits into the science-fiction of product replicators for the future?
I just subbed, this is a really impressive channel, i gotta admit that.
Cf is used to investigatie explosives f.e. whether a grenade is filled with a conventional explosive charge or with a chemical or biological charge. The inspection effectiveness of ²⁵²Cf is useful with a thermal flux greater than or equal to 10⁷ n/cm² s. This means that there will then be about 22 micrograms of ²⁵²CF in the detector, corresponding to an activity of 436 MBq. Furthermore ²⁵²CF is used in clinical neutron therapy for cancer treatment (i.e. brachytherapy).
Californium 249 appears to have two half-lives, the first one (351 y) likely being the correct one. Or there is some really interesting chemistry / physics I don't know about this isotope :)
Cf 249 also has a metastable nuclear state, which is why two half-lives are shown.
@@gordonrichardson2972 does it? Amazing! I'll look it up! Thanks a lot!
Cf-249 can exist in two states, ground and excited. The same particles but arranged differently, a 'nuclear isomer'. In extreme cases like one isotope of tantalum, the ground state is insanely radioactive while the excited state can be stable for millions of years. It's curious stuff.
I'm wondering why Cf-249 is listed twice with different half lives. @ 3:42
Two different 'nuclear isomers' or energy levels of the same isotope. One decays into the other by emitting a gamma ray photon.
Please make a video about islands of stability and what the electron orbitals look like above f shells
Californium is pretty much a magical element.
Hello, you do not know me but I believe you taught a certain CHAP and now he is my chemistry teacher. He often uses your videos in our class and I hope to see more videos soon :)
I love the Professor's White hair and I love his knowledge when it comes to the Elements , Gases and Metals including Arsenic , Copper , Antimony , Californiaum, Uranium ect...
I love the Periodic Table of the Elements and learning about the Periodic Table
Does the glass have a green yellow tint - maybe shielding to protect people? Or is it the lighting inside that area?
My favorite element
Appreciate the fascinating tour and information.
Glad to see a new video 😄
Gobsmacked by all the detailed research and brain power that took this research to where it is today.
3:03 … I wonder when/if we will ever reach a state when we will collaborate with Dubna again 😢
I hope they didn’t disturb Bucket 0542. It contains Pu material from Lab 209.
These scientists are so wicked smart. Very impressive and inspiring
I think that Californium is the highest atomic number element with practical uses outside the labratory.
Did anybody else notice that 249Cf was twice on the half-life list at 3:43? One with 45 microseconds and one with over 13 years. Can anybody explain what that means or was is just a mistake?
That's for two energy levels, 'nuclear isomers' of the same isotope. One has a higher energy than the other and decays in a different fashion with a different half life. The higher energy state is often labelled as 'm' for 'metastable'.
Could you please do a video on how the current Ukraine-Russia war and the sanctions against Russia affect research into these elements? Dubna was mentioned in this video as well as another laboratory in Russia. Has the shipping of samples between the USA and Russia ceased, hampering research?
I had the same questions!
At a guess Dubna will get no more material for a long time.
3:42 into vid: it lists 249Cf twice; first time, it says half-life 351 years; second time it says half-life 45μs. That's because with the second mention, they mean californium-252m (252mCf); m means metastable, or isomer; such things ar usually very short-lived.
Californium was discovered in Tennessee? I’m glad Tennessee has its own element now; it definitely helped find many others!
I’m wondering why the interior of the work spaces appear with yellow/green light?
I *think* that is more to do with the super thick windows?
@@periodicvideos Erbium?
The windows are filled with mineral oil and probably made of lead glass themselves. Both are slightly yellow, so at this thickness it becomes pretty dominant
Why does the half life table (3:42) have two entries for 249 (352 years and 45 microseconds)?
One is for the ground state of Cf-249, the other for a higher energy excited state, which decays to ground by emitting a gamma photon. It is less stable. These are known as 'nuclear isomers'.
I didn't see the upload, but a minute ago I just felt that there has to be a new periodic video and there it is...
Amazing how old the tech is - but how useful its shown to be. What will the next tech be like? What new advances will we see?
Radiochemistry is a very interesting field of investigation.Also nuclear chemistry and nuclear technology
Thank you very much 🙂
This seems like a pretty fulfilling field to work in.
Not many people get to say that they make totally manmade radioactive elements in their lifetime.
Might as well be a spacecraft engineer.
When the professor said 14 years ago I died a little on the inside 😢😭
Maintenance must be an absolute nightmare. It's right up my alley. :)
Great level of video as usual.
roughly (2.1 x 10^22 neutrons/cm2) in the cycle dayum