What do flaky scalps, skunks, and dead polo ponies have in common?

October 29, 2009 7:49 AM

Chemistry in its Element - a weekly podcast from the Royal Society of Chemistry offering an engagingly-narrated stroll through the periodic table, element by element.
posted by Wolfdog (15 comments total)

The calls are coming FROM INSIDE THE LANTHANOIDS!
posted by Jofus at 8:07 AM on October 29, 2009

Niels Bohr would approve.
posted by glaucon at 8:12 AM on October 29, 2009

I'm having trouble getting anything to play and yet I am SUPER EXCITED and it's causing me stress. I assume it's working for everyone else?
posted by six-or-six-thirty at 8:15 AM on October 29, 2009

@: It requires QuickTime for the streams. You will have to install the plugin, which is shitty, because the QT plug in generally tries to take over all multimedia in your browser. I use a different browser for the whorish stuff.
posted by clarknova at 8:25 AM on October 29, 2009

Woot!!! Chemistry!!! Thank you for satisfying my nerd needs for the day.
posted by Go Banana at 8:37 AM on October 29, 2009

Is there any way to *subscribe* to it?
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 8:38 AM on October 29, 2009

Similarly, the Periodic Table of Videos (Previously) offers an engaging stroll through the periodic table with explosions.
posted by logicpunk at 8:48 AM on October 29, 2009

The audio is just mp3 files, nothing fancy or proprietary. Here's a quick and dirty list of direct links to the audio files, if it helps; you should be able to download them or listen with virtually any browser plugin. But the RSC site has nice transcripts of all of them, too.
posted by Wolfdog at 9:20 AM on October 29, 2009

Thanks, clarknova and Wolfdog. Most likely an issue with my Java seeing as I can't even get the transcripts to work.

Anyway, awesome post!
posted by six-or-six-thirty at 9:30 AM on October 29, 2009

That's not a podcast (in that it doesn't have a feed with enclosures), but it's still entertaining.

Thanks, Wolfdog, for the links.
posted by e.e. coli at 10:38 AM on October 29, 2009

This kind of presentation highlights the future of learning. It's getting so one can learn anything at any level of detail. I wonder, do universities even bother with things like professors giving live lectures any more? This chemist thanks you very much for this post!
posted by telstar at 5:14 PM on October 29, 2009

Is there any way to *subscribe* to it?

It's available in the iTunes store.
posted by futility closet at 5:43 PM on October 30, 2009 [1 favorite]

Let me know when there's a podcast for the nuclides.
posted by neuron at 8:20 PM on October 30, 2009

Thanks futility -- that's excellent. Subscribed.

So they do publish a feed. Why on earth don't they link to it? Chemists are weird.
http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/podcast/elements_podcast.xml
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 10:59 PM on October 30, 2009

I've always loved all aspects of science except chemistry. Having listened to a number of these now that attitude is certainly changing. This is great, thanks a lot Wolfdog!
posted by Midnight Rambler at 8:49 PM on November 18, 2009