Distillations: Science + Culture + History

Matter can neither be created nor destroyed. So when you take your garbage out to the curb every week, do you ever stop to think about where it’s going? In this week’s episode, Jori Lewis explores how New York City is trying to make it easier for residents to recycle their electronic waste. SHOW CLOCK 00:00 Opening Credits 00:31 Introduction 01:15 Element of the Week: Cadmium 03:25 Conversation with Demir Hamami 07:16 Recycling Electronics 11:23 Quote: Chinese proverb 11:32 Closing Credits CREDITS Special thanks to Jody Roberts for researching this show. Additional credits available at chemheritage.org/distillations.

Summer 2008 officially begins today, June 20, at 7:50 EDT (at least in the Northern Hemisphere). Here at Distillations, we’re celebrating with a show dedicated to poolside lounging. SHOW CLOCK 00:00 Opening Credits 00:31 Introduction 00:58 Element of the Week: Titanium 02:57 Chemistry in Your Cupboard: Chlorination 05:22 Mystery Solved! Why do we float? 07:42 Quote: Henry James 08:00 Closing Credits CREDITS Special thanks to David Caruso for researching this show. Additional credits available at chemheritage.org/distillations.

Illumination has been a quest of humans for centuries now—both in terms of the cerebral and the physical. In today’s episode we focus on the physical type of illumination. SHOW CLOCK 00:00 Opening Credits 00:32 Introduction 01:14 Element of the Week: Sodium 04:09 Chemistry of Bioluminescence 09:10 Mystery Solved: Glowing in the Dark 11:08 Quote: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 11:24 Closing Credits CREDITS Special thanks to Hilary Domush and Ann Dornfeld for researching this show. Additional credits available at chemheritage.org/distillations.

Baseball, track, swimming, biking—is there any sport that hasn’t suffered a scandal in the past few years? It turns out that the obvious culprits—performance enhancing drugs—are just the tip of the iceberg for how chemistry can alter athletic competition. In today’s show we look at some of the chemistry going on both inside and outside athletes’ bodies. SHOW CLOCK 00:00 Opening Credits 00:31 Introduction 01:10 Element of the Week: Potassium 02:56 A Conversation with John Hoberman 07:28 Chemistry in Your Cupboard 10:48 Quote: Damon Hill 11:00 Closing Credits CREDITS Special thanks to Erin McLeary for researching this show. Additional credits available at chemheritage.org/distillations.

There are four fundamental qualities: time, length, mass, and temperature. All other units can be derived from them, but these four can’t be broken down any further. This week we focus on time—the measurement that orders our lives. SHOW CLOCK 00:00 Opening Credits 00:32 Introduction 01:30 Element of the Week: Ruthenium 03:59 Chemistry in Your Cupboard: Pressure Cooker 06:20 The Atomic Clock 10:37 Quote: William Faulkner 10:51 Closing Credits CREDITS Special thanks to Eric Mack and Audra Wolfe for researching this show. Additional credits available at chemheritage.org/distillations.

What do Isaac Newton, yeast, and Harold Urey have in common? They all come under the research microscope of Chemical Heritage Foundation fellows. SHOW CLOCK 00:00 Opening Credits 00:31 Introduction 01:04 Element of the Week: Calcium 02:57 Chemistry in Your Cupboard: Hops 05:44 A Visit to Dogfish Head Brewery 09:57 Quote: Ben Franklin 10:10 Closing Credits CREDITS Special thanks to Hilary Domush and Joel Rose for researching this show. Additional credits available at chemheritage.org/distillations.

Entropy is defined as the degree of disorder in a system, and according to the Second Law of Thermodynamics entropy is always increasing. Preservation is a way that humans are trying to beat entropy, and this week we look at why and how we preserve. SHOW CLOCK 00:00 Opening Credits 00:32 Introduction 01:08 Element of the Week: Argon 03:24 Conversation with Ronn Wade 07:29 Frozen Dead Guy Days 11:28 Quote: Neil Rollinson 11:44 Closing Credits CREDITS Special thanks to Eric Mack and Audra Wolfe for researching this show. Additional credits available at chemheritage.org/distillations.

Blogs, YouTube, Facebook, and wikis are just a few of so-called Web 2.0 technologies that are transforming the look and feel of science on the Web. SHOW CLOCK 00:00 Opening Credits 00:32 Introduction 01:04 Conversation with John Horrigan 05:00 Element of the Week 08:01 Science Education in the Era of No Child Left Behind 10:58 Quote: Mary Shelley 11:16 Closing Credits CREDITS Special thanks to Audra Wolfe for researching this show. Additional credits available at chemheritage.org/distillations.

Sound is often thought to be a science of physics, but on today’s show we consider its chemistry. SHOW CLOCK 00:00 Opening Credits 00:31 Introduction 01:11 Element of the Week: Neodymium 03:03 Chemistry in Your Cupboard: Pop Rocks 05:43 Sonic Art: Experimental Musical Instruments 10:43 Quote: Ludiwg van Beethoven 11:08 Closing Credits CREDITS Special thanks to Chi Chan and Catherine Girardeau for researching this show. Additional credits available at chemheritage.org/distillations.

Tuesday, April 22 was Earth Day. Amid all the hubbub about “going green,” it’s a fair question to ask how much power individual consumers have to reduce their environmental impact. SHOW CLOCK 00:00 Opening Credits 00:32 Introduction 01:18 Element of the Week: Fluorine 02:48 REACH: A New Approach to Chemical Regulation 07:44 A Conversation with John Mullins, Sun and Earth 10:38 Quote: Francis Bacon 10:54 Closing Credits CREDITS Special thanks to Jori Lewis and Jody Roberts for researching this show. Additional credits available at chemheritage.org/distillations.

Semiconductors are at the heart of countless electronic devices. Although we often think of Silicon Valley as being built on computer chips, the companies that make the chips often depend upon materials and equipment manufacturers who build the component parts. On today’s show we explore some of the unheralded companies that have made the Digital Revolution possible. SHOW CLOCK 00:00 Opening Credits 00:32 Introduction 01:20 Element of the Week: Silicon 02:46 Conversation with Griff Resor 06:26 Virtual Tour of the Computer History Museum 10:52 Quote: N. Bruce Hannay 11:05 Closing Credits CREDITS Special thanks to Hyungsub Choi and Mia Lobel for researching this show. Additional credits available at chemheritage.org/distillations.

Jamestown celebrated its 400th anniversary last year. Many people may know that it was the first permanent English settlement in North America, but less commonly known is that Jamestown was also the birthplace of the American chemical enterprise. SHOW CLOCK 00:00 Opening Credits 00:32 Introduction 01:16 Mystery Solved 04:00 Element of the Week: Strontium 06:24 Visiting Josh Simpson’s Glassblowing Studio 10:13 Quote: Captain John Smith 10:23 Closing Credits CREDITS Special thanks to Robert Hicks and Amy Mayer for researching this show. Additional credits available at chemheritage.org/distillations.

Science has long been a component of warfare, and in this week’s episode we look at how it has played a part in both destruction and preservation during times of war. SHOW CLOCK 00:00 Opening Credits 00:32 Introduction 01:19 Conversation with Jeffrey Johnson 07:35 Element of the Week: Chlorine 09:35 Review of This Republic of Suffering 11:46 Quote: William Jennings Bryan 11:56 Closing Credits CREDITS Special thanks to David Caruso for researching this show. Additional credits available at chemheritage.org/distillations.

In today’s show we take a closer look at vitamins, the tiny substances that are vital to our health. SHOW CLOCK 00:00 Opening Credits 00:31 Introduction 01:39 Mystery Solved: Rickets 04:35 Element of the Week: Iron 06:41 Making Vitaming C 10:18 Quotation: George Bernard Shaw 10:38 Closing Credits CREDITS Special thanks to Jocelyn Ford and Anke Timmermann for researching this show. Additional credits available at chemheritage.org/distillations.

While chemistry often plays a silent role in art, such as synthetic additives in acrylic paints, both artists and scientists have consciously chosen to intersect the two. SHOW CLOCK 00:00 Opening Credits 00:32 Introduction 01:09 Element of the Week: Neon 03:37 Commentary: Self-Grown Pictures 06:54 ChemArtists 10:51 Quote: Bo Malmstrom 11:04 Closing Credits CREDITS Special thanks to Erin McLeary and Audra Wolfe for researching this show. Additional credits available at chemheritage.org/distillations.

Is science on the silver screen any less real than science in the lab? A crew from CHF attempts to answer this question with a visit to a new Star Wars exhibit at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. SHOW CLOCK 00:00 Opening Credits 00:32 Introduction 00:50 Element of the Week: Krypton 02:28 Commentary: Cartoons as Science? 06:15 Exhibit Review: Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination 11:10 Quote: Lex Luthor 11:30 Closing Credits CREDITS Special thanks to Jody Roberts, Jennifer Landry, and Tori Indivero for researching this show. Additional credits available at chemheritage.org/distillations.

You’ve heard the hype—but what’s nanotechnology really all about? Today’s show is an investigation into the current reality and the future potential of nanotechnology. SHOW CLOCK 00:00 Opening Credits 00:31 Introduction 01:32 Element of the Week: Carbon 03:08 Conversation with George Whitesides 07:51 Mystery Solved! Damascus Steel 10:49 Quote: Richard Smalley 11:08 Closing Credits CREDITS Special thanks to Chi Chan for researching this show. Additional credits available at chemheritage.org/distillations.

In today’s world, technology is seemingly ubiquitous. Chemistry plays a role in many technologies and may be obvious in some products, but is quite invisible in others. SHOW CLOCK 00:00 Opening Credits 00:32 Introduction 01:39 Element of the Week: Uranium 04:13 Mystery Solved: Liquid Crystal Displays 06:51 Hydrogenation 10:59 Quote: Karl Compton 11:19 Closing Credits CREDITS Special thanks to Victoria Indivero, Jody Roberts, and Catherine Girardeau for researching this show. Additional credits available at chemheritage.org/distillations.

From antibiotics to chemotherapy, modern pharmaceuticals have transformed the experience of illness in the 20th century. Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, the founder and chairman of Biocon, Ltd., joins us for a discussion of how the global business of pharmaceuticals is changing the culture of science in India. SHOW CLOCK 00:00 Opening Credits 00:31 Introduction 01:14 Element of the Week: Sulfur 02:44 A Conversation with Kiran Mazumdar Shaw 07:50 The Complicated Legacy of Modern Pharmaceuticals 10:44 Quote: Hans Zinsser 11:00 Closing Credits CREDITS Special thanks to David Caruso for researching this show. Additional credits available at chemheritage.org/distillations.

Color literally fills our world, and it plays a dominant role in how we perceive our surroundings. Scientists have been fascinated with the question of what color is ever since Isaac Newton discovered that white light contains the entire color spectrum. SHOW CLOCK 00:00 Opening Credits 00:32 Introduction 01:09 Element of the Week: Chromium 02:54 Chemistry in Your Cupboard 05:12 Making Mauvine 10:47 Quote: Claude Monet 11:06 Closing Credits CREDITS Special thanks to Hilary Domush for researching this show. Additional credits available at chemheritage.org/distillations.