Thallium - the poisoner's poison

Elemental by RNZ

Nov 17, 201900:08:27Science & Medicine

Thallium is most famous for some infamous poisoned family cases & its appearance in an Agatha Christie novel solved a medical mystery, says Allan Blackman from AUT in ep 86 of Elemental. Thallium is most famous for some...

Related Episodes

Continue listening to more episodes from Elemental.

Zirconium - shape-shifting time capsule

Dec 22, 2019 - 00:12:34

Zirconium is a shape-shifting tough cookie, that is a tale of gemstones, medical implants and nuclear rea...

Zinc - more useful than you realise

Dec 19, 2019 - 00:12:31

Zinc is a very useful metal that turns up in everything from sunscreen to paint, & galvanised metals to c...

Yttrium - here's that village Ytterby again

Dec 15, 2019 - 00:08:28

Yttrium is yet another element named after the village of Ytterby and is important in the development of...

Ytterbium - yet another element named after Ytterby

Dec 12, 2019 - 00:08:12

Ytterbium is yet another lanthanoid named after the Swedish village of Ytterby, says Prof Allan Blackman...

Xenon - a stranger in search of strange particles

Dec 10, 2019 - 00:09:55

Xenon is a noble gas that turns up in various lights, gets used in xenon ion propulsion systems for space...

Vanadium - Model T Fords, big batteries & sea squirts

Dec 8, 2019 - 00:09:33

Vanadium makes steel stronger & lighter, is being used in what will be the world's largest battery, and s...

Uranium - first radioactive element to be discovered

Dec 5, 2019 - 00:08:28

Named after the planet Uranus & associated with Hiroshima & nuclear bombs, uranium is the highest-numbere...

Tungsten - highest melting point of any metal

Dec 1, 2019 - 00:08:46

Tungsten's very high melting point made it an ideal filament for incandescent light bulbs, & as it is in...