When Johann Bottger failed to turn lead into gold, porcelain made a pretty good consolation prize.

We'll go to the land of the ice and snow... and figure out exactly where that is, too.

Element 68 plays an important role in stitching together the World Wide Web -- for better or for worse.

Hello, Listener. Under better circumstances, you would be learning about erbium right about now. Unfortunately, that episode is not quite ready yet. Between my day job and the possibility of a very big move in my near future, I simply haven't had enough time to create a quality episode according to my usual schedule -- and I probably won't be able to for the next couple weeks, either. However, I didn't want to just fall off the face of the earth. So I hope you'll accept my apologies for...

Holmium: Equally beloved by theoretical physicists and Jedi Knights.

You spin me right round, baby, right round, like a windmill, baby, right round round round.

For more than one reason, element 65 makes the short list of "most annoying elements."

Like Luke Skywalker, today's tale takes a farmboy to greatness.

If you enjoy The Episodic Table Of Elements, please consider nominating the show for a Podcast Award. Keep reading for details on how — and why. The Episodic Table Of Elements is once again a potential nominee for the Annual Podcast Awards.This is a real, honest-to-gadolinium award that's previously honored such legendary shows as This Week In Tech, ESPN: Fantasy Focus Football, and This American Life. The process goes through a couple stages. The first stage is happening now:...

As element collectors, may we all one day be as fortunate as Frank Harold Spedding.

We hear all sorts of incredible stories on this podcast, but today we'll meet the most unbelievable character of all time: A friendly bureaucrat.

We've met mythological light-bearers before, but this one possesses a decidedly nobler spirit.

Decades of complex geopolitical chaos ultimately result in one afternoon's rather embarrassing hospital visit.

Sometimes, the most interesting aspect of an element has nothing to do with chemistry at all.

It's the most common flint you'll find, except it's not actually flint at all.

Let's uncover element 57, and find out why the "rare earths" are neither rare nor earths nor an empire.

When you really want to suck all the air out of a room, barium will help you out.

We'll trace the history of the most important caesium-based technology all the way back to its original roots: a stick.

Truly strange things start to happen when you breathe this rarefied air.

We'll pull in our elemental haul from the sea while Lady Jane Davy spits in the ocean.

Collecting elements can be risky business. Tellurium is one of those elements that poses a dire threat -- not to one's health, but to the element collector's reputation in polite society.

It's like an Everlasting Gobstopper, but Willy Wonka is a fratricidal German monk.

We've palled around with tin for thousands of years, but you should know that it's a fair-weather friend.

The story of indium is pretty straightforward, but its namesake is practically impossible to pin down.

Cadmium will let you choose among a range of orange-ish hues, but it's some pretty awful news if you contract the "cadmium blues."