Where can you find explosions, deadly poisons, and spy stories? The periodic table.
Brady Haran, a journalist, teamed up with chemists at the University of Nottingham to create the best educational tool since chemistry sets — a series of exciting YouTube videos about each element — jam packed with information and fun.
In a clip about hydrogen, Haran and his colleagues fill a balloon with the gas and prepare to ignite it with a match, but the explosion comes after a quick lecture by Martyn Poliakoff, a soft-spoken professor with remarkable hair.
When speaking of Polonium, Poliakoff mentions the recent assassination of a Russian spy with the radioactive substance, and its earlier role as a trigger in atomic bombs.
Students should react well to the films. Each of them contains the elements of a good lesson: brevity, excitement, quick starts, closeup shots, serious information, and likeable characters. Hopefully, they will be an inspiration for many similar projects.
