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If you liked radium, you'll love germanium

Yes, after spending some time a few weeks ago squirrelled away in BBC Swindon's dungeon (sorry, their NCA Studio, pictured here during Ecologic interviews), I've got another podcast out in the series Chemistry in its Element for the Royal Society of Chemistry.

This time it's germanium. Apart from the tendency to be confused with a flower, it was essential for early transistors and still gets used in communications technology today... but why not take a listen - or you can pick it out of my growing little collection in the widget well below (sorry about the gap, this only seems to happen with Blogger and I can't work out how to get rid of it):

Comments

  1. Anonymous1 May 2009 at 18:16

    I very much enjoyed your audio comments on the history and application of Germanium. Thanks so much for helping make it less obscure!

    Dennis Thomas, USA

    ReplyDelete
  2. Brian Clegg2 May 2009 at 11:42

    Thanks, Dennis, much appreciated.

    ReplyDelete
  3. laurasdad6 May 2009 at 11:41

    I wondered whether you'd found this web site on your travels round the periodic Table http://www.periodicvideos.com/

    This is based on some original work by Nottingham University which happens to be where I studied - and if only we'd had them then it would have made learning so much easier.

    ReplyDelete

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