We’re celebrating the 150th anniversary of the periodic table. Join us as we tour the cosmos, from the microscopic to the telescopic, with four scientists studying the role of four elements—zinc, oxygen, palladium and gold—in life, the universe and everything.

Emily Que is a chemist who helped capture, for the first time on video, zinc fireworks that burst from an egg when it’s fertilized by sperm. Astronomer Michael Endl is searching for chemical signs of life in the atmospheres of exoplanets. Kate Biberdorf (a.k.a. Kate the Chemist) found new ways to speed up chemical reactions using palladium. And physicist Aaron Zimmerman explains why the gold in your jewelry was probably forged in an ultraviolent explosion billions of years ago.

Watch zinc-spark fireworks: https://cns.utexas.edu/news/when-sperm-meets-egg-zinc-fireworks-on-display

Listen to our interview with Kate the Chemist on a previous Point of Discovery podcast: https://soundcloud.com/point-of-discovery/fun-with-chemistry

See a periodic table showing how each element was created: http://www.astronomy.ohio-state.edu/~jaj/nucleo/

Watch Kate the Chemist blow things up in honor of National Periodic Table Day: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=294826561181390

Hear more about the first neutron star collision captured by a gravitational-wave detector: https://soundcloud.com/point-of-discovery/cosmic-car-wreck

Music for today’s show was produced by:

Photo by Vivian Abagiu.

About Point of Discovery

Point of Discovery is a production of the University of Texas at Austin's College of Natural Sciences. You can listen to all our episodes at @point-of-discovery .

Questions or comments about this episode, or our series in general? Email Marc Airhart at mairhart[AT]austin.utexas.edu

About Point of Discovery

Point of Discovery is a production of the University of Texas at Austin's College of Natural Sciences and is a part of the Texas Podcast Network. The opinions expressed in this podcast represent the views of the hosts and guests, and not of The University of Texas at Austin. You can listen via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, RSS, Amazon Podcasts, and more. Questions or comments about this episode or our series in general? Email Marc Airhart.