Assia Kasdi is doing the impossible: engineering alternatives to the universe’s rarest elements in a "cooking pot" at sub-boiling temperatures.

We explore the "alchemical" breakthrough of substituting platinum with earth-abundant copper and why the periodic table shouldn't be viewed as a set of fixed properties

Timestamps:

0:00 - Philosophy of Milvus Advanced

2:47 - Why an element's property is an environment, not a fixed state

4:18 - Inventing substitutes for Indium and Platinum during a PhD

6:48 - Unlocking silver-level conductivity in pure copper through nano-structures

8:27 - Debunking chemical theory: Making the "impossible" nano-alloy

10:31 - The crisis of finite minerals: Why metals don't rejuvenate like fossil fuels

12:26 - The Milvus Legend: How a red kite in Oxford inspired a breakthrough

15:34 - Proving the alloy: The two-shot microscope moment that changed everything

18:12 - Beating the Platinum group: Validating 1,000-hour durability tests

20:47 - Rebuilding the industry around "engineering functions" instead of mining

21:44 - The "Cooking Pot" principle: Synthesising materials at low temperatures

23:29 - The challenge of maintaining nano-structures at industrial scale