Wow, carbon really had a different tone than the other elements lol. Cool video, keep them coming and good luck with the channel! I've subscribed. A couple of comments, additional interesting facts and corrections, in the name of shared interests and learning (and because I can't help myself), not to be critical at all!… H: 0:14 Water has three atoms, it is triatomic. 0:36 The by-product of acid-base reactions is water. Acids can be defined as proton donors so you're right that hydrogen ions are linked to acids. 0:47 Hydrogen is lighter in mass than kerosene but has less chemical potential energy. It burns more efficiently and has greater specific impulse making it a good fuel. However there are disadvantages - it is less dense than kerosene so you need bigger tanks. The molecules are smaller so they more easily form leaks. And they need to be maintained at much lower temperatures to be kept in liquid state. (I'm a chemist by training but an armchair rocket nerd out of interest!) He: 1:41 MRI machines and NMR machines use liquid helium to keep the superconducting electromagnet cold enough to superconduct, and to reduce loss of the expensive helium to evaporation, it is often insulated with vacuum chambers and slightly less cold but still really cold liquid nitrogen in outer tanks. Li: 2:10 Lithium does form ionic bonds with fluorine but the graphic here is showing LiF as having a covalent bond. In an ionic bond the electron is transferred from Li to F. Lithium is unusual as a metal though because it is actually able to form partially covalent bonds with some non-metals. 2:50 There are some very useful lithium compounds in organic chemistry - LiAlH4 is a great reducing agent (although it is the borohydride part that does the magic), and also really strong bases like BuLi (butyl lithium), some forms of which are pyrophoric and combust in contact with the air. Be: Yeah apparently I know nothing about Be, this is all good new info for me! B: 4:02 Boron has some really cool weird chemistry. It has uses in organic chemistry but I can't remember much about them. Borane, BH3 (analogous to carbon's methane, CH4) and other boranes can have some really unusual bonding known as three-centre-two-electron bonds. This is where three nuclei are covalently bonded by only two electrons (unlike normal covalent bonds where two nuclei share two electrons). Look up the structure of diborane - when drawn out, it looks like hydrogen forms two bonds. 4:45 Cubic boron nitride is much harder than hexagonal BN which is accidentally in the image. C: Preach!! N: 11:22 Plants can also use nitrates, also formed by lightning. And it's common enough to provide all life with the nitrogen they need to build proteins, alongside nitrogen-fixing bacteria. Nitrogen-fixing bacteria do a great job for nature and life managed to get its crucial soluble nitrogen compounds long before the Haber process. We just haven't learnt how to exploit those proteins yet to keep up with the industrial demand for fertilisers for agriculture. O: 12:54 Liquid oxygen is also light blue in colour which is awesome. It is magnetic because it actually has two unpaired electrons. This isn't very obvious or apparent from our common simple models of chemical bonding like dot and cross diagrams. For it to make sense you have to get into molecular orbital theory. F: 13:20 Hydrofluoric acid, HF, is actually considered to be a weak acid, although it is still corrosive and dangerous. I don't think it behaves quite like shown in Breaking Bad! 13:32 Fluorine is in CFCs but in this case it isn't the problem element. Chlorine in CFCs is responsible for the degradation of the ozone layer. HFCs (hydrofluorocarbons) were used to help fade out the use of CFCs. 13:48 Just to be clear, there is a difference between fluoride and fluorine. Elemental fluorine gas is very reactive and toxic, but once an F atom gains an electron and becomes fluoride, F- , it is stable and safe. 13:48 I love the recent relevant reference and the throwback reference combo here! Na: 11:53 A flashback to adding way too much salt! I don't add salt to most things in cooking because I think the average person's normal diet has plenty of salt to remain healthy. I didn't know this is how salt is linked to high blood pressure, interesting, and makes sense. Mg: 15:49 "Phosphorylation of glucose during glycolysis" means adding a phosphate group to a sugar when it is being broken down during respiration. Magnesium is also found in chlorophyll molecules making it important for the harnessing of the sun's light energy in photosynthesis. Al: Sadly aluminium has been neglected! Si: 16:14 Silicon-based life would be very cool and interesting. But I did watch a video from an astrobiochemist (or some job description with basically all the sciences involved) which was giving reasons why she didn't think Si life is likely. I can't remember most of the points now but I remember it was quite convincing.
* correction - LiAlH4 is lithium aluminium hydride, no boron of course. I said borohydride by accident due to NaBH4 being another, slightly weaker reducing agent. Also * faze out CFCs. I knew fade out didn't sound right but for some reason I couldn't think of the right word!
Thanks for the awesome feedback! I am not a chemist and just study this kinda stuff for fun so it's awesome to hear from someone that is and actually knows what they're talking about
I think it's funny how few people know anything about beryllium (which is probably why my video on it was the biggest on my channel), despite the fact that it's only the 4th element. Breaking bad's chemistry is actually crazy unrealistic, disposing a body with acid is a terrible idea (acquisition and disposal of the acid in the first place) when it would've been much easier to just bury it somewhere in the NM desert. However, I looked it up and HF is actually better in some cases because even though it's a fairly weak acid it's highly corrosive (not as much as in breaking bad tho) I agree that carbon life is almost certainly more likely than silicon life (the only life we've ever observed has been carbon) but considering the vastness of the universe I feel it's almost inevitable that we'll find SOME form of life based on silicon, as strange or counterintuitive as it is (if it is possible, of course) The LiF graphic does say ionic bond at the bottom but the diagram is rather misleading
@@ThermodynamicsYT That's great! Stay curious and keep studying. At the moment I tutor science so I always love to see people interested in the subject and to share a little knowledge if I can. I know that feeling of studying for fun too, there are so many random things I study for fun. Chemistry happens to be the one thing I *_actually_* studied for haha. As for beryllium, if I remember right I think there's some nuclear fusion physics reason why it's less abundant in the universe, but I might be misremembering and it's beyond my knowledge anyway! From studying chemistry, I don't remember a single use for it off the top of my head, although there probably are some of course that I'm overlooking. I've heard it's a great show with a great ending, but I never managed to get into Breaking Bad, I only saw about half of the first season (three separate times!). Apparently they had scientist consultants for the show, but often overrode them to make things cooler haha. Which is fair enough, it's only for entertainment. There are some logical chemical reasons why silicon life would be much less likely, you mentioned two of them yourself. Silicon is a metalloid so it behaves differently from carbon in some ways. The way it bonds is different as well - your example of SiO2 doesn't form small molecules like CO2, but instead forms a giant covalent lattice which would not be very useful to life. It's like with all the carbon chemistry on Earth for billions of years, life never found a use or purpose of diamond which is a carbon version of a giant covalent lattice. Silicon-oxygen bonds are very difficult to break as well so chemistry is more limited. It's similar to how water is deemed to be very important for life. Sure maybe some life out there formed with a different solvent other than water, like ammonia or something, but there are some chemical properties water has which no other solvent has. Having said that, I agree with you - if it is possible then somewhere out there it certainly has happened!
Another important point with the CO2 vs SiO2 is that CO2 is highly soluble in water while SiO2 is practically insoluble as is SiO, which means that any silicon based lifeforms are going to be non-aqueous more often than not, which is just another barrier to entry as it means they're going to need a different solvent for a lot of otherwise trivial functions, like respiration (imagine if every time you burnt glucose for energy it left behind some insoluble crystal residue...). The main issue is that the things SiO2 Is soluble in are HFl and hot alkali hydroxide, neither of which are likely to play nice with prokaryotic cell structures that can't insulate their genetic sequence from these reactive solvents (and SiO wants HFl + HNO3 and reacts with them while dissolved, which is so much worse). So SiO2 and SiO probably aren't viable for silicon based life, which means that it probably requires a planet with low oxygen levels and a ton of heat which will limit hydrogen availablity... It's not really Impossible, but life is already a few too many dice rolls in a row on its own for me to hold my breath for silicon based ones to be something we encounter more than once... Excluding the ones we make ourselves, which will probably be fairly numerous assuming that we don't go the way of the thylacine (killed by human stupidity)
Afaik in the case of ³He the reason it's so valuable in sci-fi and futurism is because of its ³He-³He reaction which while producing 2/3 the MeV and 2x the Protons still has several advantages: It uses only one fuel, which is inert It doesn't produce any D-D reactions which are neutronic It saves Deuterium for D-⁶Li reactions which are better value for environments where higher MeV output is more important than fuel safety or being fully aneutronic. Basically ³He-³He is ideal for ships as you're not storing flammable, chemically reactive fuel, or producing a bunch of neutron radiation, while D-⁶Li trumps any ³He reaction for planetary environments where fuel igniting isn't as big an issue and where mass for radiation shielding and more secure fuel storage isn't at a premium, rendering D-³He reactions kinda redundant in any application.
Great video man! Really looking forward for more content with your style, you bring a good quality, and fun flare to the video while staying rooted in the educational core of the video. Some great polarizations with the subject of carbon as well, really interesting takes with quick contrasts Keep it coming! :)
Oh shoot did I forget neon? I do have a video on it I just forgot to include it in the compilation I guess: ruclips.net/video/_khOdUDTlU0/видео.htmlsi=tZNIpnrvnrGNMKeQ
Wow, carbon really had a different tone than the other elements lol. Cool video, keep them coming and good luck with the channel! I've subscribed.
A couple of comments, additional interesting facts and corrections, in the name of shared interests and learning (and because I can't help myself), not to be critical at all!…
H:
0:14 Water has three atoms, it is triatomic.
0:36 The by-product of acid-base reactions is water. Acids can be defined as proton donors so you're right that hydrogen ions are linked to acids.
0:47 Hydrogen is lighter in mass than kerosene but has less chemical potential energy. It burns more efficiently and has greater specific impulse making it a good fuel. However there are disadvantages - it is less dense than kerosene so you need bigger tanks. The molecules are smaller so they more easily form leaks. And they need to be maintained at much lower temperatures to be kept in liquid state. (I'm a chemist by training but an armchair rocket nerd out of interest!)
He:
1:41 MRI machines and NMR machines use liquid helium to keep the superconducting electromagnet cold enough to superconduct, and to reduce loss of the expensive helium to evaporation, it is often insulated with vacuum chambers and slightly less cold but still really cold liquid nitrogen in outer tanks.
Li:
2:10 Lithium does form ionic bonds with fluorine but the graphic here is showing LiF as having a covalent bond. In an ionic bond the electron is transferred from Li to F. Lithium is unusual as a metal though because it is actually able to form partially covalent bonds with some non-metals.
2:50 There are some very useful lithium compounds in organic chemistry - LiAlH4 is a great reducing agent (although it is the borohydride part that does the magic), and also really strong bases like BuLi (butyl lithium), some forms of which are pyrophoric and combust in contact with the air.
Be:
Yeah apparently I know nothing about Be, this is all good new info for me!
B:
4:02 Boron has some really cool weird chemistry. It has uses in organic chemistry but I can't remember much about them. Borane, BH3 (analogous to carbon's methane, CH4) and other boranes can have some really unusual bonding known as three-centre-two-electron bonds. This is where three nuclei are covalently bonded by only two electrons (unlike normal covalent bonds where two nuclei share two electrons). Look up the structure of diborane - when drawn out, it looks like hydrogen forms two bonds.
4:45 Cubic boron nitride is much harder than hexagonal BN which is accidentally in the image.
C:
Preach!!
N:
11:22 Plants can also use nitrates, also formed by lightning. And it's common enough to provide all life with the nitrogen they need to build proteins, alongside nitrogen-fixing bacteria.
Nitrogen-fixing bacteria do a great job for nature and life managed to get its crucial soluble nitrogen compounds long before the Haber process. We just haven't learnt how to exploit those proteins yet to keep up with the industrial demand for fertilisers for agriculture.
O:
12:54 Liquid oxygen is also light blue in colour which is awesome. It is magnetic because it actually has two unpaired electrons. This isn't very obvious or apparent from our common simple models of chemical bonding like dot and cross diagrams. For it to make sense you have to get into molecular orbital theory.
F:
13:20 Hydrofluoric acid, HF, is actually considered to be a weak acid, although it is still corrosive and dangerous. I don't think it behaves quite like shown in Breaking Bad!
13:32 Fluorine is in CFCs but in this case it isn't the problem element. Chlorine in CFCs is responsible for the degradation of the ozone layer. HFCs (hydrofluorocarbons) were used to help fade out the use of CFCs.
13:48 Just to be clear, there is a difference between fluoride and fluorine. Elemental fluorine gas is very reactive and toxic, but once an F atom gains an electron and becomes fluoride, F- , it is stable and safe.
13:48 I love the recent relevant reference and the throwback reference combo here!
Na:
11:53 A flashback to adding way too much salt! I don't add salt to most things in cooking because I think the average person's normal diet has plenty of salt to remain healthy. I didn't know this is how salt is linked to high blood pressure, interesting, and makes sense.
Mg:
15:49 "Phosphorylation of glucose during glycolysis" means adding a phosphate group to a sugar when it is being broken down during respiration. Magnesium is also found in chlorophyll molecules making it important for the harnessing of the sun's light energy in photosynthesis.
Al:
Sadly aluminium has been neglected!
Si:
16:14 Silicon-based life would be very cool and interesting. But I did watch a video from an astrobiochemist (or some job description with basically all the sciences involved) which was giving reasons why she didn't think Si life is likely. I can't remember most of the points now but I remember it was quite convincing.
* correction - LiAlH4 is lithium aluminium hydride, no boron of course. I said borohydride by accident due to NaBH4 being another, slightly weaker reducing agent.
Also * faze out CFCs. I knew fade out didn't sound right but for some reason I couldn't think of the right word!
Thanks for the awesome feedback! I am not a chemist and just study this kinda stuff for fun so it's awesome to hear from someone that is and actually knows what they're talking about
I think it's funny how few people know anything about beryllium (which is probably why my video on it was the biggest on my channel), despite the fact that it's only the 4th element.
Breaking bad's chemistry is actually crazy unrealistic, disposing a body with acid is a terrible idea (acquisition and disposal of the acid in the first place) when it would've been much easier to just bury it somewhere in the NM desert. However, I looked it up and HF is actually better in some cases because even though it's a fairly weak acid it's highly corrosive (not as much as in breaking bad tho)
I agree that carbon life is almost certainly more likely than silicon life (the only life we've ever observed has been carbon) but considering the vastness of the universe I feel it's almost inevitable that we'll find SOME form of life based on silicon, as strange or counterintuitive as it is (if it is possible, of course)
The LiF graphic does say ionic bond at the bottom but the diagram is rather misleading
@@ThermodynamicsYT That's great! Stay curious and keep studying. At the moment I tutor science so I always love to see people interested in the subject and to share a little knowledge if I can.
I know that feeling of studying for fun too, there are so many random things I study for fun. Chemistry happens to be the one thing I *_actually_* studied for haha.
As for beryllium, if I remember right I think there's some nuclear fusion physics reason why it's less abundant in the universe, but I might be misremembering and it's beyond my knowledge anyway! From studying chemistry, I don't remember a single use for it off the top of my head, although there probably are some of course that I'm overlooking.
I've heard it's a great show with a great ending, but I never managed to get into Breaking Bad, I only saw about half of the first season (three separate times!). Apparently they had scientist consultants for the show, but often overrode them to make things cooler haha. Which is fair enough, it's only for entertainment.
There are some logical chemical reasons why silicon life would be much less likely, you mentioned two of them yourself. Silicon is a metalloid so it behaves differently from carbon in some ways. The way it bonds is different as well - your example of SiO2 doesn't form small molecules like CO2, but instead forms a giant covalent lattice which would not be very useful to life. It's like with all the carbon chemistry on Earth for billions of years, life never found a use or purpose of diamond which is a carbon version of a giant covalent lattice. Silicon-oxygen bonds are very difficult to break as well so chemistry is more limited.
It's similar to how water is deemed to be very important for life. Sure maybe some life out there formed with a different solvent other than water, like ammonia or something, but there are some chemical properties water has which no other solvent has.
Having said that, I agree with you - if it is possible then somewhere out there it certainly has happened!
Another important point with the CO2 vs SiO2 is that CO2 is highly soluble in water while SiO2 is practically insoluble as is SiO, which means that any silicon based lifeforms are going to be non-aqueous more often than not, which is just another barrier to entry as it means they're going to need a different solvent for a lot of otherwise trivial functions, like respiration (imagine if every time you burnt glucose for energy it left behind some insoluble crystal residue...). The main issue is that the things SiO2 Is soluble in are HFl and hot alkali hydroxide, neither of which are likely to play nice with prokaryotic cell structures that can't insulate their genetic sequence from these reactive solvents (and SiO wants HFl + HNO3 and reacts with them while dissolved, which is so much worse). So SiO2 and SiO probably aren't viable for silicon based life, which means that it probably requires a planet with low oxygen levels and a ton of heat which will limit hydrogen availablity...
It's not really Impossible, but life is already a few too many dice rolls in a row on its own for me to hold my breath for silicon based ones to be something we encounter more than once...
Excluding the ones we make ourselves, which will probably be fairly numerous assuming that we don't go the way of the thylacine (killed by human stupidity)
UNDERRATED CHANNEL!!!!!
Carbon needs to chill out lol. what a fantastic video, its nice hearing a human for once, instead of that generic AI voice. subbed for sure!
Afaik in the case of ³He the reason it's so valuable in sci-fi and futurism is because of its ³He-³He reaction which while producing 2/3 the MeV and 2x the Protons still has several advantages:
It uses only one fuel, which is inert
It doesn't produce any D-D reactions which are neutronic
It saves Deuterium for D-⁶Li reactions which are better value for environments where higher MeV output is more important than fuel safety or being fully aneutronic.
Basically ³He-³He is ideal for ships as you're not storing flammable, chemically reactive fuel, or producing a bunch of neutron radiation, while D-⁶Li trumps any ³He reaction for planetary environments where fuel igniting isn't as big an issue and where mass for radiation shielding and more secure fuel storage isn't at a premium, rendering D-³He reactions kinda redundant in any application.
Great video man!
Really looking forward for more content with your style, you bring a good quality, and fun flare to the video while staying rooted in the educational core of the video.
Some great polarizations with the subject of carbon as well, really interesting takes with quick contrasts
Keep it coming! :)
@@ellisrse4347 Thank you!
10:16 i came for science, not for depression, suppose this is the way of life.
Why did I though he would say "veritasium"
very interesting. w vid
Vv good
Carbon need to chill
@@alexandredealmeida93 Ikr
brurb, SO2 is Sulfer Dioxide
@@venomousbook I realized that
What about Neon??
Oh shoot did I forget neon?
I do have a video on it I just forgot to include it in the compilation I guess: ruclips.net/video/_khOdUDTlU0/видео.htmlsi=tZNIpnrvnrGNMKeQ