Season 513: The Periodic Table

[uke4ia]

I couldn't find time to learn "Love Is Like Oxygen", but on Friday I got an idea for this little bit of doggerel.




Lyrics:

It’s a curium feeling to have
But if I’m being totally cerium
I’m picturing you barium in my imaginarium
And oh, do you look radium, tantalum, scandium
Good gallium, Miss Molybdenum!

Sodium want to hit the rhodium
And we’ll drive to Californium?
Oh, the world it could be arsenic

Argon who art in hafnium
All chlorine be to thy name
I want to tritium her right
I don’t want to be a cadmium, a helium
But I do want to kiss her with some tungsten

I’ll get you a pot of germaniums

I think I’ll stop now before it gets too boron

 

[jtsteam]

Well, uke4ia's pun-fest brings us to the end of this elementary season. Thanks for all your songs - there were 53 videos in total mentioning 52 distinct elements (44% of the total! Wow!), as well as a couple of songs managing to mention all of them. I'll post the final scores when I've had them verified by the committee.

 

[Yukio]

the story of californium goes something like this according to the www
Californium was first made in 1950 at Berkeley, California, by a team consisting of Stanley Thompson, Kenneth Street Jr., Albert Ghiorso, and Glenn Seaborg. They made it by firing helium nuclei (alpha particles) at curium-242. The process yielded the isotope californium-245 which has a half-life of 44 minutes. Curium is intensely radioactive and it had taken the team three years to collect the few milligrams needed for the experiment, and even so only a few micrograms of this were used. Their endeavours produced around 5,000 atoms of californium, but there was enough to show it really was a new element.

my incredulity to the tune of jack and jill for season 513



is it just an urban myth that before testing the first atomic bomb some of the scientists believed it could destroy the planet as we know it but still went ahead anyway?

NOT A MYTH. Fermi warned that it was possible for the chain reaction to entrain to the earths atmosphere, burning the whole planet. Bernie wrote a song about this.

 

[Yukio]

Please watch Bernie's video. It is a scorcher and it deserves many many more views.

 

[Yukio]

Thank you for the thrilling season, Edwin. And thanks to all the wonderful participants.
Early in the thread, as part of her MOLYBDENUM entry, BEV brought up the possibility of HOSTING LITE. Please read and if you are so moved, comment on her idea.
As an experiment, I went through the postings on this season navigating only by this thread and not by a YouTube playlist. It is a lot like "taking the scenic route;" a little slower, but more rewarding and engaging. I would like to second BEVs motion to make HOSTING LITE an option to the traditional hosting format.
--Yukio

 

[jtsteam]

Hi everyone,
I realise I haven't posted the final scores yet, and I'm sure you're all desperate to find out, so here we go:

• 14 songs, taking the Gold medal: Gold (Au)
• 12 songs, taking the Silver medal: Silver (Ag)
• 8 songs, sharing the Bronze medal: Copper (Cu) and Helium (He)

That's quite pleasing in a way, especially since Bronze is mostly made of copper. I'm no chemist, but I think it's unlikely that it has any Helium in it. We also had:

• 7: Carbon (C)
• 6: Neon (Ne)
• 5: Iron (Fe)
• 4: Cobalt (Co), Hydrogen (H), Oxygen (O), Californium (Cf), Arsenic (As)
• 3: Tin (Sn), Nitrogen (N), Sodium (Na), Lead (Pb), Lithium (Li), Chromium (Cr), Sulphur (S), Potasssium (K), Mercury (Hg), Cerium (Ce), Molybdenum (Mb), Argon (Ar), Chlorine (Cl), Boron (B)
• 2: Aluminium (Al), Curium (Cm), Nickel (Ni), Oxygen (O), Phosphorus (P), Calcium (Ca), Krypton (Kr), Gallium (Ga), Americium (Am), Tennessine (Ts), Vanadium (V), Selenium (Se), Iridium (Ir), Titanium (Ti), Uranium (U), Iodine (I), Polonium (Po), Plutonium (Pu), Radium (Ra), Tantalum (Ta), Scandium (Sc), Rhodium (Rh), Hafnium (Hf), Cadmium (Cd), Tungsten (W), Germanium (Ge), Tom Lehrer
• 1: Everything else

No prizes this week, but I do want to give a special mention to Del who is responsible for the "1: Everything else" thanks to getting every element into a song. Well done!

And that's a wrap - thanks all! I'll no doubt be back with another suitably nerdy theme at some point in the future. And now, back to the Christmas songs. I've just made some (non-alcoholic but really quite potent) ginger wine in an effort to be slightly seasonal. Yum yum.

 

[DelGriff]

Thanks, Edwin - great idea for a theme - loved the challenge. And even my daughter, who hates my music with a passion, was just ever so slightly impressed by my song mentioning every element in the periodic table. And I hope you weren’t too offended when I called you a nerd at the open mic on Saturday - as they say, it takes one to know one! And I actually consider it to be a compliment of the highest order!

 

[joo]

Thank you for the thrilling season, Edwin. And thanks to all the wonderful participants.
Early in the thread, as part of her MOLYBDENUM entry, BEV brought up the possibility of HOSTING LITE. Please read and if you are so moved, comment on her idea.
As an experiment, I went through the postings on this season navigating only by this thread and not by a YouTube playlist. It is a lot like "taking the scenic route;" a little slower, but more rewarding and engaging. I would like to second BEVs motion to make HOSTING LITE an option to the traditional hosting format.
--Yukio

the "scenic route" is a much more delightful and rewarding route. I totally agree.
Perhaps, as a start, the upcoming hosts may wanna set his or her own rules, such as Hosting Lite, or have a limit on the entries for the week? I don't think we need to stick to a fixed format at all!

 

[jtsteam]

And I hope you weren’t too offended when I called you a nerd at the open mic on Saturday

Not at all!
I mean, it's true, after all...

 

[hendulele]

Edwin, this was a lovely theme. Thanks for hosting and Season’s (ahem) Greetings!

 

[bird's eye view of my ukelele]

Thank you for the solid gold season! Birdy loves nerdy!

 

[DelGriff]

Birdy loves nerdy!

Oooh - get your coat, Edwin - I think you've pulled!