Episode notes
Alex Schmidt and Katie Goldin explore why the element mercury is secretly incredibly fascinating.
Visit http://sifpod.fun/ for research sources, handy links, and this week’s bonus episode.
LINKS FOR KATIE GOLDIN:
- Katie Goldin on Bluesky
- @ProBirdRights on Bluesky
- ‘Creature Feature’ podcast (iHeartRadio)
- When Is a Bird a ‘Birb’? An Extremely Important Guide (Audubon)
RESOURCES USED TO INFORM THE EPISODE’S LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:
- native-land.ca
- U.S. Department Of Arts And Culture
- The True Native New Yorkers Can Never Truly Reclaim Their Homeland (Smithsonian)
- “Finding Lenapehoking” (YouTube / Hudson River Maritime Museum)
- Why Do They Call It Beacon? (The Highlands Current)
- Dutch & Native American Heritage In The Hudson River Valley (National Park Service)
RESEARCH SOURCES:
- Periodic Tales: A Cultural History of the Elements, from Arsenic to Zinc by Hugh Aldersey-Williams
- Periodic Table: Mercury (Royal Society Of Chemistry)
- Ask An Engineer: Why is mercury liquid at room temperature? (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
- A Mercury Hammer and the Third Law of Thermodynamics (The Royal Institution / YouTube)
- Periodic Table: Gallium (Royal Society Of Chemistry)
- After Millennia of Heavy Use, Mercury Gets the Boot (Smithsonian Magazine)
- Facts About Non-Mercury Thermometers (The Ohio State University)
- Watch What Happens When You Drop an Iron Anvil in a Vat of Liquid Mercury (Popular Mechanics)
- Calder Mercury Fountain — Barcelona, Spain (Atlas Obscura)
- YouTube upload of the mercury “mirror” special effect from ‘Orphée’ (1950)
- The Story of Cinnabar and Vermilion (HgS) at The Met (The Metropolitan Museum Of Art)
- Mercury: Element of the Ancients (Dartmouth Toxic Metals)
- The Facts On Mercury (Dartmouth Toxic Metals)
- A Little Mercurial History (McGill Office For Science And Society)
- The Immortality Chronicles, Part 3 (The Paris Review)
- Archaeologists Tracked Lewis and Clark by Following Their Trail of Laxatives (io9)
- How to Reconstruct Lewis and Clark’s Journey: Follow the Mercury-laden Latrine Pits (Smithsonian Magazine)
- The Art of Not Dying: The First Emperor’s pursuit of immortality. (Lapham’s Quarterly)
- Fact Sheets: Mercury (World Health Organization)
- Diseases & Conditions: Mercury Poisoning (Cleveland Clinic)
- Environmental Disease: Mercury Poisoning (State of Iowa Health & Human Services)
- Madness not to stay safe around Mercury (Amgueddfa Cymru)
- Environmental Pollution: Mercury (Smithsonian Environmental Research Center)
- Better Know a Trace Element: Mercury (“Shorelines” researched blog, from the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center)
- Mercury levels in the atmosphere have decreased throughout the 21st century (American Chemical Society)
- Human emissions increased mercury in the atmosphere sevenfold (Harvard School Of Engineering)
- Dragonflies reveal how toxic mercury moves in nature (Popular Science)
- It is a potentially lethal chemical – but even Mexico’s cartels can’t resist the lure of mercury (The Guardian)
- U.S. Mint Buys Drug Cartel Gold and Sells It as ‘American’ (The New York Times)
- There’s a Ticking Mercury Bomb in the Arctic. Scientists Are Racing to Defuse It. (Popular Mechanics)
- Study Shows Mercury Levels in Arctic Wildlife Could Rise for Centuries (The New York Times)
- As Coal Rebounds, More Toxic Mercury Is in the Air (The New York Times)
- Metal-tolerant fungus cleans up mercury (Chemical & Engineering News)
- Research highlight: Toxic mercury vanishes when this fungus gets to work (Nature)
- How poisonous mercury can get from coal‑fired power plants into fish you eat – EPA just weakened rules meant to lower the risk (The Conversation)
- Why is Mercury called Mercury? (BBC Sky At Night Magazine)
- The Origin Of The Word ‘Mercury’ (NPR Science Friday)
- Olympian Gods: Hermes (Theoi.com)
- Mercury/Hermes (The Fitzwilliam Museum)
- Secretly Incredibly Fascinating: Bismuth
In this episode...
About the show
A weekly podcast about the history, science, lore and surprises that make everyday things secretly incredibly fascinating. Hosted by comedy writer, emoji creator, and ‘Jeopardy!‘ champion Alex Schmidt. Join Alex & his co-host Katie Goldin for a joyful deep dive into seeing the world a whole new way!
Get in touch with the show
@sifpod
@sifpod
SIF on Discord!People
How to listen
Stream or download episodes directly from our website, or listen via your favorite podcatcher!
New? Start here...
Liked Secretly Incredibly Fascinating: Mercury (element)? Listen to these next...
