THE MYSTERY OF MATTER: SEARCH FOR THE ELEMENTS is a series about one of the great adventures in the history of science: the long, continuing quest to understand what the world is made of. Join Emmy-winner Michael Emerson to see not only what scientific explorers discovered, but also how.
Episode 1: “Out Of Thin Air (1754-1806)” airs Wed., Sept. 30 at 11 p.m. - See how the discovery of oxygen by one of science’s great odd couples—Joseph Priestley and Antoine Lavoisier—triggers a worldwide search for new elements. Soon caught up in the hunt is chemist Humphry Davy, whose showmanship dazzles London audiences.
Episode 2: “Unruly Elements (1859-1902)”airs Wed., Oct. 7 at 11 p.m. - Dmitri Mendeleev invents the Periodic Table, bringing order to the elements. This order is shattered when Marie Curie discovers radioactivity, revealing that elements can change identities — and atoms contain undiscovered parts.
Episode 3: “Into The Atom (1910-1960)” airs Wed., Oct. 14 at 11 p.m. - Caught up in the race to discover the atom’s internal parts, Harry Moseley uses newly discovered X-rays to put the Periodic Table in a whole new light. Glenn Seaborg creates a new element—plutonium—that changes the world forever.
This series is available for online viewing through November 19, 2015.
THE MYSTERY OF MATTER: SEARCH FOR THE ELEMENTS is on Facebook. This series was produced by Moreno/Lyons Productions LLC.
Find biographies, educational materials and more videos at the official MYSTERY OF MATTER website.
Joseph Priestley | A Momentous Encounter
"While holding a variety of jobs as a minister
Antoine Lavoisier | Lavoisier’s Better Half
"Before and after work each day as a tax administrator for the king of France
Carl Wilhelm Scheele | Discovering Fire Air
"In this extra clip from the film
Humphry Davy | Davy’s Greatest Failure
"Humphry Davy’s discovery of laughing gas made him famous and led to a new job at the Royal Institution in London
Dmitri Mendeleev | The Element Mendeleev Never Accepted
"Dmitri Mendeleev’s grasp of chemistry was so legendary that he accurately predicted the properties of three elements before they were discovered. But the "father of the Periodic Table" never accepted the properties of radium
Marie Curie | The Radium Craze
"After Marie and Pierre Curie’s discovery of radium
Harry Moseley | Changing the Role of Scientists in War
"In 1913
Glenn Seaborg | A Chemist Goes to War
"In 1941
