hi there everyone I'm Brady and I'm the
guy who makes the periodic videos now
I'm not a scientist but next Monday I'm
going to be performing bit of an
experiment through the day from midnight
to midnight I'm going to be releasing a
new video every hour on the hour they're
not going to be our usual periodic
videos they're going to be very short
just little snippets of our favorite
reactions
explosions color changes all the things
we like most here on periodic videos it
should be a lot of fun now if you
already subscribe to periodic videos
you're going to notice a bit more
activity than usual in your fades I
apologize for that but I hope it's
something you enjoy if you're not
subscribed to periodic videos well now's
your chance
go on subscribe and enjoy all the action
we show on Monday now you're probably
wondering why we chose Monday for this
little celebration of chemistry and the
reason is it's the birthday of a chemist
called Berzelius he was an 18th century
chemist and you probably haven't heard
of him he's not famous like an Einstein
or a Newton or a Rutherford but he's
really important he's one of the real
grandfather's of chemistry and that's
what the rest of this film is going to
be dedicated to telling you more about
this amazing man called Berzelius
we're here in the library of the Royal
Society again and I wanted to tell you
about the Swedish chemist called
Berzelius whose role in kept the history
of chemistry is really very important
but lots of people have never heard of
him the reason why it is important is
that not only did his discover four
elements silicon selenium thorium and
cerium but he also invented several of
the terms that we use every day in
chemistry for example he invented the
word catalysis and to describe how some
substances can make chemical reactions
go faster without being changed
themselves he also invented the word
polymer which we now use to mean plastic
but in those days he used to describe
organic compounds and here in the
library there are some letters that he
wrote to people in England and also a
paper that he submitted to be published
in the journal that's published by the
Royal Society so let's look at a few of
them this is a letter from him here's
his signature saying azaleas and it
would appear from these letters that he
either didn't know any English or he was
much happier writing in French because
the letter here is in French and there's
another letter over here from him in
French you've got to understand it's
really exciting for me to see the
handwriting of a famous chemist because
people like him died long before there
were videos or tape recordings so this
is the closest that you can get to the
voice of one of the masters of chemistry
but in some ways I suppose the one
that's most interesting to me is the
manuscript here of a paper that he
published here's a printed page of the
paper this is a photocopy so I can hold
it without damage and there's several
things that are interesting the first
thing the
it's in English the second thing that I
think is very interesting is that even
in 1813 berzelius who lived in Stockholm
was working together and doing joint
experiments with somebody who was
working in a hospital in London so we
tend to think of international
collaboration in science as being quite
modern but here 199 years ago it was
already going on so this is the printed
version and here is the manuscript this
is what they actually wrote and sent to
the journal there were no typewriters in
those days and then the printers work
from this and what's really quite
exciting is here is their diagram that
they drew you're heating something up
here I think it's sulfur and getting a
reaction to take place and collecting a
gas here where it says H this is that
what they actually drew and put in their
manuscript and here is the I can now I
can fold the paper so you can see it
more easily
here is the same diagram as it was
printed and I think if you look
carefully this one looks neater than
that one I have another connection with
Berzelius which is quite an exciting one
when I did my doctorate I was supervised
by a professor and I learnt from him and
in my turn
I've had students and they've had
students so if you take me and then my
PhD supervisor Jim Turner and then go to
his PhD supervisor Norman Shepherd you
can go back through one supervisor after
another and it leads back to Berzelius
so in fact Berzelius is my six times
great-grandfather great great great
great great and lost count we're not
related in any way but he taught his
students how to do science and they
taught their students
so I have learnt how to do science
indirectly from Coos alias it's not very
often that people trace back their their
scientific family tree but I was really
lucky I had a colleague Harold booth who
some years ago about 20 years ago took
all the staff at Nottingham and traced
back their family trees and so I didn't
have to do anything at all except copy
it down afterwards I don't think I would
have had the patience to do it myself
but what it means is that because in
Berzelius this time there were so few
scientists in fact the word scientist
didn't exist until late in Berzelius
life that probably many of the people in
chemistry are also related from
Berzelius and they may all be my cousins
burrs alias is one of the people that
laid the foundations for chemistry he's
not somebody who is famous in the way
that people use his name every day like
Michael Faraday who have units named
after them but he was one of the real
founders of the subject and there's
another reason why I'm quite fond of
Berzelius a rather trivial one but his
birthday the 20th of August was the same
day as my father's birthday as some of
you know my father was Russian and when
my father was born they had a different
calendar and so my father was born on by
the calendar that's used in the West on
August the 20th but on the Russian
calendar on August the 7th and by a
strange coincidence August the 7th was
Bizet Lea's date of death so there's a
double connection with my father which i
think is quite intriguing