I'm just impressed how destructive the person was. They even destroyed themselves which seems fitting.

We knew about lead poisoning as early as 100-200 AD. The Roman’s had started to do experiments and observations on the effects of the mind, development in children, and how it could cause paralysis. In fact For awhile they hoped to harness the effects as some sort of pain killer. The difference is with leaded gasoline is at the time no one really thought that the lead would be harmful when burned in such low percentages. It was very dilute and seemed to add nothing noticeable to the exhaust. So if you didn’t choke or experience a reaction soon after exposure it was believed safe. It was also kind of viewed that the air was unlimited, so it would be impossible to poison it. The difference with Roman consumption was that the rate was relatively low by comparison. Water, wine, food released lead at much lower concentrations. In the 1920 to 1970s lead burning eclipsed any possible source the romans could have had access to, it was in everything from your water to food, to soil, to dust. The nasty thing is that even though we stopped using leaded gasoline the impact in the environment is just passing peak levels now, and as it’s been shown to influence DNA and RNA it’s impact is going to take another 100 or so years to remove itself statistically from the populations health effects. Which kind of sheds some insight on how long plastics will impact human biology. Even if we somehow stopped using plastics today, it would probably be 500+ years before the levels in biological systems declined.

@NandR

7 ай бұрын

I wonder how many sources of lead based paint I was around as a kid in the rural south. Old buildings were known to still have those paints on them. We were exposed to all kinds of hazards including second hand smoke.

@LogicalNiko

7 ай бұрын

@@NandR I think it’s still a relatively small factor. Lead based paint is only an issue if consumed, and on top of that the amount your body would be able to free from paint is also not extremely high. Sure it’s a factor, but you don’t have billions of people eating paint 24x7x365. With cars forcing lead in the air from 1921-1986 that’s a massive amount of lead. And that lead continues to be heavily in the air today, taking almost 40 years to settle out after a majority of systems stopped using it. It’ll continue to be accumulating and ingested via our water/soils/plants for another century or two; after which neurological function in humans should return back to pre-1920/1930s levels. It’s not really accurate to say, but in terms of the neurological effects of lead, those born after approximately 1970 through to around 2030 will be the highest impacted. Those born after that will probably have less direct exposure, but may inherit a lot of impacts from their parents. Those 2 generations removed will probably start to show improvements in the IQ and aggressive tendencies problems.

@Fiercesoulking

7 ай бұрын

Not really we found several lifeforms which eat plastic as a energy source. Nature adapt to it because we put out so much of it. The reason for this is possible is oil and a lot of oil products are hydrocarbons which is the same class of stuff our food and a life is made off. Actually there are other new stuff which can't yet produced in large quantities which cause some ? . I mean carbon nanotubes there aren't many studies or result but pre-releases I heard from this stuff has even possible positive results on the human body dispit the fact it has a lot of similar properties of asbestos even if not its more about be aware of the danger. Asbestos problem was it was used in building and workers cut it without any protection and the finished product was unsealed out in the air. About lead its kinda sad but it was really used for everything at the beginning of the 20 century. We again got lead water pipes but also lead power lines in house and even phone lines were long made of lead.

So the lead pipes in Rome were actually pretty safe because Roman water was very hard and the inside of the pipes quickly got costed in a layer of limescale that prevented the lead from leeching into the water.

@0utcast

7 ай бұрын

whilst still being microbiologically unsafe to drink but hey then again era.

@paulrichardspencer

7 ай бұрын

That clearly isn't the case, I live in one of the hardest water areas in the world and yet lead poisoning during the 1800s from pipes wasn't any lower than the national average.

@swig_gigolo

7 ай бұрын

They also didn’t let the water sit in the pipes it was always flowing fast to keep leeching down to a minimum

@Nyx_2142

7 ай бұрын

​@@paulrichardspencerIt very clearly is the case is Roman times and modern times. Are you even aware of how much of modern water piping is still lead because the mineral layer protects the water and in other cases PH is controlled to prevent leeching (Flint, Michigan was a case of not accounting for this after going to a new water source) I'm sorry that your little anecdote doesn't change millennia of proven science.

@lunaticbz3594

7 ай бұрын

We still use lead pipes to this day... Granted if new pipes go in they don't make new pipes out of lead but in the U.S. many water and other utility pipes have yet to be replaced. Flint Michigan is a good example of the chemistry at play the pipes did not cause problems when the water had a neutral ph, once they switched to a water source that was very acidic they had problems.

0:48 It most DEFINITELY is TikTok! 😂

Years back, my dad was talking with whom we found out was a petroleum engineer. My dad took the opportunity to ask him some questions. He knew exactly what my dad’s question was going to be: does lead occur naturally in oil? The answer of course was no, so they were charging more to not put lead into the unleaded gasoline.

@soylentgreenb

7 ай бұрын

Of course 0.1% TEL is a lot cheaper than ~7% MTBE or ~10% ethanol.

@charlesmorschauser5258

3 ай бұрын

That guy was a major psychopath he knew the danger and did it anyway

16:58 Not only did they use lead plumbing in ancient Rome, but the Romans actually intentionally used lead cooking pots to make their wine because the lead leaching from the pots into the wine made it sweeter tasting!!

@justinmcgough3958

7 ай бұрын

The roman aqueduct system also used lead. During portions where the aqueduct had to go through a mountain they used lead to line the walls of the tunnels/pipes. But luckily for the romans, mineral buildup along the lead prevented a lot of long term lead poisonings.

@Nyx_2142

7 ай бұрын

It wasn't just leeching. They sprinkled lead into their wine as well.

@Merennulli

7 ай бұрын

@@Nyx_2142The leaching was to produce defrutum (a mix of lead sugar and reduced fruit juice) which is what you're thinking of that they added to wine. Lead by itself isn't sweet, but lead diacetate (also known as lead sugar) is sweet and is produced when you use an acidic substance (hence the fruit juice) to leach lead. And they were FULLY aware that it was a neurotoxin and joked about it. It was basically the drug of choice of the rich and famous in ancient Rome. If you've ever read or heard of Roman emperors "eating grass in the fields like cattle", that was a contemporary reference to them having a spell of madness from the lead poisoning.

@jamesm1

7 ай бұрын

Roman elites would even add lead oxide dust to their wine for extra sweetness (Roman wine was quite strong, 14-20% abv). Toxic Mad Dog 20/20 lol.

@Merennulli

7 ай бұрын

@@jamesm1Lead diacetate, not lead oxide. See my earlier comment explaining. Lead oxide isn't sweet, it's lead diacetate or "lead sugar" that's sweet and what they were adding to their wine. And the leaching process the top post mentioned was how they produced the lead diacetate additive. I'm guessing your confusion came from lead oxide being a step in the reaction to lead diacetate.

My dad is an hvac tech. He told me that in the 80s, freon was so cheap and available they wouldnt bother reclaiming it. They would cut the copper piping and just let it shoot out until it was gone. All the hvac guys did that for years. I saw guys doing it when I did hvac in 2013/14. Now they use R28 and freon is EXPENSIVE lol like thousands of dollars per jug

@NandR

7 ай бұрын

I had my AC compressor lock up on a road trip one time. It was burning my belt away. I had just enough money to eat and buy gas. I couldn't afford to buy a new one. They did sell an AC Delete kit that just put an idle pulley in its place. I got it and swapped mine in the parking lot. The guys inside the store asked me if I recovered the freon properly and I being the idiot just said "yeah sure". I actually just cut the AC line and all that freon went up in the air. Sorry everyone.....

@Jalan.Anthony

7 ай бұрын

They probably also stopped because they cracked down on it as well. the hefty fine and license removal you get for leaking refrigerant into the atmosphere, is very unforgiving😬

@MadScientist267

7 ай бұрын

That's exactly what we did. No apologies.

@MadScientist267

7 ай бұрын

​@@Jalan.AnthonyThat didn't stop anything. That made us get creative and make "mufflers" to eliminate the hissing as it escaped.

The reason the fuel looked like red wine at your plant is probably due to it being dyed. Road diesel is clear - off road diesel is dyed red. The reason is that it's supposed to be for agriculture use and things like that so it doesn't get the road taxes added on.

@vdoxsamp7283

7 ай бұрын

You stated correct facts but the dye is actually added to catch tax cheats looking for cheap gas.

@pedrodepacas-ic1cb

7 ай бұрын

Correct me if I'm wrong, but but isn't ag fuel a higher sulphur content than filling station diesel? He said they use ultra pure diesel which sounds like kerosene or fuel oil #1 to me.

The last bit on piston driven aircraft engines is an interesting discussion. Many commenters online have said that removing lead from avgas would have a detrimental effect on reliability; however, Lycoming (one of the main manufacturers of piston aircraft engines) actually specify longer service intervals for their more recent engines when they have been run exclusively on unleaded avgas. Makes you wonder what the true opposition to eliminating lead in the industry is. (Availability of unleaded avgas is very limited last I looked it up. Not a pilot, just a topic I did some digging on.)

@jwenting

7 ай бұрын

The opposition is mostly a cost one. Replacing hundreds of thousands of aircraft engines with each thousands of service hours left in them is prohibitively expensive. A system like was used with car engines, where a gradual replacement was mandated with a cutoff date for the sale of new engines only that require lead would be feasible. But because aero engines tend to last much longer than car engines (less operating hours per year, plus far better maintenance mostly) that would still cause only a very slow and gradual phasing out of leaded fuel. The reliability argument is not between engines requiring leaded fuel versus those requiring unleaded fuel so much as it is between using leaded fuel versus fuel with lead replacement agents. The latter leads to less reliable combustion and increased maintenance requirements, both safety concerns. This is also apparent in cars. Classic cars that still have engines requiring leaded fuel (and now running on fuel with lead replacement agents) run more dirty and less reliable as a result of these different additives, plus have more frequent failures.

@kstricl

7 ай бұрын

@@jwenting first step in the journey is to start taking steps. Mandate that new and rebuilt engines be unleaded compatible, work with OEMs and the after market to ensure the parts availability, it will happen. Once plane owners see the reduced maintenance costs, more and more airports will put in the facilities for unleaded allowing more to make the switch. Unfortunately the switch will likely have to be forced rather than as a function of market demand. Not a pilot but I understand that the FAA being slow to certify new and superior parts is a factor as well.

@dragonherald

3 ай бұрын

I am a pilot. I have a spark plug in my office right now that was removed from the engine due to lead build up. I use it to help teach. Mostly not a safety issue to switch to unleaded just a non innovative industry due to costs to prove everything safe. Bit of a give and take but we shouldn’t have to worry about unleaded gas.

brother, you need to look at the "Ford Nucleon", if their is a bad idea, you best beleive someone in the 50's came up with a prototype. from wiki "The design did not include an internal-combustion engine; rather, the vehicle was to be powered by a small nuclear reactor in the rear of the vehicle, based on the assumption that this would one day be possible by reducing sizes. The car was to use a steam engine powered by uranium fission, similar to those found in nuclear submarines."

If I recall correctly, ethanol only became cost effective as a fuel additive because of government subsidies on corn

@TealJosh

7 ай бұрын

Leading to another health crisis through corn syrup, which is pretty much the worst form of sugar used in sweetening of anything. And it doesn't even taste that great, but hot darn is it cheap from the subsidies.

Oh, this is why fuel is called high octane and unleaded

@thirdpedalnirvana

7 ай бұрын

My first car had that sticker on the fuel door that said "unleaded fuel only". Not sure where you'd buy leaded gas in 1996 but ok Volvo I won't put leaded gas in the engine.

@CMDRSweeper

7 ай бұрын

@@thirdpedalnirvana Well you could go to the airport and buy some 100LL for the Volvo... Even today you can get 100LL, but legally putting it in the car may be difficult as the fuel isn't "road taxed"

@IparIzar

7 ай бұрын

@@CMDRSweeper and dyed, every fuel has a dye to be easily identified by the police

I really have an issue with declaring that the guy had "accidentally" poisoned everyone. It was deliberate.

@NandR

7 ай бұрын

I disagree. His intentions were to get rich. His neglected his duty to do so without harming others. It is wrong to say he deliberately poisoned people because that implies it was his primary goal. His greed brought him to ignore the safety hazards and he probably had some high level of cognitive dissonance to help him feel it was worth it. I do disagree with calling it accidental as well. He haphazardly poisoned people in the name of greed.

@mastershooter64

7 ай бұрын

@@NandR this tbh

@MadScientist267

7 ай бұрын

You need a dictionary. The definition of the word "accidental" is important here. Quit making things into something they aren't. Tired of seeing this intentionally distorted BS 🙄

@DarenMiller-qj7bu

2 ай бұрын

I have an issue about your issue. It's oppressive and I'm offended. Go apologize to the minority community.

It wasn't actually that 10% ethanol was so expensive, in fact it may have been less expensive to produce than tetra-ethyl-lead despite the higher quantity needed. The problem was, at the time, it was regulated like drinking alcohol, and had a heavy tax on its sale. So really it was the regulatory environment that pushed the petrochemical industry into using lead. The real evil was not the people developing leaded gasoline, it was the "scientists" like Robert kehoe who denied the harms leaded gas was doing.

@kstricl

7 ай бұрын

Regulatory environment is one of the factors keeping lead in avgas. The FAA is slow to accept changes to private aviation (rightly so, you don't want a lot of planes crashing,) making the transition away very slow. (I commented about this separately as well.)

@gavinjenkins899

7 ай бұрын

It was absolutely also the people developing leaded gasoline. They could have simply used ethanol, passed the cost to the consumer, who would use it anyway because it was much more performant and still saving money in not destroying your expensive engine etc, and the law would have changed in a few months. Or at a minimum, NOT DONE ANY OF THE ABOVE, and continued with the prior product. Ridiculous, slimy, whining, contemptible attempt at an excuse. You should be ashamed for even writing it out and trying to give these monsters any sort of pass whatsoever.

You are the friend i always wish i had to watch these videos with! I greatly appreciate it.

"what about nuclear powered cars" holy crap thats more terrifying than hydrogen fuel cells, could you imagine the clean up after a car accident.

@TealJosh

7 ай бұрын

Hydrogen fuel based cars are no more dangerous than gasoline cars. This misconception of the safety of hydrogen comes from some famous accidents, where the hydrogen was low pressure and somewhat mixed with air, and an utter overconfidence with gasoline, which is extremely dangerous.

The red color of diesel fuel is actually for tax purposes. Red diesel is for off-road use only (such as generators) and sold without some taxes. Red dye is added to tell if it is being illegally used in road vehicles.

You live by the car, you die by the car. RIP Byron Carter.

“oops”

Fridge refrigerant has gone full circle now, from a flammable gas to one that destroys the ozone layer, to one that’s a greenhouse gas and back to an explosive gas. The stuff today in most fridges is Isobutane, or r600a, which is explosive.

@psirvent8

7 ай бұрын

Yes.

@gavinjenkins899

7 ай бұрын

i've never heard of anyone having a serious problem with their fridge exploding. Why was this ever a big deal in the first place?

@tfrowlett8752

7 ай бұрын

@@gavinjenkins899 the gas is explosive if it collects in a confined space in the right proportions. My boss was in an inspection pit and she was degassing a fridge without ventilating the pit and someone next to her wanted to do some oxy welding and the instant he struck the sparked it ignited the gas and caused a big explosion. Not enough to blow out windows but big enough to seriously burn both of them and set them on fire.

I first learned about this on an episode of Tyson's COSMOS. It was my favorite episode and I quickly researched it. Often history isn't so black and white so I was looking for nuance. But there really isn't much to it. Claire Patterson has become a prominent person of history in my mind. I tell people about this story when I get a chance. Its one of the clearest examples of the dangers of unregulated capitalism and science for hire.

In the UK we still have lead pipes in older homes.... they got banned in the 1970's but old homes can still have them.

@psirvent8

7 ай бұрын

Pretty much the same in France unfortunately, also they only got banned in the late 90s. Yikes !

Another fun and informative video. I really enjoy your channel!

Funfact the Effect on Climate thanks to Greenhouse Gasses was known prior in 1911 and some say the first calculations are publisched in 1896. So without "Regulations" nothing will change.

The chart for "acceptable level of lead in blood" looks to me like it might be more related to the amount that is considered the maximum of the typical range in order to help determine if a child has had an unusually high level of exposure. So more like "if above this, there is a specific problem" rather than "this much is safe".

I first heard about Thomas Midgley Jr. on an episode of "Citation Needed".

I just recently found your channel and am intrigued by your explanations, with all respect please keep going. I have one suggestion, say "leave a like" or place an image of a like or something at the end so that people remember to click those buttons for the yt-algorithm to push you forward, because you deserve bigger audience and it's in our nature to forget things. Other than that it's sad to see that a person can be so passively evil, because he knew all along and did nothing, it surely was no accident as you've said, just profit through their eyes, and there still are people like this today..

@tfolsenuclear

7 ай бұрын

Thanks for the suggestions!

Fun fact, when I was an undergrad (start of the 90's) we did a small study on lead distribution by swabbing a bunch of street furniture and found that the residual lead levels beside the main roads was obviously lower than at the streets a block or two back - we hypothesized it was because the lead was sent high up into the air in the hot exhaust and then settled at a distance according to the prevailing winds.

@jwenting

7 ай бұрын

The lower speeds, including more idling vehicles, in side roads, probably didn't help.

@mikelastname

7 ай бұрын

@@jwenting Almost certainly - it was a short research project so we didn't do too much digging, but IIRC, there was a lot of lead, on everything we swabbed.

A wrist fracture caused by an engine crank backfiring and hitting the wrist from the back was such a commom occurence back in the day, that it coined the term "Chauffeur's fracture", which is still used today to describe this type of injury.

When was lead poisoning first discovered? Lead's toxicity was recognized and recorded as early as 2000 BC, the widespread use of lead has been a cause of endemic chronic plumbism in several societies throughout history

I didn't know it was the same guy who made leaded gasoline made perfluorocarbons.... probably the guy who made the most damage to humanity in all of its history.

The remark on lead plumbing in Rome "working as well as you'd think" is actually wrong. The lead pipes oxidated and were mostly harmless. The real lead problem in ancient Rome was that the Romans used lead acetate as a sweetener before sugar was invented.

for him writing accidentally its likely because even today the companies responsible or the estate of this person still has the ability to sue you for libel/defamation regardless if the facts are 100% true

@gavinjenkins899

7 ай бұрын

You don't have to say "intentionally" in the title, just DON'T put "accidentally". He killed the most people. Undeniable simple, no reaching for state of mind, etc. Impossible to get an actual case to court on that.

"it's about TikTok?" -> YES. A big reason to specifically use UF6 instead of some other gaseous Uranium compound is that Fluoride is one of the very few elements that only exists as a single isotope in nature. Any other gaseous Uranium compound would be contaminated with various molecular weights not just caused by the Uranium isotopes but those of the other elements as well.

I'm curious if any of the people he worked with were found guilty for allowing this to happen, the damage is too great to allow even big guys to get away with it specially since they clearly knew this was toxic and damaging.

how dont you have atleast 200K subscribers already??

I'd love to see you make a vid on Agnew. Dude was everywhere in early nuclear.

I don’t get why you have so little subscribers, you are clearly knowledgeable on these topics and give informed and educated opinions and facts. I really like this channel!

@ryanf1372

7 ай бұрын

Because his channel is new

@CMDRSweeper

7 ай бұрын

Because today subscribers aren't proportional to quality of content anymore.

@vibaj16

7 ай бұрын

@@CMDRSweeper they never really were

24:00 keep in mind here that there is context missing in this graph. Lead was used in all kinds of products, not just in gasoline. Paint may have been just as wide use as gasoline for lead, though exposure would be significantly less for kids, as kids usually didn't paint for a living. Think of it like asbestos. Asbestos fibers were used as a reinforcement agent in a lot of products - not just insulation.

We don't know exactly how far back knowledge of lead's toxicity goes, but it's likely into prehistory. As you said, it's not going to be hard to figure out if you use it a lot and lead was already being mined by 8500 years ago. The oldest recorded medical description of it that I'm aware of was from the 3rd century BC in Greece. The Roman emperors others mentioned who drank wine intentionally sweetened with "lead sugar" knew full well they were drinking a substance that was damaging their brains. If you've heard the stories of emperors "eating grass in the fields like cattle", that is a turn of phrase from that era that refers to the mental degradation of lead poisoning. In a very real sense it was that era's equivalent of famous people overdosing on psychoactive drugs today. They would boil down mashed fruit in lead pots to leech lead from the pots into the reduced fruit juice so it was a fairly expensive sweetener for wine as well. And it's not alone. From the "elixir of life" ancient Chinese emperors took that their alchemists knowingly used toxic mercury in as a solvent (they knew it was toxic but it was also the only solvent that worked on the substances they thought had magic properties), to the 19th century leatherworkers and hatters whose common fate inspired the Mad Hatter, and to the coal that puts mercury in the air that accumulates in the fish we eat - it's been known since recorded history to be toxic and used anyway.

You were correct in saying it was negligence. I don't hesitate to say that Midgley, being aware of the risks but disregarding them simply for profits, makes him the most evil human in history.

Keep doing Veritasium videos.

I recommend the video "Building A Nuclear Star In A Jar (Fusor)"

When I first watched this video, I had heard of both Clair Patterson and Thomas Midgley Jr., but their work was firmly set in my mind. So this misdirection at the beginning got me. I thought we were going one way and it turned out we were headed somewhere else.

the romans also used a lead salt/ lead sugar as a wine sweetener, which arguable could have influenced the fall of rome considering the leaders would have the money and access to the leaded wine.

These commercials are great. "How much harm could a little lead do?" Insert beverage commercial lol.

I recommend "Hexagons are the Bestagons by CGP Grey".

21:57 but lead is heavier than salt water, so it won't necessarily mix into the ocean water - aqueous lead will sink.

This could be a follow up to Oppenheimer

17:06 interesting fact: in french, lead is called "plomb". Idk if it's the origin, but it's similar to "plumbing", which is called "plomberie" in french. so the origin of the word "plumbing" may be from lead pipes.

@Xnoob545

7 ай бұрын

Lead has the symbol Pb - for Plumbum

@nycgus

26 күн бұрын

Not a coincidence. The Latin word for lead is "plumbum" and is the source of the English terms "plumbing" and "plumber"... via the old French "plommier" - someone who works with lead. There are still many lead water pipes in the US- connecting municipal water mains to homes.

Red diesel just means that it is not taxed. It's for off highway use for agriculture and generators. The red dye diesel has the btu's per gallon as green dye

I unfortunately suffered the consequences as a child of lead and mercury. I was an A student in 1st and 2nd grade and showed remarkable intellect. About third grade I became interested in gasoline engines rebuilding them and so on unfortunately was using leaded gasoline to wash everything with my hands. Even being conscious enough to wash after finishing was not enough. At the same time I also received the polio vaccine which had something like 60 times the amount of mercury preservative in it than was needed. Then add Mercury amalgam dental work at the same time. I became a C student in 3rd grade and started displaying learning and autistic problems the rest of my life.

Simon Whistler just did one on the into the shaddows channel about a cobalt 60 orphan source, could be a good one see what you think of.

"Its not tiktok is it?" on the enviromental disasters. I fucking laughed so loud the cops came xD

flouride also gets taken up as calcium and makes your bones pourous and brittle

red diesel is dyed to be red because it is off road diesel and doesnt have the road taxes that regular fuel has at the pump. it is meant for generators and tractors stuff that wont be going on the road. so that red color isnt about it being special as far as starting and things like that.

12:48 no. That came later, in the 50s and 60s, it started to become well known that low levels of heavy metals cause neurological and endocrinological problems.

@ltsiver

7 ай бұрын

The problem of knowledge is that it doesn't float to everyone. It wasn't till the internet age that we all can search for this stuff to find easily.

There has to be something times to lupus and things like that as well.. I know it can be a trigger, but that’s about all I know all I have to do some research.. just started wondering that while watching this..

back in the heydays of nuclear reactor science some people thought up theoretical designs for compression ignited plutonium engines. very much a materials challenge though.

He really said “it wasn’t TikTok was it?” 💀💀

18:35 aerosolized lead was deposited on everything.

"The man who accidentally..." then Veritasium goes on to explain that not only did the guy know, he did it anyways; i.e. with intention. I know that Veritasium loves clickbait, but thats just a straight up lie in the title.

"It's not TikTok, is it?" lmao

Quick question, but what do we use now?

@psirvent8

7 ай бұрын

As a gasoline additive ? Ethanol and Ethyl tert-butyl ether aka EBTE. And in fridges ? isobutane, propane and even CO2 at some supermarkets for their large fridges.

The red in that fuel is a die. To tell by sight that it is not road use fuel.

18:42 And it all comes back full-circle.

I do wonder who started the depiction of radioactive things having a green glow. It seems like we would use the blue-white Cherenkov radiation glow?

@mikelastname

7 ай бұрын

or radium (actually Zinc Sulfide is the photon emitter) which tends to have a greenish glow

24:50 the problem with that estimate is how do you prove that. You can't.

Robert fricking Kehoe

I did like the showmanship of that episode. Veritasium beings with the related story of the nuclear physicist trying to figure out the age of samples, and a large portion of the audience will be immediately thinking "oh what did this guy do." Clever subversion of expectactions.

11:17 Maybe there's something to the whole miasma thing after all.

11:54 I'm not sure it would survive car wrecks. Also, getting a nuclear fission plant miniturized and light enough to give most of the energy to motion... That would be difficult.

@ltsiver

7 ай бұрын

Not to mention the environmentalists backlash

The Ancient Roman's used Lead Acetate as a wine sweetener.

When you speedrun extinction I can't believe that one man singlehandedly started to kill off humanity he's worse than most supervillains and if he didn't die he probably would've created a virus or started a war or something who knows

Thr reason for the color of the diesel at the power plant is it is road tax exempt. It's also cald ag fuel

Carbon 14 is only used to find the age of organic samples, bones and plant fossils etc. Unless the rock has organics inside you cannot use carbon dating to find it's age.

It would be cool if you could do the Kodak/nuclear video by veritasium.

The most dangerous organism ever killed himself on accident

Wait!? All that and the video ends telling us we still have planes flying overhead spraying that stuff on us!?

Kyle Hill's latest video might spark your fancy

Does it taste like red wine too?

0:25 that was the best saying in the world

It stands to reason that if exposure to lead causes learning disabilities that would lead to kids getting worse educational outcomes. From that its a direct causation for getting lesser paying jobs and thus being confined to lower income areas where scarcity of opportunities and the aforementioned educational outcomes combine to cause higher wealth inequality and higher crime rates.

@TealJosh

7 ай бұрын

That used worse construction materials, were subject to red lining before 70s. Lead based paints and water pipes... It's a whole mess and the economic damage that this caused to generations of people, in so many ways, is immeasurable in currency and unfathomable in its horror.

“Whoops zat was not medicine” medic

Ethanol as a fuel is not really any more economical than it used to be, the only reason it is used now is because the government subsidizes it. Also the most recent studies point to it being a substantial net negative when it comes to carbon emissions

its a natural part of the enviroment so not harmful to people??? huh, so is lava.

@psirvent8

7 ай бұрын

Yeah.

:45 it's lead isn't it?

remember all those times you barely didn't get a passing grade? blame that guy!

Your desiel probably looks like red wine because of a dye used to differentiate it from automotive diesel which is taxed differntly.

@tee4222

7 ай бұрын

Yep, red dye is used in off the road and marine applications. It’s to signify its tax exemption. If you get caught putting it in a road vehicle, it can cost you some hefty fines

Do not let bro cook again 💀🙏

Nuclear cars would need to be insanely heavily regulated compared to normal cars, to the point they could never become a mass success. Electric cars (perhaps powered by nuclear plants!) make a lot more sense.

6 minutes and 49 seconds in and I know exactly what this is. There's a dollop episode about this guy.

The real danger of lead, is lead compounds, as opposed to pure lead metal. All chemistry involves the surrounding electrons, especially the outermost valence electrons. That makes the difference. Conversely, that's why the sodium compound, table salt (NaCl) is relatively safe, while sodium metal reacts violently, with water, and Chlorine (Cl) gas is poisonous. Lead and even mercury metal are relatively safe. The dangers are lead and mercury compounds, such as tetraethyl lead, used as the anti-knock agent in gasoline, lead carbonate (PbCO3) in "lead paint", and dimethyl mercury, that horrifically killed chemistry professor Karen Wetterhahn, over several months. The lead from lead metal items, that killed the ancients, was that it reacted with what its contact with, such as wine, over time, creating deadly lead compounds. FYI, I'm a boomer, born in the middle of those toxic "lead in the air", years. To compound that, in the Los Angeles area, where the smog got so bad, there were days, when you couldn't see the end of the block, in that sickening orange haze.

As far as the crime is concerned. It could have a fair bit to do with the education problems. The more trouble you have in and with the system, the more likely you are to fall out of it and as a result feel like you have no choice to survive. So if lead caused more school dropouts, then it could easily lead to more crime as those dropouts were trying to survive in a system they didn't fit into anymore.

This guy is the honey badger of humanity. He just did not give a shit.

what is crazy is that leaded jet fuel is still a thing in 2023, most in small aircraft but still baffling

the FIRST ever person whoever it was to propose the concept of a religion (the basis for religion, not what religion but the concept that makes it up). they are guilty of the most deaths. hands down...

And there is lead in today's baby chew toys. Just imagine if a piece of it breaks off.

and he was just about to release his next invention - the gamma rays medical imaging machine. who needs xrays when you can use gamma rays. also it is guaranteed to discover tumors in 100% of the test subjects. though you may need to perform multiple scans, after a few it is guarenteed it will show tumors that wouldn't be found had you used the outdated xrays.

@gavinjenkins899

7 ай бұрын

It would be more expensive to attempt to image gamma rays, so we are probably safe.

To quote KZreadr Matt Gray about Midgely "On a list of all the people who shouldn't have bothered, he's on it."