科学！最稀有的贵金属是什么？：英语精读讲义

Hey, Vsauce. Michael here and I'm in Anaheim at VidCon.

嘿，Vsauce。这里是 Michael，我现在正在阿纳海姆参加 VidCon。

I hope to see some of you here because I like you guys,

希望能在这里见到你们中的一些人，因为我喜欢你们，

but I can't marry all of you.

但我不可能跟你们所有人结婚。

But if I did put a ring on it, 習語

不过，如果我真的要送出一枚戒指，

what is the most precious thing you could make that ring out of? 短語搭配

用什么最珍贵的东西来做这枚戒指呢？

Uh silver, gold, platinum,

呃，银、金、铂，

those are all fine,

这些都不错，

but I want to know what is the rarest most scarce thing on Earth

但我想知道，地球上最稀有、最难得的东西是什么，

that's stable and safe to wear

它既稳定，戴起来又安全，

I could make that ring out of.

而且可以用来做这枚戒指。

And I want it to be pure.

我还希望它是纯的。

I'm talking elemental. 語氣意圖

我说的是元素本身。

Well,

嗯，

luckily,

幸运的是，

I recently went to the University of Nottingham,

我最近去了诺丁汉大学，

home of Periodic Videos,

那里也是 Periodic Videos 的大本营，

and experimented with some elements.

并拿一些元素做了实验。

First things first, 短語搭配

首先，

zinc dissolved in mercury.

锌溶解在汞中。

This stuff is awesome.

这东西太棒了。

It's dense.

它密度很大。

It's heavy.

它很重。

It's liquid metal.

它是液态金属。

It's cool,

很酷，

but even cooler is human urine.

但更酷的是人的尿液。

Thank you, Neil.

谢谢你，Neil。

Of course,

当然，

I'm just kidding.

我只是在开玩笑。

This is an aqueous solution of the metal vanadium.

这是金属钒的水溶液。

And when we mix vanadium in with the mercury and the zinc, 短語搭配

当我们把钒与汞和锌混合时，

the mercury helps the zinc give electrons to the vanadium. 語法

汞会帮助锌把电子转移给钒。

And as it gains more and more electrons, 語法

随着它得到越来越多的电子，

it changes color.

它会变色。

We're looking for purple.

我们要找的是紫色。

I love shaking this.

我太喜欢摇这个了。

It's crazy.

简直疯了。

It's like throwing me off balance. 短語搭配

感觉都快把我晃得失去平衡了。

It's so heavy.

它太重了。

Look at that.

看啊。

Thank you, electrons.

谢谢你们，电子。

Those colors were beautiful,

那些颜色很美，

but vanadium's not that rare.

但钒并没有那么稀有。

I want to get something more precious.

我想找更珍贵的东西。

And how about precious personally? 用詞

那来点对我个人而言很珍贵的东西呢？

Like my dad.

比如我爸爸。

He's a chemical engineer who specifically works with and has a patent concerning one element,

他是一名化学工程师，专门研究一种元素，还拥有与它有关的专利，

sulfur.

硫。

Of course,

当然，

a fun thing to do with sulfur is to make it bark like a dog. 語法

用硫可以做的一件趣事，就是让它像狗一样叫。

Here's what we're going to do. 表達脈絡

我们要这样做。

We're going to take a glass tube and fill it with laughing gas, 短語搭配

我们会拿一根玻璃管，往里面充入笑气，

nitrous oxide.

也就是一氧化二氮。

We're going to pour a little bit of water into the tube to cushion and protect the tube,

我们会先往管中倒一点水，起缓冲作用并保护玻璃管，

and then we're going to pour in some liquid carbon disulfide.

然后再倒入一些液态二硫化碳。

It's very volatile and will evaporate,

它挥发性很强，会蒸发，

giving us a mixture of gases inside this tube.

这样管内就会形成混合气体。

Finally,

最后，

I will light the top of the tube,

我会点燃管口，

causing the carbon disulfide to burn. 語法

让二硫化碳燃烧起来。

And as it burns,

在它燃烧的过程中，

the temperature and pressure in the tube will increase,

管内的温度和压力会升高，

causing the reaction to go faster and faster.

使反应进行得越来越快。

It'll accelerate and bark.

反应会加速，然后像狗一样叫。

Wow.

哇。

And look at all the sulfur on the sides of the tube.

再看看管壁上的这些硫。

That reaction was fun and cool and powerful,

这个反应既有趣又酷，还很猛烈，

but we're way off track here. 習語

但我们已经严重跑题了。

Even though sulfur is precious and dear to my heart, 習語

尽管硫对我来说弥足珍贵，

it's not that rare at all.

它其实一点也不稀有。

So let's get crazy and talk about astatine.

那我们就来点疯狂的，聊聊砹。

Astatine is so rare here on Earth 語法

砹在地球上稀有到了这种程度，

that we don't even know what it looks like.

我们甚至不知道它长什么样。

If you were to try to get enough astatine atoms together 語法

如果你想把足够多的砹原子聚在一起，

that you could see it with your own eyes, 短語搭配

多到能让你亲眼看见，

it would instantly vaporize itself

它会立刻把自己汽化，

because of its radioactive heat.

因为它的放射性会产生热量。

The fact that it's so radioactive means it wouldn't be great as a ring, 語法

它的放射性这么强，显然不适合做戒指，

so let's move on to something a little bit more standard and see where it takes us, 講解

所以我们换个常规一点的东西，看看它能把我们引向哪里，

gold.

金。

Gold,

金，

of course,

当然，

is famous for its unreactivity, 短語搭配

以化学性质不活泼而闻名，

which is why it's a great way to store your wealth.

因此非常适合用来储存财富。

If you have a lot of gold laying around,

如果你手头有很多金子，

the likelihood that it will combine with other elements 語法

它与其他元素结合，

and dissolve or rust or corrode is basically zero,

继而溶解、生锈或腐蚀的可能性基本为零，

with the exception of some special solutions. 短語搭配

某些特殊溶液除外。

In particular,

特别是，

one discovered in the 1300s

一种发现于14世纪的溶液，

with the fancy name aqua regia. 文化背景

它有个华丽的名字——王水。

It's made out of hydrochloric acid and nitric acid,

它由盐酸和硝酸配制而成，

and we're about to make some right now, 語法

我们现在就要现场配一点，

thanks to Neil from Periodic Videos.

多亏了 Periodic Videos 的 Neil。

Of course,

当然，

we're using this fume cupboard 用詞

我们会使用这个通风橱，

because the fumes that come off the nitric acid 短語動詞

因为硝酸释放出的气体

are quite dangerous.

相当危险。

It's the gas NO2,

那是 NO2 气体，

and if you inhale it,

如果吸入它，

nitric acid forms in your lungs.

你的肺里就会形成硝酸。

So instead of doing that,

所以我们还是别吸了，

let's put some gold in aqua regia.

来把一些金放进王水里吧。

We're just going to use this ancient priceless Egyptian relic.

我们就用这件古老而无价的埃及文物。

Let's go ahead and try this out. 短語動詞

来试试看吧。

As the gold dissolves,

随着金逐渐溶解，

what we wind up with in the evaporating dish is chloroauric acid, 短語動詞

最后留在蒸发皿里的是氯金酸，

auric coming from aurum, 文化背景

“auric”一词源自“aurum”，

the Latin word for gold,

也就是拉丁语中的“金”，

which is why gold's symbol on the periodic table is Au.

所以金在元素周期表中的符号是 Au。

It's really sad to watch that gold dissolve away.

眼看着那些金溶掉，真让人难过。

I wish there was a way for us to just make other things into gold. 語法

真希望我们能把别的东西直接变成金。

Now I know what you're thinking, 語氣意圖

我知道你现在在想什么，

Michael,

Michael，

that's alchemy.

那是炼金术。

But alchemy is quite real.

但炼金术确实可以成真。

In today's particle accelerators,

在今天的粒子加速器中，

we can smash particles together,

我们可以让粒子互相撞击，

creating elements.

从而制造元素。

At the accelerator collider at GSI,

在 GSI 的加速器对撞机中，

they can create gold by smashing particles together 語法

他们可以通过让粒子相撞来制造金，

at a rate of 2 million gold atoms every second. 短語搭配

速度达到每秒200万个金原子。

That's pretty cool,

这很酷，

right? 語氣意圖

对吧？

Well,

不过，

as you know,

如你所知，

atoms are incredibly small.

原子小得不可思议。

They're so small

它们实在太小了，

that even though GSI can make 2 million new gold atoms every single second,

因此，尽管 GSI 每秒能制造200万个新的金原子，

were they to leave the machine on at that rate for 50 million years, 語法

就算机器以这个速度连续运转5000万年，

they would only produce 1 g of gold.

也只能产出1克金。

Gold is rare and precious and expensive,

金稀有、珍贵而且昂贵，

but gold is 40% more common than iridium. 語法

但金的丰度比铱高40%。

And iridium is incredibly resilient.

而铱的耐受力强得惊人。

It doesn't dissolve in aqua regia,

它不会溶于王水，

and it's not even attacked by molten metals or silicates at high temperature,

即使面对高温下的熔融金属或硅酸盐，也不会受到侵蚀，

which is nice and stoic,

这很不错，也够沉稳，

but not as pretty as cerium,

但它没有铈那么漂亮，

which reacts at high temperature to form beautiful little sparkles.

铈会在高温下发生反应，迸发出美丽的小火花。

As we continue our journey to discover the rarest thing on Earth to make a ring out of, 表達脈絡

在我们继续寻找地球上最稀有的戒指材料时，

we've got to discuss osmium.

就不得不谈谈锇。

This stuff is so rare,

这东西极其稀有，

there's fewer than one part per billion in our Earth's crust. 用詞

在地壳中的含量不到十亿分之一。

But we're not done yet.

但我们还没说完。

Iridium and osmium are both in the platinum family.

铱和锇都属于铂族元素。

And if you take a look at platinum,

如果你看看铂，

it's much more common than both iridium and osmium,

就会发现它比铱和锇都常见得多，

but there's something neat that I think we should consider, 語氣意圖

但还有一个很有意思的概念，我觉得我们应该考虑一下，

stable isotopes.

稳定同位素。

And it's one of the isotopes of platinum that will finish our story, 語法

故事的结尾，就要落在铂的一种同位素上，

platinum 190.

铂-190。

It's a stable isotope with a half-life of over a billion years, 用詞

它是一种半衰期超过10亿年的稳定同位素，

it's non-reactive.

而且化学性质不活泼。

It fits all our criteria. 短語搭配

它符合我们的全部标准。

A ring made of the scarcest naturally occurring stable non-reactive thing.

用自然界中最稀少、稳定且不活泼的东西做成的戒指。

So hey,

所以嘛，

it would be an awesome ring.

它会是一枚超棒的戒指。

Now you're probably wondering, 表達脈絡

现在你可能想问，

Michael,

Michael，

why did you experiment with vanadium, 文化背景

你为什么要拿钒、

sulfur, gold,

硫、金

and cerium?

和铈做实验呢？

Well,

这个嘛，

here's what's interesting.

有趣的地方来了。

Take a look at the periodic table

看看元素周期表，

and their symbols.

再看看它们的元素符号。

Ta-da.

锵锵。

Vsauce.

Vsauce。

And as always,

一如既往，

thanks for watching.

感谢观看。