科學！最稀有的貴金屬是什麼？：英語精讀講義

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

嘿，Vsauce。這裡是 Michael，我現在正在安那翰參加 VidCon。

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

希望能在這裡見到你們當中的一些人，因為我喜歡你們，

but I can't marry all of you.

但我不可能跟你們所有人結婚。

But if I did put a ring on it, 慣用語

不過，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? 片語搭配

用什麼最珍貴的東西來做這枚戒指呢？

Uh silver, gold, platinum,

呃，銀、金、鉑，

those are all fine,

這些都不錯，

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、最難得的東西是什麼，

that's stable and safe to wear

它既穩定，戴起來又安全，

I could make that ring out of.

而且可以用來做這枚戒指。

And I want it to be pure.

我還希望它是純的。

I'm talking elemental. 語氣意圖

我說的是元素本身。

Well,

嗯，

luckily,

幸運的是，

I recently went to the University of Nottingham,

我最近去了諾丁漢大學，

home of Periodic Videos,

那裡也是 Periodic Videos 的大本營，

and experimented with some elements.

並拿一些元素做了實驗。

First things first, 片語搭配

首先，

zinc dissolved in mercury.

鋅溶解在汞中。

This stuff is awesome.

這東西太棒了。

It's dense.

它的密度很高。

It's heavy.

它很重。

It's liquid metal.

它是液態金屬。

It's cool,

很酷，

but even cooler is human urine.

但更酷的是人的尿液。

Thank you, Neil.

謝謝你，Neil。

Of course,

當然，

I'm just kidding.

我只是在開玩笑。

This is an aqueous solution of the metal vanadium.

這是金屬釩的水溶液。

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

當我們把釩與汞和鋅混合時，

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

汞會幫助鋅把電子轉移給釩。

And as it gains more and more electrons, 文法

隨著它得到越來越多的電子，

it changes color.

它會變色。

We're looking for purple.

我們要找的是紫色。

I love shaking this.

我超喜歡搖這個。

It's crazy.

簡直瘋了。

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

感覺都快把我晃到失去平衡了。

It's so heavy.

它太重了。

Look at that.

快看。

Thank you, electrons.

謝謝你們，電子。

Those colors were beautiful,

那些顏色很美，

but vanadium's not that rare.

但釩並沒有那麼稀有。

I want to get something more precious.

我想找更珍貴的東西。

And how about precious personally? 用詞

那來點對我個人而言很珍貴的東西呢？

Like my dad.

比如我爸爸。

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

他是一名化學工程師，專門研究一種元素，還擁有與它有關的專利，

sulfur.

硫。

Of course,

當然，

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

用硫可以做的一件趣事，就是讓它像狗一樣叫。

Here's what we're going to do. 表達脈絡

我們要這樣做。

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

我們會拿一根玻璃管，往裡面充入笑氣，

nitrous oxide.

也就是氧化亞氮。

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

我們會先往管中倒一點水，作為緩衝並保護玻璃管，

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

然後再倒入一些液態二硫化碳。

It's very volatile and will evaporate,

它的揮發性很強，會蒸發，

giving us a mixture of gases inside this tube.

這樣管內就會形成混合氣體。

Finally,

最後，

I will light the top of the tube,

我會點燃管口，

causing the carbon disulfide to burn. 文法

讓二硫化碳燃燒起來。

And as it burns,

在它燃燒的過程中，

the temperature and pressure in the tube will increase,

管內的溫度和壓力會升高，

causing the reaction to go faster and faster.

讓反應進行得越來越快。

It'll accelerate and bark.

反應會加速，然後像狗一樣叫。

Wow.

哇。

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

再看看管壁上的這些硫。

That reaction was fun and cool and powerful,

這個反應既有趣又酷，還很猛烈，

but we're way off track here. 慣用語

但我們已經嚴重離題了。

Even though sulfur is precious and dear to my heart, 慣用語

儘管硫對我來說彌足珍貴，

it's not that rare at all.

它其實一點也不稀有。

So let's get crazy and talk about astatine.

那我們就來點瘋狂的，聊聊砈。

Astatine is so rare here on Earth 文法

砈在地球上稀有到了這種程度，

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

我們甚至不知道它長什麼樣子。

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

如果你想把足夠多的砈原子聚在一起，

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

多到能讓你親眼看見，

it would instantly vaporize itself

它會立刻把自己汽化，

because of its radioactive heat.

因為它的放射性會產生熱量。

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

它的放射性這麼強，顯然不適合做戒指，

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

所以我們換個常規一點的東西，看看它會把我們帶到哪裡，

gold.

金。

Gold,

金，

of course,

當然，

is famous for its unreactivity, 片語搭配

以化學性質不活潑而聞名，

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

因此非常適合用來儲存財富。

If you have a lot of gold laying around,

如果你手邊有很多金子，

the likelihood that it will combine with other elements 文法

它與其他元素結合，

and dissolve or rust or corrode is basically zero,

進而溶解、生鏽或腐蝕的可能性幾乎是零，

with the exception of some special solutions. 片語搭配

某些特殊溶液除外。

In particular,

特別是，

one discovered in the 1300s

一種發現於 14 世紀的溶液，

with the fancy name aqua regia. 文化背景

它有個華麗的名字——王水。

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

它由鹽酸和硝酸配製而成，

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

我們現在就要現場配一點，

thanks to Neil from Periodic Videos.

多虧了 Periodic Videos 的 Neil。

Of course,

當然，

we're using this fume cupboard 用詞

我們會使用這個排煙櫃，

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

因為硝酸釋放出的氣體

are quite dangerous.

相當危險。

It's the gas NO2,

那是 NO2 氣體，

and if you inhale it,

如果吸入它，

nitric acid forms in your lungs.

你的肺裡就會形成硝酸。

So instead of doing that,

所以我們還是別吸了，

let's put some gold in aqua regia.

來把一些金放進王水裡吧。

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

我們就用這件古老又無價的埃及文物。

Let's go ahead and try this out. 片語動詞

來試試看吧。

As the gold dissolves,

隨著金逐漸溶解，

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

最後留在蒸發皿裡的是氯金酸，

auric coming from aurum, 文化背景

「auric」一詞源自「aurum」，

the Latin word for gold,

也就是拉丁文中的「金」，

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

所以金在元素週期表中的符號是 Au。

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

眼看著那些金溶掉，真的讓人很難過。

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

真希望我們能把別的東西直接變成金。

Now I know what you're thinking, 語氣意圖

我知道你現在在想什麼，

Michael,

Michael，

that's alchemy.

那是煉金術。

But alchemy is quite real.

但煉金術確實可以成真。

In today's particle accelerators,

在今天的粒子加速器中，

we can smash particles together,

我們可以讓粒子互相撞擊，

creating elements.

進而製造元素。

At the accelerator collider at GSI,

在 GSI 的加速器對撞機中，

they can create gold by smashing particles together 文法

他們可以透過讓粒子相撞來製造金，

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

速度達到每秒 200 萬個金原子。

That's pretty cool,

這很酷，

right? 語氣意圖

對吧？

Well,

不過，

as you know,

如你所知，

atoms are incredibly small.

原子小得不可思議。

They're so small

它們實在太小了，

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

因此，儘管 GSI 每秒能製造 200 萬個新的金原子，

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

就算機器以這個速度連續運轉 5,000 萬年，

they would only produce 1 g of gold.

也只能產出 1 公克的金。

Gold is rare and precious and expensive,

金稀有、珍貴而且昂貴，

but gold is 40% more common than iridium. 文法

但金的豐度比銥高 40%。

And iridium is incredibly resilient.

而銥的耐受力強得驚人。

It doesn't dissolve in aqua regia,

它不會溶於王水，

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

即使面對高溫下的熔融金屬或矽酸鹽，也不會受到侵蝕，

which is nice and stoic,

這很不錯，也夠沉穩，

but not as pretty as cerium,

但它沒有鈰那麼漂亮，

which reacts at high temperature to form beautiful little sparkles.

鈰會在高溫下發生反應，迸發出美麗的小火花。

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

在我們繼續尋找地球上最稀有的戒指材料時，

we've got to discuss osmium.

就不得不談談鋨。

This stuff is so rare,

這東西極其稀有，

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

在地殼中的含量不到十億分之一。

But we're not done yet.

但我們還沒說完。

Iridium and osmium are both in the platinum family.

銥和鋨都屬於鉑族元素。

And if you take a look at platinum,

如果你看看鉑，

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

就會發現它比銥和鋨都常見得多，

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

但還有一個很有意思的概念，我覺得我們應該考慮一下，

stable isotopes.

穩定同位素。

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

故事的結尾，就要落在鉑的一種同位素上，

platinum 190.

鉑-190。

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

它是一種半衰期超過 10 億年的穩定同位素，

it's non-reactive.

而且化學性質不活潑。

It fits all our criteria. 片語搭配

它符合我們的全部標準。

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

用自然界中最稀少、穩定且不活潑的東西做成的戒指。

So hey,

所以嘛，

it would be an awesome ring.

它會是一枚超棒的戒指。

Now you're probably wondering, 表達脈絡

現在你可能想問，

Michael,

Michael，

why did you experiment with vanadium, 文化背景

你為什麼要拿釩、

sulfur, gold,

硫、金

and cerium?

和鈰做實驗呢？

Well,

這個嘛，

here's what's interesting.

有趣的地方來了。

Take a look at the periodic table

看看元素週期表，

and their symbols.

再看看它們的元素符號。

Ta-da.

鏘鏘。

Vsauce.

Vsauce。

And as always,

一如往常，

thanks for watching.

感謝觀看。