WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.359 Welcome back to the Deep Dive. Our mission here 00:00:02.359 --> 00:00:04.799 is to take the dense, fascinating sources you 00:00:04.799 --> 00:00:07.419 provide, the historical texts, the biographies, 00:00:07.419 --> 00:00:10.419 the scientific papers, and really distill them 00:00:10.419 --> 00:00:13.039 into the essential knowledge you need to be truly 00:00:13.039 --> 00:00:15.480 well -informed. And today we are diving deep 00:00:15.480 --> 00:00:19.440 into a figure whose face is... I mean, it's on 00:00:19.440 --> 00:00:22.379 every chemistry classroom poster in the world. 00:00:22.420 --> 00:00:24.940 Right. Dmitri Mendeleev. But for most people, 00:00:25.059 --> 00:00:26.859 the story just stops there. It does. You ask 00:00:26.859 --> 00:00:28.960 anyone who he was and they'll say, oh, he's the 00:00:28.960 --> 00:00:30.940 father of the periodic table. And that's it. 00:00:31.280 --> 00:00:33.219 End of story. But that's the challenge, isn't 00:00:33.219 --> 00:00:35.140 it? Because the sources we've reviewed, they 00:00:35.140 --> 00:00:38.560 paint a picture of this. This relentless polymath, 00:00:38.820 --> 00:00:42.340 a Siberian chemist for sure, but also a pioneering 00:00:42.340 --> 00:00:45.020 oil economist, a foundational physicist. And 00:00:45.020 --> 00:00:47.460 the architect of Russia's entire system of weights 00:00:47.460 --> 00:00:49.340 and measures. It's an incredible breadth. The 00:00:49.340 --> 00:00:51.859 sources show he was driven by this one single 00:00:51.859 --> 00:00:55.439 unifying force. A hunger for systematic order. 00:00:55.640 --> 00:00:59.039 Whether he was organizing the elements or standardizing 00:00:59.039 --> 00:01:00.820 vodka production. Well, we'll get to that myth 00:01:00.820 --> 00:01:02.960 later. Right. But it was always about seeking 00:01:02.960 --> 00:01:06.200 these predictive laws in the chaos. Exactly. 00:01:06.740 --> 00:01:09.980 So our deep dive today moves beyond the classroom 00:01:09.980 --> 00:01:12.760 chemistry. We are unpacking the totality of the 00:01:12.760 --> 00:01:14.560 man. We're looking at the scientific genius, 00:01:14.739 --> 00:01:17.780 yeah, but also the revolutionary industrial thinker, 00:01:17.780 --> 00:01:21.000 the dramatic personal life that actually cost 00:01:21.000 --> 00:01:23.700 him recognition at home. And a few of those popular 00:01:23.700 --> 00:01:26.239 myths that we really need to set straight. We're 00:01:26.239 --> 00:01:28.400 drawing from biographical accounts to see how 00:01:28.400 --> 00:01:33.200 his whole expansive career was at its core this 00:01:33.200 --> 00:01:35.819 fundamental search for both truth and utility. 00:01:36.239 --> 00:01:39.400 OK, so to understand the sheer audacity of his 00:01:39.400 --> 00:01:41.920 later genius, we have to start at the very beginning. 00:01:42.250 --> 00:01:45.209 And that beginning is a testament to just incredible 00:01:45.209 --> 00:01:47.170 resilience. It really is. We're talking about 00:01:47.170 --> 00:01:50.109 very humble Siberian origins. Dmitry Ivanovich 00:01:50.109 --> 00:01:53.870 Mendeleev was born in 1834, not in some cosmopolitan 00:01:53.870 --> 00:01:56.849 hub like St. Petersburg, but way out in a small 00:01:56.849 --> 00:01:59.510 village called Grikny -Armzyany near Tobolsk. 00:01:59.609 --> 00:02:01.989 And that geographical isolation is key. So is 00:02:01.989 --> 00:02:04.129 the family's economic situation. The sources 00:02:04.129 --> 00:02:06.129 note he was the youngest of a massive family. 00:02:06.450 --> 00:02:08.530 Massive is the right word. The exact number is 00:02:08.530 --> 00:02:11.400 kind of disputed historically. It is. It ranges 00:02:11.400 --> 00:02:14.180 from, you know, 13 reliable survivors to maybe 00:02:14.180 --> 00:02:16.900 17 children that his mother reportedly bore. 00:02:17.139 --> 00:02:19.280 But what's clear is the scale of the household. 00:02:19.460 --> 00:02:21.580 And the crisis they were plunged into. A huge 00:02:21.580 --> 00:02:24.139 crisis. His father, Ivan, was a local school 00:02:24.139 --> 00:02:27.180 principal and he went blind, which back then 00:02:27.180 --> 00:02:29.560 meant he immediately lost his job, his livelihood. 00:02:29.860 --> 00:02:33.240 So the father's income is just gone and the family 00:02:33.240 --> 00:02:35.840 is facing immediate, serious financial strain. 00:02:36.219 --> 00:02:38.000 And this is where we meet the central figure 00:02:38.000 --> 00:02:42.439 of his entire early life, his mother, Maria Dmitrievna 00:02:42.439 --> 00:02:45.099 Mendeleva. She seems like an absolute force of 00:02:45.099 --> 00:02:47.099 nature. She was. The sources are clear on this. 00:02:47.199 --> 00:02:49.000 She was the one who kept the family afloat and 00:02:49.000 --> 00:02:51.460 later the one who drove Dimitri's entire education. 00:02:51.979 --> 00:02:54.719 She was remarkable, an educated woman from a 00:02:54.719 --> 00:02:56.879 prominent merchant family. And her response to 00:02:56.879 --> 00:02:59.020 the crisis wasn't passive at all? Not in the 00:02:59.020 --> 00:03:01.740 slightest. To support this enormous family, she 00:03:01.740 --> 00:03:05.599 took the really proactive step of reopening and 00:03:05.599 --> 00:03:07.840 managing her family's abandoned glass factory. 00:03:08.099 --> 00:03:10.099 Which is just incredible to think about. This 00:03:10.099 --> 00:03:11.740 isn't just a small effort to make ends meet. 00:03:12.680 --> 00:03:14.680 running an industrial enterprise. In the middle 00:03:14.680 --> 00:03:17.860 of Siberia. And this must have given young Dimitri 00:03:17.860 --> 00:03:21.520 this very early, very practical exposure to industrial 00:03:21.520 --> 00:03:24.319 chemistry, to production. That hands -on experience 00:03:24.319 --> 00:03:26.879 with something like glassmaking had to have shaped 00:03:26.879 --> 00:03:29.680 his later thinking on state draft and resource 00:03:29.680 --> 00:03:32.800 management. No question. But then tragedy strikes 00:03:32.800 --> 00:03:35.419 again. After all her work to get the factory 00:03:35.419 --> 00:03:38.819 running. It burns down. destroyed by fire and 00:03:38.819 --> 00:03:41.659 dimitri was only a teenager at the time it's 00:03:41.659 --> 00:03:45.659 this profound cycle of um catastrophe and just 00:03:45.659 --> 00:03:47.759 sheer determination that seems to have forged 00:03:47.759 --> 00:03:50.060 his character and his mother's legacy wasn't 00:03:50.060 --> 00:03:52.419 just practical it was intellectual oh absolutely 00:03:52.419 --> 00:03:55.199 the biographies all confirm that she was the 00:03:55.199 --> 00:03:57.530 one who encouraged him to patiently searched 00:03:57.530 --> 00:04:00.449 divine and scientific truth. She saw his unique 00:04:00.449 --> 00:04:02.930 gifts and prioritized them above everything else. 00:04:03.050 --> 00:04:05.409 She really instilled in him this idea that learning 00:04:05.409 --> 00:04:08.090 was the ultimate goal, non -negotiable. And that 00:04:08.090 --> 00:04:10.669 conviction led to this incredible journey, the 00:04:10.669 --> 00:04:13.210 cross -Russia pursuit of an education. After 00:04:13.210 --> 00:04:15.349 his father's passing and the loss of the factory, 00:04:15.669 --> 00:04:18.970 Maria makes this momentous decision. She takes 00:04:18.970 --> 00:04:22.370 15 -year -old Dmitry in 1849 and travels the 00:04:22.370 --> 00:04:24.889 immense distance from Siberia all the way to 00:04:24.889 --> 00:04:27.339 Moscow. And we really need to pause here and 00:04:27.339 --> 00:04:30.079 just appreciate the magnitude of that journey 00:04:30.079 --> 00:04:32.600 in the mid -19th century. Right. This is not 00:04:32.600 --> 00:04:35.139 a quick train ride. No, this was a monumental 00:04:35.139 --> 00:04:38.720 undertaking. Weeks, maybe months of incredibly 00:04:38.720 --> 00:04:41.639 arduous travel for a mother and her son, driven 00:04:41.639 --> 00:04:44.519 by, you know, desperation and hope. And initially, 00:04:44.639 --> 00:04:46.959 all that effort was met with rejection. Total 00:04:46.959 --> 00:04:49.180 rejection. The sources are very clear that Moscow 00:04:49.180 --> 00:04:52.259 University just denied his admission. Flat out. 00:04:52.360 --> 00:04:54.959 Can you just imagine the frustration, the emotional 00:04:54.959 --> 00:04:57.360 weight of traveling all that way across an empire 00:04:57.360 --> 00:05:00.339 just to be told no? It would have crushed a lesser 00:05:00.339 --> 00:05:03.199 person. But Maria, she pressed on. They went 00:05:03.199 --> 00:05:05.560 to St. Petersburg. And there they finally had 00:05:05.560 --> 00:05:08.000 some success. Yes. She managed to secure him 00:05:08.000 --> 00:05:10.399 a place at his late father's alma mater, the 00:05:10.399 --> 00:05:13.480 Maine Pedagogical Institute, in 1850. But his 00:05:13.480 --> 00:05:16.079 struggles weren't over. Shortly after he graduated, 00:05:16.220 --> 00:05:18.540 his health completely failed him. He contracted 00:05:18.540 --> 00:05:21.639 tuberculosis, a very, very serious diagnosis 00:05:21.639 --> 00:05:24.620 at the time. A genuine health crisis that forced 00:05:24.620 --> 00:05:26.800 a dramatic change of scenery. He had to move 00:05:26.800 --> 00:05:29.500 south. To the Crimean Peninsula, yeah. He took 00:05:29.500 --> 00:05:31.959 up a position as a science master at the Simferopol 00:05:31.959 --> 00:05:35.639 Gymnasium in 1855, a much warmer climate. This 00:05:35.639 --> 00:05:37.839 two -year period, which often gets glossed over, 00:05:37.980 --> 00:05:40.860 was basically a necessary reset for his health. 00:05:41.160 --> 00:05:44.660 It was. By 1857, he had fully recovered and was 00:05:44.660 --> 00:05:47.459 able to return to St. Petersburg, ready to resume 00:05:47.459 --> 00:05:50.399 what turned into a very high -intensity academic 00:05:50.399 --> 00:05:53.649 career. And from that point on... His early scientific 00:05:53.649 --> 00:05:55.610 foundations were just established incredibly 00:05:55.610 --> 00:05:58.410 quickly. He immediately focused on cutting -edge 00:05:58.410 --> 00:06:00.850 research. He took international research trips, 00:06:01.009 --> 00:06:04.230 spending time in Heidelberg from 1859 to 1861. 00:06:04.430 --> 00:06:06.490 And he wasn't just observing there, was he? He 00:06:06.490 --> 00:06:08.629 was actively contributing. Oh, he was right in 00:06:08.629 --> 00:06:11.050 the mix, studying physical chemistry. His research 00:06:11.050 --> 00:06:13.829 was highly specific, very technical. He was looking 00:06:13.829 --> 00:06:15.889 at the capillarity of liquids and the precise 00:06:15.889 --> 00:06:17.810 workings of the spectroscope. Which was still 00:06:17.810 --> 00:06:20.529 a very new, very powerful instrument for chemical 00:06:20.529 --> 00:06:23.110 analysis back then. And this is critical because 00:06:23.110 --> 00:06:25.689 it shows he was mastering both the classical 00:06:25.689 --> 00:06:28.589 techniques and the emerging tools of instrumentation. 00:06:28.670 --> 00:06:31.329 It set him up perfectly for his later systematic 00:06:31.329 --> 00:06:34.069 work. That grounding paid off almost immediately. 00:06:34.470 --> 00:06:37.649 Instantly. He earned his first real widespread 00:06:37.649 --> 00:06:40.649 recognition by publishing his textbook Organic 00:06:40.649 --> 00:06:43.930 Chemistry in 1861. And it won the prestigious 00:06:43.930 --> 00:06:46.709 Demidov Prize, which was a huge academic honor 00:06:46.709 --> 00:06:50.339 in Imperial Russia. From there, his career trajectory 00:06:50.339 --> 00:06:52.740 just rocketed upward. He got a professorship 00:06:52.740 --> 00:06:55.199 at the St. Petersburg Technological Institute 00:06:55.199 --> 00:06:58.199 in 1864, then moved quickly to St. Petersburg 00:06:58.199 --> 00:07:01.300 State University in 1865. And in that same year, 00:07:01.379 --> 00:07:03.920 he earns his doctor of science degree. He does. 00:07:04.079 --> 00:07:06.279 And his doctoral dissertation title is something 00:07:06.279 --> 00:07:08.759 we have to flag now. On the combinations of water 00:07:08.759 --> 00:07:11.220 with alcohol. Precisely. Because that title is 00:07:11.220 --> 00:07:13.199 the little spark that ignites one of the great 00:07:13.199 --> 00:07:15.259 enduring myths about him, which we will definitely 00:07:15.259 --> 00:07:17.639 come back to in detail. But just looking at... 00:07:17.639 --> 00:07:20.680 his institutional impact. His return to St. Petersburg 00:07:20.680 --> 00:07:23.939 was profound. It wasn't just about accumulating 00:07:23.939 --> 00:07:28.220 titles for himself. By 1871, Mendeleev had taken 00:07:28.220 --> 00:07:30.459 the chemistry department at St. Petersburg State 00:07:30.459 --> 00:07:33.730 University and transformed it. Into what? Into 00:07:33.730 --> 00:07:36.189 an internationally recognized center for advanced 00:07:36.189 --> 00:07:39.189 research. He basically created a hub that drew 00:07:39.189 --> 00:07:41.269 the best students and scholars from all across 00:07:41.269 --> 00:07:43.689 Europe. He wasn't just an academic presence. 00:07:43.930 --> 00:07:46.949 He was an institution builder. Okay, let's transition 00:07:46.949 --> 00:07:49.069 now to the moment that changed chemistry forever. 00:07:49.350 --> 00:07:51.209 But before we get to Mendeley's breakthrough, 00:07:51.470 --> 00:07:54.269 let's set the stage. What did the world of chemistry 00:07:54.269 --> 00:07:57.519 actually look like in the early 1860s? Intellectually 00:07:57.519 --> 00:08:01.019 speaking, it was a mess, a complete mess. A collection 00:08:01.019 --> 00:08:04.720 of facts with no theory? Exactly. By 1863, there 00:08:04.720 --> 00:08:07.399 were only about 56 known elements, and they were 00:08:07.399 --> 00:08:09.300 still being discovered at a pretty steady clip 00:08:09.300 --> 00:08:12.420 about one new element per year. So the information 00:08:12.420 --> 00:08:14.279 was growing and growing, but the structure was 00:08:14.279 --> 00:08:17.120 totally absent. So chemists had this rapidly 00:08:17.120 --> 00:08:19.160 expanding list of ingredients for the universe, 00:08:19.279 --> 00:08:21.800 but no recipe book, no framework to organize 00:08:21.800 --> 00:08:23.800 them. It was a descriptive science, like you 00:08:23.800 --> 00:08:26.540 said, not yet a predictive one. And Mendeleev 00:08:26.540 --> 00:08:29.339 was definitely not the only person searching 00:08:29.339 --> 00:08:32.110 for that structure. We absolutely have to acknowledge 00:08:32.110 --> 00:08:34.789 the attempts made by his contemporaries. The 00:08:34.789 --> 00:08:36.950 ground was fertile for this kind of discovery. 00:08:37.250 --> 00:08:39.490 Very fertile. You had people like John Newlands 00:08:39.490 --> 00:08:43.049 in England. In 1864, he described his law of 00:08:43.049 --> 00:08:45.629 octaves. The musical analogy, right? Right. He 00:08:45.629 --> 00:08:47.929 noticed that if you arrange the elements by increasing 00:08:47.929 --> 00:08:50.669 atomic weight, their properties seem to repeat 00:08:50.669 --> 00:08:53.330 every eight elements, just like musical notes 00:08:53.330 --> 00:08:56.889 in an octave. And Newlands' work. It was a genuine 00:08:56.889 --> 00:08:59.370 step forward. He even identified the potential 00:08:59.370 --> 00:09:01.730 for new elements. elements like germanium. But 00:09:01.730 --> 00:09:03.929 it was heavily criticized, even mocked at the 00:09:03.929 --> 00:09:06.769 time. Why did it fail to get any traction? Well, 00:09:06.830 --> 00:09:09.269 because it lacked consistency. And crucially, 00:09:09.350 --> 00:09:11.769 it lacked predictive power across the whole spectrum 00:09:11.769 --> 00:09:15.009 of elements. The Octa's analogy worked OK for 00:09:15.009 --> 00:09:16.850 the lighter elements, but it just broke down 00:09:16.850 --> 00:09:18.889 completely as you moved into the heavier ones. 00:09:18.990 --> 00:09:21.559 So the system seemed arbitrary. It did. It felt 00:09:21.559 --> 00:09:24.899 forced. And while Newlands was eventually recognized 00:09:24.899 --> 00:09:28.059 for his insight in 1887, his initial failure 00:09:28.059 --> 00:09:30.639 was because the system was too rigid and at the 00:09:30.639 --> 00:09:33.059 end of the day, just descriptive. And then there 00:09:33.059 --> 00:09:36.429 was Lothar Meyer in Germany, who was. You could 00:09:36.429 --> 00:09:38.769 argue Mendeleev's closest rival in this race. 00:09:38.889 --> 00:09:40.990 Absolutely his closest rival. Meyer published 00:09:40.990 --> 00:09:43.730 a table with 28 elements classified by their 00:09:43.730 --> 00:09:47.049 valence in the exact same year, 1864. And by 00:09:47.049 --> 00:09:50.350 1868, his version of the table was almost identical 00:09:50.350 --> 00:09:52.970 to Mendeleev's. Almost identical. But here is 00:09:52.970 --> 00:09:55.269 the critical defining difference that separated 00:09:55.269 --> 00:09:57.570 the two of them and secured Mendeleev's legacy 00:09:57.570 --> 00:10:01.090 forever. Was it? Meyer's table was passive. He 00:10:01.090 --> 00:10:03.149 used it to describe the relationships between 00:10:03.149 --> 00:10:05.649 the elements he already knew. He made absolutely 00:10:05.649 --> 00:10:07.870 no predictions for elements that hadn't been 00:10:07.870 --> 00:10:10.370 discovered yet. So Meyer was descriptive. Nuland's 00:10:10.370 --> 00:10:12.590 system was flawed. And Mendeleev was prophetic. 00:10:12.710 --> 00:10:14.629 That's the difference. Let's get to the genesis 00:10:14.629 --> 00:10:16.950 of his periodic law then. It's fascinating that 00:10:16.950 --> 00:10:19.940 it wasn't born out of some... abstract theoretical 00:10:19.940 --> 00:10:22.720 quest. It came from a practical need. That's 00:10:22.720 --> 00:10:24.580 one of the most remarkable parts of this story. 00:10:24.779 --> 00:10:27.799 He was writing his definitive two -volume textbook 00:10:27.799 --> 00:10:31.940 Principles of Chemistry between 1868 and 1870. 00:10:32.139 --> 00:10:34.019 And he needed a way to teach it. He couldn't 00:10:34.019 --> 00:10:36.299 teach his students inorganic chemistry effectively 00:10:36.299 --> 00:10:39.519 without a logical, systematic way to classify 00:10:39.519 --> 00:10:42.720 the elements. The textbook literally forced the 00:10:42.720 --> 00:10:45.379 discovery. He needed a way to organize his thoughts, 00:10:45.519 --> 00:10:48.259 and he ended up creating a universal law. Which 00:10:48.259 --> 00:10:51.330 leads us to that legendary anecdote. The dream. 00:10:51.590 --> 00:10:54.889 Ah, the dream. It's a beautiful piece of scientific 00:10:54.889 --> 00:10:58.110 folklore reported by his friend in Ostransov. 00:10:58.490 --> 00:11:00.769 Mendeleev claimed he saw the entire arrangement, 00:11:00.950 --> 00:11:03.610 the complete periodic system, in a dream. And 00:11:03.610 --> 00:11:05.750 he just woke up and wrote it all down. Woke up, 00:11:05.769 --> 00:11:08.049 immediately transcribed it, and apparently only 00:11:08.049 --> 00:11:10.090 needed to make one small correction later on. 00:11:10.210 --> 00:11:12.389 You know, whether that was a literal dream or 00:11:12.389 --> 00:11:15.149 just a dramatic retelling of a sudden subconscious 00:11:15.149 --> 00:11:17.929 breakthrough after months of intense mental sorting, 00:11:18.070 --> 00:11:20.649 it definitely captures that eureka moment. It 00:11:20.649 --> 00:11:23.009 does. And the formal announcement followed very 00:11:23.009 --> 00:11:25.450 quickly. It was presented to the Russian Chemical 00:11:25.450 --> 00:11:30.590 Society on March 6, 1869. The title was The Dependence 00:11:30.590 --> 00:11:32.769 Between the Properties of the Atomic Weights 00:11:32.769 --> 00:11:35.210 of the Elements. And this presentation, it wasn't 00:11:35.210 --> 00:11:37.309 just a table of elements. It was more like a 00:11:37.309 --> 00:11:40.110 manifesto. It was a manifesto. It contained the 00:11:40.110 --> 00:11:42.970 famous eight pillars of the periodic law, and 00:11:42.970 --> 00:11:45.850 they are the core evidence of his genius. We 00:11:45.850 --> 00:11:47.769 really need to spend some time here detailing 00:11:47.769 --> 00:11:50.559 what these pillars actually declare. to the scientific 00:11:50.559 --> 00:11:53.539 world. Let's do it. These eight points are what 00:11:53.539 --> 00:11:56.419 elevate his work so far above everyone else's 00:11:56.419 --> 00:11:59.000 attempts. Okay, so, pillar one. This established 00:11:59.000 --> 00:12:01.159 the fundamental relationship. Elements, when 00:12:01.159 --> 00:12:03.000 you arrange them by increasing atomic weight, 00:12:03.100 --> 00:12:05.679 show an apparent periodicity of properties. That's 00:12:05.679 --> 00:12:07.679 the cornerstone, the basic definition of the 00:12:07.679 --> 00:12:10.759 periodic law. Exactly. Then, point two focused 00:12:10.759 --> 00:12:13.120 on grouping. He showed that similar chemical 00:12:13.120 --> 00:12:15.419 properties appear when the atomic weights are 00:12:15.419 --> 00:12:18.320 either Very similar. Think of metals like platinum, 00:12:18.500 --> 00:12:21.220 iridium and osmium or when they increase in a 00:12:21.220 --> 00:12:23.600 regular way. Like the alkaline metals, potassium, 00:12:23.899 --> 00:12:27.340 rubidium, cesium. Right. This justified grouping 00:12:27.340 --> 00:12:29.879 the elements into what we now call families or 00:12:29.879 --> 00:12:33.059 groups. And point three tied that grouping back 00:12:33.059 --> 00:12:35.659 to chemical behavior. Yes. Stating that the arrangement 00:12:35.659 --> 00:12:38.059 correlates with their valencies and their distinctive 00:12:38.059 --> 00:12:40.879 chemical properties. He was establishing those 00:12:40.879 --> 00:12:43.320 familiar patterns you see in a series like lithium, 00:12:43.639 --> 00:12:48.200 beryllium, boron. carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, fluorine. 00:12:48.340 --> 00:12:50.600 He was making sense of the reactive potential 00:12:50.600 --> 00:12:53.980 of everything. Point four is a bit of a fascinating 00:12:53.980 --> 00:12:57.519 detour, almost into cosmology. It is. He observed 00:12:57.519 --> 00:13:00.139 that the most widely diffused elements, the ones 00:13:00.139 --> 00:13:03.139 that are most common here on Earth, and, he presumed, 00:13:03.139 --> 00:13:06.200 in the universe, also happen to have the smallest 00:13:06.200 --> 00:13:08.500 atomic weights. So he's linking the microscale 00:13:08.500 --> 00:13:10.820 pattern of his table to the macroscale composition 00:13:10.820 --> 00:13:13.759 of the cosmos. He's thinking big. And then came 00:13:13.759 --> 00:13:15.960 point five, which is really the philosophical 00:13:15.960 --> 00:13:18.960 core of his law. He declared, and this is a near 00:13:18.960 --> 00:13:21.399 quote, the magnitude of the atomic weight determines 00:13:21.399 --> 00:13:23.759 the character of the element. Just as the magnitude 00:13:23.759 --> 00:13:25.419 of the molecule determines the character of a 00:13:25.419 --> 00:13:28.820 compound body. Precisely. This was him declaring 00:13:28.820 --> 00:13:30.940 that his table wasn't just a convenient chart. 00:13:31.100 --> 00:13:35.080 It was a universal determinative law. Atomic 00:13:35.080 --> 00:13:37.940 weight dictates identity. And that conviction, 00:13:37.980 --> 00:13:41.080 that absolute certainty, leads directly to point 00:13:41.080 --> 00:13:44.159 six. This is the revolutionary step. This is 00:13:44.159 --> 00:13:46.019 the one that sets him apart from Meyer and Newlands. 00:13:46.340 --> 00:13:49.789 The crucial prediction. He stated confidently 00:13:49.789 --> 00:13:52.629 that we must expect the discovery of many yet 00:13:52.629 --> 00:13:54.590 unknown elements. He didn't just leave it at 00:13:54.590 --> 00:13:56.629 that, did he? He wasn't vague. Not at all. He 00:13:56.629 --> 00:13:59.629 got highly specific. He predicted two elements 00:13:59.629 --> 00:14:02.149 that would be like aluminum and silicon and even 00:14:02.149 --> 00:14:04.029 stated their atomic weights would fall somewhere 00:14:04.029 --> 00:14:06.830 between 65 and 75. So he deliberately leaves 00:14:06.830 --> 00:14:10.070 gaps in his own table. And in doing so, he turns 00:14:10.070 --> 00:14:12.210 those gaps from signs of incomplete knowledge 00:14:12.210 --> 00:14:14.840 into signs of structural necessity. He's saying 00:14:14.840 --> 00:14:16.779 the gaps prove the system. They don't undermine 00:14:16.779 --> 00:14:19.460 it. That is astonishing confidence. He's saying 00:14:19.460 --> 00:14:21.700 the elements might be missing, but my system 00:14:21.700 --> 00:14:24.919 is complete. But for me, 0 .7 is the real intellectual 00:14:24.919 --> 00:14:27.779 paradigm shift. Ah, yes. The idea that atomic 00:14:27.779 --> 00:14:29.980 weights could be amended by knowing the elements 00:14:29.980 --> 00:14:32.820 around them. This is where his genius truly shines. 00:14:33.379 --> 00:14:35.960 He used this logic to challenge the accepted 00:14:35.960 --> 00:14:38.539 atomic weight of tellurium. Right. At the time, 00:14:38.600 --> 00:14:41.299 tellurium's weight was measured at 128. Iodine 00:14:41.299 --> 00:14:44.340 was 127. So if you went strictly by weight, tellurium 00:14:44.340 --> 00:14:47.080 would come after iodine. But chemically, that 00:14:47.080 --> 00:14:50.200 made no sense. Tellurium clearly belonged to 00:14:50.200 --> 00:14:53.200 the group with oxygen and sulfur before iodine 00:14:53.200 --> 00:14:55.740 and the halogens. So Mendeleev just argued that 00:14:55.740 --> 00:14:58.159 the accepted weight had to be wrong. He suggested 00:14:58.159 --> 00:15:02.019 it must be somewhere between 123 and 126. No, 00:15:02.059 --> 00:15:03.919 he was actually wrong about the exact measurement. 00:15:04.570 --> 00:15:07.730 Tellurium's modern weight is 127 .6, but he was 00:15:07.730 --> 00:15:10.070 profoundly right about the order. He was, and 00:15:10.070 --> 00:15:12.289 this is the key. He argued that the chemical 00:15:12.289 --> 00:15:14.769 properties and the necessary periodicity of the 00:15:14.769 --> 00:15:17.730 system must take precedence over imprecise measurement 00:15:17.730 --> 00:15:20.690 data. He was subordinating the observer's data 00:15:20.690 --> 00:15:23.830 to the system's law. That shift prioritizing 00:15:23.830 --> 00:15:26.309 the structure over the measurement is what turned 00:15:26.309 --> 00:15:28.490 the periodic table into a fundamental law of 00:15:28.490 --> 00:15:31.129 nature. And finally, point eight just summarized 00:15:31.129 --> 00:15:33.570 the whole system's utility. The characteristic 00:15:33.570 --> 00:15:35.750 properties of elements that haven't even been 00:15:35.750 --> 00:15:38.289 discovered yet could be precisely foretold from 00:15:38.289 --> 00:15:41.230 their calculated atomic weights. It cemented 00:15:41.230 --> 00:15:43.850 the table as the ultimate predictive tool. And 00:15:43.850 --> 00:15:46.750 the power of that prediction became reality shockingly 00:15:46.750 --> 00:15:50.049 fast. Incredibly fast. He had accurately predicted 00:15:50.049 --> 00:15:52.669 the properties of three unknown elements, and 00:15:52.669 --> 00:15:54.870 he gave them these temporary Sanskrit names, 00:15:55.210 --> 00:15:58.929 eicosilicon, eicaluminium, and eicoboron. Which 00:15:58.929 --> 00:16:01.509 were later discovered and named germanium, gallium, 00:16:01.509 --> 00:16:03.730 and scandium. And his predictions weren't just 00:16:03.730 --> 00:16:06.870 vague guesses. His detailed forecasts for Ica 00:16:06.870 --> 00:16:09.710 aluminum, which became gallium, were just stunning. 00:16:09.970 --> 00:16:12.509 He predicted its density, its melting point, 00:16:12.570 --> 00:16:14.690 its behavior and solution. And they were virtually 00:16:14.690 --> 00:16:16.889 identical to the properties that were later measured 00:16:16.889 --> 00:16:20.070 by its discoverer, Paul -Emile Lecoq de Beaubadran 00:16:20.070 --> 00:16:23.610 in 1875. That level of prophetic accuracy just 00:16:23.610 --> 00:16:26.169 silenced any remaining cricks. It was undeniable 00:16:26.169 --> 00:16:28.750 proof. He also used the system to correct what 00:16:28.750 --> 00:16:31.710 was already known. the accepted values for uranium, 00:16:31.909 --> 00:16:34.110 for instance. Before his work, uranium was thought 00:16:34.110 --> 00:16:36.789 to have a valence of 3 and an atomic weight of 00:16:36.789 --> 00:16:39.830 about 120. But when he tried to slot it into 00:16:39.830 --> 00:16:42.250 his table based on those numbers, it just didn't 00:16:42.250 --> 00:16:44.590 fit. It ruined the whole structure. So he just 00:16:44.590 --> 00:16:47.009 decided the prevailing measurements had to be 00:16:47.009 --> 00:16:49.649 wrong. He did. He doubled both values, proposing 00:16:49.649 --> 00:16:53.049 a valence of 6 and an atomic weight of 240. This 00:16:53.049 --> 00:16:55.169 placement fit perfectly into the system. And 00:16:55.169 --> 00:16:56.850 of course, the modern atomic weight of uranium 00:16:56.850 --> 00:17:00.360 is 238. He was right. He didn't just organize 00:17:00.360 --> 00:17:02.899 the known, he corrected the misunderstood. A 00:17:02.899 --> 00:17:05.200 perfect way to put it. Let's talk about the nomenclature 00:17:05.200 --> 00:17:08.180 for a second. The Sanskrit prefixes, eka for 00:17:08.180 --> 00:17:11.940 one, dv for two, tri for three. Why Sanskrit? 00:17:12.259 --> 00:17:14.339 This is such a beautiful piece of intellectual 00:17:14.339 --> 00:17:17.440 history. It ties his scientific structure to 00:17:17.440 --> 00:17:19.980 this ancient, systematic way of thinking. The 00:17:19.980 --> 00:17:22.000 sources suggest he was honoring a friend of his, 00:17:22.160 --> 00:17:25.180 an eminent Sanskritist named Otto von Bittling. 00:17:25.559 --> 00:17:27.440 But it's deeper than just a tribute to a friend, 00:17:27.500 --> 00:17:30.359 isn't it? Much deeper. Ancient Indian grammarians, 00:17:30.380 --> 00:17:33.980 particularly a figure named Peeni, were famous 00:17:33.980 --> 00:17:36.460 for using these incredibly rigorous two -dimensional 00:17:36.460 --> 00:17:39.279 systematic patterns to organize the sounds of 00:17:39.279 --> 00:17:42.420 language. So Mendeley's use of Ika is an explicit 00:17:42.420 --> 00:17:45.440 connection between his chemical matrix and a 00:17:45.440 --> 00:17:48.160 tradition of systematic order that's millennia 00:17:48.160 --> 00:17:51.319 old. Yes. He's linking the organization of matter 00:17:51.319 --> 00:17:54.819 itself to the organization of language. It shows 00:17:54.819 --> 00:17:57.200 he saw his work not just as chemistry, but as 00:17:57.200 --> 00:18:00.220 this deep philosophical endeavor into fundamental 00:18:00.220 --> 00:18:02.960 structure. And even after this immense triumph, 00:18:03.319 --> 00:18:05.940 he knew the system wasn't finished. No, he was 00:18:05.940 --> 00:18:08.539 puzzled by the lanthanides, the rare earth elements. 00:18:08.660 --> 00:18:10.619 He couldn't quite figure out where to place them. 00:18:10.819 --> 00:18:13.779 And he correctly anticipated that the table would 00:18:13.779 --> 00:18:16.579 eventually need another entire row of heavy, 00:18:16.619 --> 00:18:19.500 complex elements. Reactinides. Reactinides, which 00:18:19.500 --> 00:18:21.799 only really appeared much later as new elements 00:18:21.799 --> 00:18:24.640 were created artificially in labs. He established 00:18:24.640 --> 00:18:27.400 this dynamic, living framework that could absorb 00:18:27.400 --> 00:18:31.160 future discoveries and corrections. that he called 00:18:31.160 --> 00:18:33.700 his discovery the periodic system. Because it 00:18:33.700 --> 00:18:36.000 wasn't just a table. It was a system. A system 00:18:36.000 --> 00:18:38.480 that dictates law, not just a collection of data. 00:18:38.839 --> 00:18:41.039 Okay, so let's now fulfill the promise of this 00:18:41.039 --> 00:18:44.220 deep dive and explore the other half of Mendeleev's 00:18:44.220 --> 00:18:47.420 life. Because his scientific curiosity was absolutely 00:18:47.420 --> 00:18:49.819 not limited to the elements. Not even close. 00:18:49.880 --> 00:18:52.339 He was deeply and practically involved in the 00:18:52.339 --> 00:18:54.759 political and industrial future of the Russian 00:18:54.759 --> 00:18:57.740 Empire. His dedication to building up Russia's 00:18:57.740 --> 00:19:01.019 scientific capacity. was clear from early on. 00:19:01.160 --> 00:19:03.299 He was a co -founder of the Russian Chemical 00:19:03.299 --> 00:19:06.960 Society in 1868. Helping to institutionalize 00:19:06.960 --> 00:19:10.240 the very field he was in the process of revolutionizing. 00:19:10.480 --> 00:19:13.480 But his interests were just too broad to be confined 00:19:13.480 --> 00:19:16.019 to a single discipline. The Russian chemist Lev 00:19:16.019 --> 00:19:19.180 Chugev characterized him perfectly. He said Mendeleev 00:19:19.180 --> 00:19:21.940 wasn't just a genius chemist, but also a first 00:19:21.940 --> 00:19:24.640 -class physicist and a fruitful researcher in 00:19:24.640 --> 00:19:27.000 so many adjacent fields. And that versatility, 00:19:27.220 --> 00:19:29.599 it all stemmed from his systematic approach to 00:19:29.599 --> 00:19:31.700 problems. He applied that same thinking everywhere. 00:19:32.220 --> 00:19:34.259 His intellectual rigor was also matched by a 00:19:34.259 --> 00:19:35.900 willingness to jump into public philosophical 00:19:35.900 --> 00:19:38.480 debates. Oh, he was a fierce rationalist. He 00:19:38.480 --> 00:19:40.980 argued very strongly against the scientific claims 00:19:40.980 --> 00:19:43.380 of spiritualism, which was surprisingly fashionable 00:19:43.380 --> 00:19:45.779 among the Russian elite at the time. He wasn't 00:19:45.779 --> 00:19:48.019 afraid to call it out. Not at all. He called 00:19:48.019 --> 00:19:50.880 metaphysical idealism ignorant superstition, 00:19:50.940 --> 00:19:53.900 and he was genuinely concerned about the effect 00:19:53.900 --> 00:19:56.059 it was having on serious scientific study in 00:19:56.059 --> 00:19:59.059 Russia. So he's not just a lab chemist. He's 00:19:59.059 --> 00:20:02.380 actively out there championing empirical thinking, 00:20:02.460 --> 00:20:05.880 using his scientific reputation to enforce intellectual 00:20:05.880 --> 00:20:08.559 standards. And that same drive for standardization 00:20:08.559 --> 00:20:11.279 and fundamental laws, it just permeated his work 00:20:11.279 --> 00:20:13.220 in physics. He made theoretical contributions 00:20:13.220 --> 00:20:15.819 that really anticipated later breakthroughs. 00:20:15.839 --> 00:20:18.420 Like his work on the absolute boiling point. 00:20:18.579 --> 00:20:21.980 In 1861, yeah, well before the standard was set, 00:20:22.059 --> 00:20:24.039 he came up with a definition for it. How did 00:20:24.039 --> 00:20:26.660 he define it? He defined it as the temperature 00:20:26.660 --> 00:20:29.190 at which the cohesion of a... and its heat of 00:20:29.190 --> 00:20:32.190 vaporization both become equal to zero. It's 00:20:32.190 --> 00:20:34.170 the point where the liquid transforms into vapor 00:20:34.170 --> 00:20:36.609 regardless of pressure or volume. He's basically 00:20:36.609 --> 00:20:38.470 describing the point where the distinction between 00:20:38.470 --> 00:20:41.609 liquid and gas just vanishes. He is. It's a moment 00:20:41.609 --> 00:20:44.329 of unity between the states of matter. And this 00:20:44.329 --> 00:20:47.170 definition strongly anticipated Thomas Andrews' 00:20:47.170 --> 00:20:50.049 formal conception of critical temperature, which 00:20:50.049 --> 00:20:52.089 became one of the most important concepts in 00:20:52.089 --> 00:20:55.069 thermodynamics later in 1869. So he's finding 00:20:55.069 --> 00:20:57.779 unity across the states of matter. just like 00:20:57.779 --> 00:21:00.539 he found unity across the elements. He also developed 00:21:00.539 --> 00:21:02.940 a formula for the expansion of liquids with heat, 00:21:03.119 --> 00:21:06.019 which was very similar to Gay -Lussac's law for 00:21:06.019 --> 00:21:08.559 the expansion of gases. Again, trying to find 00:21:08.559 --> 00:21:10.799 a universal law that covered both liquids and 00:21:10.799 --> 00:21:13.900 gases. But maybe his most peculiar excursion 00:21:13.900 --> 00:21:17.000 into theoretical physics was his attempt to fit 00:21:17.000 --> 00:21:20.119 the very structure of the cosmos into his periodic 00:21:20.119 --> 00:21:22.839 law. I'm talking about his ether hypothesis. 00:21:23.460 --> 00:21:25.299 This is such a great example of him trying to 00:21:25.299 --> 00:21:27.589 apply his system to absolute... everything, even 00:21:27.589 --> 00:21:30.230 speculative physics. So what was the idea? He 00:21:30.230 --> 00:21:32.430 believed that if his periodic table was truly 00:21:32.430 --> 00:21:35.109 complete, then there must be two inert chemical 00:21:35.109 --> 00:21:37.250 elements that were even lighter than hydrogen. 00:21:37.450 --> 00:21:40.589 Lighter than hydrogen. Yeah. He hypothesized 00:21:40.589 --> 00:21:42.589 that the lighter of these two would be an all 00:21:42.589 --> 00:21:46.069 -penetrating, almost massless gas. And this, 00:21:46.150 --> 00:21:49.190 he proposed, was the aether, which physicists 00:21:49.190 --> 00:21:51.630 at the time still thought was necessary for light 00:21:51.630 --> 00:21:53.809 to travel through space. And the other one? The 00:21:53.809 --> 00:21:56.420 slightly heavier one he called coronium. Now, 00:21:56.460 --> 00:21:58.519 this idea was eventually abandoned with the rise 00:21:58.519 --> 00:22:01.200 of quantum mechanics, but it just shows his absolute 00:22:01.200 --> 00:22:03.819 dedication to making the periodic system the 00:22:03.819 --> 00:22:06.059 ultimate organizing principle for everything. 00:22:06.319 --> 00:22:08.579 All right, let's pivot now to his very practical 00:22:08.579 --> 00:22:11.319 role as a servant of the Russian Empire. His 00:22:11.319 --> 00:22:13.539 involvement in industry, especially petroleum, 00:22:13.759 --> 00:22:16.359 was groundbreaking. His work for the state was 00:22:16.359 --> 00:22:19.259 profound. He investigated the composition of 00:22:19.259 --> 00:22:22.039 petroleum, and he was deeply involved in helping 00:22:22.039 --> 00:22:25.079 to establish Russia's very first industrial oil. 00:22:25.319 --> 00:22:27.819 refinery. This was a direct output of his drive 00:22:27.819 --> 00:22:30.640 to modernize Russia's industrial base. And it 00:22:30.640 --> 00:22:33.220 leads to probably his most insightful non -chemical 00:22:33.220 --> 00:22:36.500 observation. He recognized very early on that 00:22:36.500 --> 00:22:38.980 petroleum was far more valuable as a raw material 00:22:38.980 --> 00:22:41.460 than it was as just fuel. This is the famous 00:22:41.460 --> 00:22:44.220 quote, right? It is. He famously remarked that 00:22:44.220 --> 00:22:46.839 burning crude petroleum just for heat or light 00:22:46.839 --> 00:22:49.480 would be akin to firing up a kitchen stove with 00:22:49.480 --> 00:22:51.759 banknotes. You have to put that in context. In 00:22:51.759 --> 00:22:54.339 the 19th century, oil was mainly seen as a replacement 00:22:54.339 --> 00:22:57.400 for coal or whale oil. And Mendeleev saw its 00:22:57.400 --> 00:23:00.140 potential as a complex feedstock for thousands 00:23:00.140 --> 00:23:02.920 of petrochemical products. He recognized its 00:23:02.920 --> 00:23:05.579 vast economic value for chemical synthesis, a 00:23:05.579 --> 00:23:07.859 realization that was decades ahead of its time. 00:23:08.000 --> 00:23:09.920 Did he also have a controversial take on where 00:23:09.920 --> 00:23:12.259 oil even comes from? He did. He did. His insight 00:23:12.259 --> 00:23:14.559 wasn't just practical, it was theoretical geology. 00:23:15.400 --> 00:23:18.160 Mendeleev was a staunch proponent of the abiogenic 00:23:18.160 --> 00:23:21.119 hypothesis. Meaning oil isn't from dead dinosaurs. 00:23:21.420 --> 00:23:24.019 Exactly. He concluded that hydrocarbons do not 00:23:24.019 --> 00:23:26.599 originate from decayed biological matter, which 00:23:26.599 --> 00:23:29.240 is the dominant theory today, but instead formed 00:23:29.240 --> 00:23:31.720 deep within the Earth from inorganic materials 00:23:31.720 --> 00:23:34.480 reacting under immense pressure. He wrote that 00:23:34.480 --> 00:23:36.880 petroleum was born in the depths of the Earth, 00:23:37.019 --> 00:23:39.359 and it is only there that we must seek its origin. 00:23:39.819 --> 00:23:42.079 And you can see why a chemist who thought in 00:23:42.079 --> 00:23:45.519 systems would lean that way. He saw the systematic 00:23:45.519 --> 00:23:48.680 presence of hydrocarbons in various deep geological 00:23:48.680 --> 00:23:51.640 layers and believed their sheer quantity couldn't 00:23:51.640 --> 00:23:53.920 be easily explained by surface level biological 00:23:53.920 --> 00:23:57.500 decay. An inorganic deep earth origin probably 00:23:57.500 --> 00:23:59.900 seemed more fundamentally systematic to him. 00:24:00.200 --> 00:24:03.539 I think so. Beyond oil, he was a key figure in 00:24:03.539 --> 00:24:06.240 national economic policy. He was concerned with 00:24:06.240 --> 00:24:08.759 the merchant navy, advising on ship design and 00:24:08.759 --> 00:24:11.579 trade routes. He extensively researched agricultural 00:24:11.579 --> 00:24:14.240 productivity, especially the efficacy of chemical 00:24:14.240 --> 00:24:16.660 fertilizers. He was aiming to lift the entire 00:24:16.660 --> 00:24:19.660 Russian economy. And politically, he championed 00:24:19.660 --> 00:24:22.819 a protectionist stance on trade. How so? In 1891, 00:24:23.019 --> 00:24:25.279 he successfully convinced the Ministry of Finance 00:24:25.279 --> 00:24:27.680 to impose temporary tariffs on foreign imports. 00:24:28.019 --> 00:24:30.720 It was an explicit protectionist policy designed 00:24:30.720 --> 00:24:34.259 to shield and foster Russia's new infant industries, 00:24:34.519 --> 00:24:37.299 textiles, metals, chemicals. Let them grow and 00:24:37.299 --> 00:24:39.180 get competitive before opening them up to the 00:24:39.180 --> 00:24:42.019 full force of Western European industry. Exactly. 00:24:42.119 --> 00:24:44.599 He was an economic strategist committed to internal 00:24:44.599 --> 00:24:47.460 development, and his commitment to science and 00:24:47.460 --> 00:24:50.099 to his students was so fierce that it actually 00:24:50.099 --> 00:24:53.400 cost him his professorship. He resigned. He resigned 00:24:53.400 --> 00:24:56.500 from St. Petersburg University in 1890 after 00:24:56.500 --> 00:24:58.880 a very heated dispute with Ministry of Education 00:24:58.880 --> 00:25:00.779 officials over their heavy -handed treatment 00:25:00.779 --> 00:25:04.299 of university students. He sacrificed his top 00:25:04.299 --> 00:25:07.559 academic post over a matter of principle. Which 00:25:07.559 --> 00:25:10.529 is incredible. But he didn't retire. His focus 00:25:10.529 --> 00:25:13.250 on order and standardization led him directly 00:25:13.250 --> 00:25:16.309 into his final and profoundly important career 00:25:16.309 --> 00:25:18.750 role. That was his appointment as director of 00:25:18.750 --> 00:25:21.329 the Bureau of Weights and Measures in 1893, a 00:25:21.329 --> 00:25:23.630 post he held until his death. It sounds kind 00:25:23.630 --> 00:25:25.849 of mundane, Bureau of Weights and Measures, but 00:25:25.849 --> 00:25:28.170 his impact there was transformative. Absolutely 00:25:28.170 --> 00:25:30.910 crucial for modernizing Russia. He is credited 00:25:30.910 --> 00:25:33.630 with introducing and fully institutionalizing 00:25:33.630 --> 00:25:36.289 the metric system across the entire Russian Empire. 00:25:36.509 --> 00:25:38.809 This meant standardizing the fundamental prototypes, 00:25:39.029 --> 00:25:41.589 the exact meter, the exact kilogram. And all 00:25:41.589 --> 00:25:44.230 the measurement procedures across a vast nation. 00:25:44.670 --> 00:25:46.750 It was filled with inconsistent local measures. 00:25:46.990 --> 00:25:50.549 It required the exact same systematic law enforcing 00:25:50.549 --> 00:25:53.109 mindset he applied to the periodic table. If 00:25:53.109 --> 00:25:55.589 you want a modern, unified industrial state, 00:25:55.750 --> 00:25:58.930 you need universal, precise standards. And Mendeleev 00:25:58.930 --> 00:26:01.049 provided them. And just to round out his sheer 00:26:01.049 --> 00:26:03.750 breadth of work, he even delved into military 00:26:03.750 --> 00:26:06.890 chemistry. He did. He invented something called 00:26:06.890 --> 00:26:09.630 pyrocollodion, which was a nitric cellulose based 00:26:09.630 --> 00:26:12.490 smokeless powder commissioned specifically by 00:26:12.490 --> 00:26:15.140 the Russian Navy. Navy ultimately didn't adopt 00:26:15.140 --> 00:26:18.119 it, but it's just more proof of his ability to 00:26:18.119 --> 00:26:21.160 pivot his genius to solve any high stakes technical 00:26:21.160 --> 00:26:23.559 problem put in front of him. OK, so the public 00:26:23.559 --> 00:26:25.539 record of his scientific and state services. 00:26:25.559 --> 00:26:28.859 I mean, it's impeccable. But the sources reveal 00:26:28.859 --> 00:26:32.099 this really turbulent personal life that created 00:26:32.099 --> 00:26:34.500 immense institutional friction for him back home 00:26:34.500 --> 00:26:36.640 in St. Petersburg. It really did. And it culminates 00:26:36.640 --> 00:26:39.019 in perhaps the most famous snub in the history 00:26:39.019 --> 00:26:41.579 of science. The personal drama really began with 00:26:41.579 --> 00:26:44.490 what became known as the bigamy. Mendeleev was 00:26:44.490 --> 00:26:47.490 known for being intense, and in 1876 he became, 00:26:47.670 --> 00:26:49.890 well, the sources use the word, obsessed with 00:26:49.890 --> 00:26:52.289 a young art student named Anna Ivanovna Popova. 00:26:52.450 --> 00:26:55.970 And the courtship was highly dramatic. Very. 00:26:56.390 --> 00:26:59.890 He proposed to her in 1881 and reportedly threatened 00:26:59.890 --> 00:27:02.289 to commit suicide if she refused to marry him. 00:27:02.450 --> 00:27:04.849 Which led to a very serious scandal. It did. 00:27:04.990 --> 00:27:09.279 He married Anna Popova in early 1882. The problem 00:27:09.279 --> 00:27:12.220 was his divorce from his first wife, Fyazva, 00:27:12.380 --> 00:27:15.180 was only formally finalized by the church one 00:27:15.180 --> 00:27:17.480 month after the second marriage took place. So 00:27:17.480 --> 00:27:20.079 technically he was a bigamist. In the eyes of 00:27:20.079 --> 00:27:22.460 the very powerful Russian Orthodox Church, he 00:27:22.460 --> 00:27:25.319 was. The church legally mandated a waiting period 00:27:25.319 --> 00:27:27.980 of at least seven years before a lawful remarriage 00:27:27.980 --> 00:27:30.180 could happen after a divorce. And the controversy 00:27:30.180 --> 00:27:32.779 had real lasting consequences. Oh, absolutely. 00:27:33.059 --> 00:27:34.920 While the second marriage was eventually recognized 00:27:34.920 --> 00:27:37.319 after a large payment to the local priest, which 00:27:37.319 --> 00:27:40.250 caused its own public outcry, the scandal, combined 00:27:40.250 --> 00:27:42.710 with his frequent political disagreements, contributed 00:27:42.710 --> 00:27:45.029 directly to his failure to be admitted to the 00:27:45.029 --> 00:27:47.690 prestigious Russian Academy of Sciences. Which 00:27:47.690 --> 00:27:49.609 is just bizarre when you think about it. This 00:27:49.609 --> 00:27:51.690 is a man who was elected a foreign member of 00:27:51.690 --> 00:27:55.069 the Royal Society of London in 1892. He was honored 00:27:55.069 --> 00:27:57.509 all across Europe with the Davy Medal and the 00:27:57.509 --> 00:28:00.190 Copley Medal, the highest honors in British science. 00:28:00.599 --> 00:28:03.180 And yet he was considered too socially and politically 00:28:03.180 --> 00:28:05.920 disruptive for his own nation's premier scientific 00:28:05.920 --> 00:28:08.400 body. It really highlights the difference between 00:28:08.400 --> 00:28:12.259 international scientific merit and the conservative 00:28:12.259 --> 00:28:15.819 social machinations of the imperial Russian establishment. 00:28:16.160 --> 00:28:18.759 And that internal snub was really just a precursor 00:28:18.759 --> 00:28:21.480 to the great international disappointment. The 00:28:21.480 --> 00:28:23.759 Nobel Prize. The Nobel snub is just a notorious 00:28:23.759 --> 00:28:27.140 tale of internal rivalry and politics. Mendeleev 00:28:27.140 --> 00:28:29.059 was nominated three times in the final years 00:28:29.059 --> 00:28:33.240 of his life, 1905, 1906, and 1907. In 1906, he 00:28:33.240 --> 00:28:36.500 was agonizingly close. So close. The Nobel Committee 00:28:36.500 --> 00:28:38.900 for Chemistry unanimously recommended him for 00:28:38.900 --> 00:28:41.339 the prize, specifically citing his revolutionary 00:28:41.339 --> 00:28:43.900 periodic system. Everything was set for him to 00:28:43.900 --> 00:28:45.960 finally get the award. But then, at the final 00:28:45.960 --> 00:28:48.160 full meeting of the Swedish Academy, things went 00:28:48.160 --> 00:28:51.069 sideways. Peter Klassen, who was a dissenting 00:28:51.069 --> 00:28:53.309 member of the committee, strongly opposed the 00:28:53.309 --> 00:28:55.789 recommendation and proposed the French chemist 00:28:55.789 --> 00:28:58.349 Henri Moisson instead. And the real political 00:28:58.349 --> 00:29:00.549 muscle came from a scientist who wasn't even 00:29:00.549 --> 00:29:03.470 on the committee. Svante Arrhenius. He'd won 00:29:03.470 --> 00:29:07.250 the Nobel in 1903, held massive influence, and 00:29:07.250 --> 00:29:10.980 he vehemently argued against Mendeleev. The official 00:29:10.980 --> 00:29:13.099 reason he gave was that the discovery of the 00:29:13.099 --> 00:29:15.740 periodic system was too old to be acknowledged 00:29:15.740 --> 00:29:19.039 in 1906. But the sources suggest that Arrhenius' 00:29:19.160 --> 00:29:21.799 motivation was anything but objective. It wasn't 00:29:21.799 --> 00:29:24.019 really about the date of the discovery, was it? 00:29:24.099 --> 00:29:26.700 Not at all. Contemporaries were convinced Arrhenius 00:29:26.700 --> 00:29:29.119 was motivated by a personal grudge. A grudge 00:29:29.119 --> 00:29:31.079 over what? Mendeleev had been a very public, 00:29:31.180 --> 00:29:34.440 very outspoken critic of Arrhenius' electrolytic 00:29:34.440 --> 00:29:37.059 dissociation theory, especially on the nature 00:29:37.059 --> 00:29:40.319 of solutions. This was scientific rivalry taken 00:29:40.319 --> 00:29:43.059 to the level of institutional sabotage. So the 00:29:43.059 --> 00:29:45.900 Nobel Prize, this award intended to honor the 00:29:45.900 --> 00:29:48.680 greatest achievements in science, was derailed 00:29:48.680 --> 00:29:51.180 by one man's personal vendetta. That's the sad 00:29:51.180 --> 00:29:54.160 reality of it. After a heated debate, Moissan 00:29:54.160 --> 00:29:56.960 won the final vote by the slimmest possible margin. 00:29:57.140 --> 00:30:00.079 Just one vote. And Arrhenius reportedly opposed 00:30:00.079 --> 00:30:02.940 Mendeleev's nomination again in 1907, ensuring 00:30:02.940 --> 00:30:05.680 that the father of the periodic table died without 00:30:05.680 --> 00:30:08.559 the world's most famous scientific honor. It's 00:30:08.559 --> 00:30:10.900 just a painful reminder that even at the highest 00:30:10.900 --> 00:30:14.000 levels of recognition, politics and grudges can 00:30:14.000 --> 00:30:16.400 sometimes prevail over pure merit. It really 00:30:16.400 --> 00:30:18.779 is. OK, before we close the book on his incredible 00:30:18.779 --> 00:30:21.319 life, we absolutely have to tackle the myth that 00:30:21.319 --> 00:30:23.480 shadows him in popular culture. It's probably 00:30:23.480 --> 00:30:25.940 more pervasive than his oil work or his metrology. 00:30:25.960 --> 00:30:29.210 The great vodka origin myth. Exactly. The story 00:30:29.210 --> 00:30:31.789 is a marketing powerhouse. You see it from certain 00:30:31.789 --> 00:30:33.950 vodka brands. Russian Standard is a big one, 00:30:34.029 --> 00:30:36.029 claiming that Mendeleev, through his scientific 00:30:36.029 --> 00:30:38.470 research, established the 40 percent alcohol 00:30:38.470 --> 00:30:41.450 standard for Russian imperial vodka. It's a lovely 00:30:41.450 --> 00:30:43.369 picture, isn't it? The world's greatest chemist 00:30:43.369 --> 00:30:45.910 perfecting the national drink. But what is the 00:30:45.910 --> 00:30:48.430 documented truth based on the historical records? 00:30:48.650 --> 00:30:51.549 The myth is unequivocally 100 percent false. 00:30:52.160 --> 00:30:54.400 The historical documents are crystal clear on 00:30:54.400 --> 00:30:58.319 this. The 40 % standard, technically 40 degrees 00:30:58.319 --> 00:31:01.140 by volume, was introduced by the Russian government 00:31:01.140 --> 00:31:05.119 way back in 1843. And Mendeleev was how old then? 00:31:05.220 --> 00:31:07.240 He was nine years old. He had absolutely zero 00:31:07.240 --> 00:31:09.700 influence on its adoption. So where's the confusion 00:31:09.700 --> 00:31:12.109 even come from? It seems to trace back to two 00:31:12.109 --> 00:31:14.970 separate facts that just get wildly conflated 00:31:14.970 --> 00:31:17.789 over time. That's exactly it. Fact one is his 00:31:17.789 --> 00:31:21.329 1865 doctoral dissertation, which had that rather 00:31:21.329 --> 00:31:24.150 dry title, A Discourse on the Combination of 00:31:24.150 --> 00:31:26.329 Alcohol and Water. People hear that title and 00:31:26.329 --> 00:31:28.809 they immediately think vodka. Of course. But 00:31:28.809 --> 00:31:30.690 the dissertation itself had nothing to do with 00:31:30.690 --> 00:31:33.089 vodka. It focused entirely on the volume changes 00:31:33.089 --> 00:31:34.930 and properties of high concentration alcohol 00:31:34.930 --> 00:31:38.109 solutions, generally above 70%, stuff relevant 00:31:38.109 --> 00:31:40.630 for medical or industrial use, not for the popular 00:31:40.630 --> 00:31:42.829 drink of the day. In fact, too, is his later 00:31:42.829 --> 00:31:44.910 role as director of the Bureau of Weeds and Measures. 00:31:45.109 --> 00:31:47.710 The myth suggests he set the quality standard 00:31:47.710 --> 00:31:50.089 while he was there. Which is another complete 00:31:50.089 --> 00:31:52.930 conflation. The bureau he directed from 1893 00:31:52.930 --> 00:31:55.630 dealt with standardizing physical instruments 00:31:55.630 --> 00:31:58.630 and measurements for trade. the kilogram, the 00:31:58.630 --> 00:32:01.150 meter, things like that. It had absolutely no 00:32:01.150 --> 00:32:03.509 jurisdiction over setting quality standards for 00:32:03.509 --> 00:32:06.049 specific products like alcohol strength. His 00:32:06.049 --> 00:32:08.589 role was about measurement accuracy, not regulating 00:32:08.589 --> 00:32:10.990 the national beverage. Precisely. So Mendeleev's 00:32:10.990 --> 00:32:13.730 connection to vodka is purely academic studying 00:32:13.730 --> 00:32:17.109 high -strength ethanol solutions and bureaucratic 00:32:17.109 --> 00:32:19.289 standardizing the weights that might be used 00:32:19.289 --> 00:32:22.180 to measure grain or liquor for trade. He was 00:32:22.180 --> 00:32:25.119 interested in metrology, not mixology. The myth 00:32:25.119 --> 00:32:28.059 endures, but the facts are clear. So we've covered 00:32:28.059 --> 00:32:30.920 just an immense range of influence today. Dmitry 00:32:30.920 --> 00:32:33.519 Mendeleev began his journey defined by his mother's 00:32:33.519 --> 00:32:35.700 resilience in the middle of Siberia. She went 00:32:35.700 --> 00:32:37.980 on to organize the entire physical universe into 00:32:37.980 --> 00:32:40.660 a predictive system, championed Russia's industrial 00:32:40.660 --> 00:32:43.000 future and oil and trade policy, and defined 00:32:43.000 --> 00:32:45.200 the standards of measurement for a vast empire. 00:32:45.690 --> 00:32:47.410 And all the while battling these institutional 00:32:47.410 --> 00:32:50.349 snubs and personal scandals. I think the unifying 00:32:50.349 --> 00:32:54.230 lesson here, really. is that his scientific triumph 00:32:54.230 --> 00:32:57.549 the periodic table it wasn't some isolated burst 00:32:57.549 --> 00:33:00.529 of brilliance it was the product of a deep lifelong 00:33:00.529 --> 00:33:03.809 commitment to systematic order and a belief that 00:33:03.809 --> 00:33:06.250 underlying laws govern all chaotic appearances 00:33:06.250 --> 00:33:09.829 exactly his core genius lay in the intellectual 00:33:09.829 --> 00:33:12.349 audacity to use those patterns for prediction 00:33:12.349 --> 00:33:15.150 he didn't just catalog what was known he forced 00:33:15.150 --> 00:33:17.009 the world to acknowledge the existence of the 00:33:17.009 --> 00:33:20.359 unknown The ECA elements. And critically, he 00:33:20.359 --> 00:33:22.720 forced other chemists to prioritize the law of 00:33:22.720 --> 00:33:25.440 periodicity over their own flawed measured data 00:33:25.440 --> 00:33:28.460 for elements like tellurium and uranium. He's 00:33:28.460 --> 00:33:30.599 the one who transformed chemistry from a descriptive 00:33:30.599 --> 00:33:33.279 science into a predictive one. A truly fundamental 00:33:33.279 --> 00:33:35.920 shift. And as you move forward with this knowledge, 00:33:36.000 --> 00:33:37.779 we want to leave you with a final provocative 00:33:37.779 --> 00:33:40.839 thought about the complexity of the man. Mendeleev 00:33:40.839 --> 00:33:44.180 died in 1907 from influenza. His last recorded 00:33:44.180 --> 00:33:46.420 words to his physician, which were reportedly 00:33:46.420 --> 00:33:49.359 a quote from a Jules Verne novel, were, Doctor, 00:33:49.559 --> 00:33:52.160 you have science, I have faith. Which is such 00:33:52.160 --> 00:33:55.440 a fascinating final statement. It is. When you 00:33:55.440 --> 00:33:58.880 consider his rigorous empiricism, his championing 00:33:58.880 --> 00:34:01.740 of systematic science, and his fierce lifelong 00:34:01.740 --> 00:34:05.339 battles against things like spiritualism, against 00:34:05.339 --> 00:34:07.839 superstition. What does that final line truly 00:34:07.839 --> 00:34:10.760 reveal? about his personal synthesis of it all. 00:34:10.860 --> 00:34:13.280 Did the man who sought to scientifically define 00:34:13.280 --> 00:34:16.199 all matter find in his final moments a boundary 00:34:16.199 --> 00:34:18.340 between empirical knowledge and profound belief? 00:34:18.559 --> 00:34:21.159 It's something to truly mull over. A profound 00:34:21.159 --> 00:34:23.780 question indeed. We hope this deep dive into 00:34:23.780 --> 00:34:26.019 the polymath genius of Dmitri Mendeleev has been 00:34:26.019 --> 00:34:27.739 enlightening. Until the next time, we'll see 00:34:27.739 --> 00:34:27.900 you then.