Spinning Sphere of Molten Sodium

I know they're not doing this experiment - "12.5 tons of hot, liquid metal designed to spin at up to four revolutions per second" - because of any chemistry questions. Rather they're trying to explore the creation of the Earth's magnetic field.

But because they're using molten sodium, there are some fascinating chemical reactions that they need to avoid.

So they don't have a normal, water-based sprinkler system to avoid 'modestly catastrophic" because water on sodium, to quote Mr Mackey, 'it's bad, mkay'.

What is the NEW Silver Play Button REALLY made of?!

The video description doesn't remotely need that ?! at the end.

That being said, the process that the youtubers here go through to find out what specific elements are in the 'silver' play button is fascinating. The (?) Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectrometer is something that's new to me.

I'm particularly fascinated by the results at 5:39 showing the elemental makeup at various depths of the 'button.'

Yeah, all that's interesting, but what's the 'gold' play button award made of?

We produce 13 tons of hazardous waste every second

We are horrible to the planet.

And we have to be better.

Otherwise we're going to continue to poison the only environment that we have.

Luckily this Vox video doesn't dwell only on the negative. Instead, they look at what a small startup, Smarter Sorting, is doing to decrease the number of hazardous materials that end up in the waste stream - that aren't incinerated or landfilled.

I'm hopeful that this program expands soon.