Episode Summary: Radiolab – "From the Archives: Oliver Sacks' Table of Elements"

Date: August 6, 2015
Host(s): Jad Abumrad, Robert Krulwich
Guest: Dr. Oliver Sacks

Overview

In this warm, curious, and intimate episode, Radiolab dives into the world of the periodic table through a personal tour of Dr. Oliver Sacks’ New York apartment. Blending scientific lore, personal fascination, and a dash of whimsy, the hosts use Sacks’ idiosyncratic home as a window into the order and wonder within the elements. The episode offers a precursor for a forthcoming series on the periodic table, but stands beautifully alone thanks to Sacks’ awe and lifelong affection for chemistry’s fundamental building blocks.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

A Home Filled with Elements

• [03:00-04:00] Upon entering Sacks’ apartment, the hosts discover his deep obsession with the periodic table, evident in every room.
  • Bathroom: Periodic table chart on the wall.
  • Living Room: Cushions embroidered with the table.
  • Bedroom: Periodic table comforter.
  • Centerpiece: A mahogany box containing vials of actual elements.
• Sacks explains:

  “I tend to sleep here, right under tungsten.” – Oliver Sacks, [03:27]

The Mahogany Box of Elements

• [03:39-04:59] The heart of the visit is Sacks’ curated wooden box:

  “Little tubes, little samples, little teeny vials of almost all the elements.” – Oliver Sacks, [04:20]

  • Sacks celebrates his 72nd birthday, noting Hafnium is element 72:

    “Since I'm, for example, having my 72nd birthday tomorrow. And element 72 is hafnium. There is a little hafnium...” – Oliver Sacks, [04:43]

  • He delights in the tangible, "sensuous" experience of chemistry, recalling his childhood fascination:

    "My first love of chemistry had to do with the sensuous...the lustre, pale, golden, mercury. Very, very beautiful." – Oliver Sacks, [04:59]

Elements as the World’s Building Blocks

• [05:25-06:04] Jad reflects on the profoundness of the physical table vs. a wall chart:

  “Everything that we can see and perceive...it's all made of some combination of elements from that box.” – Jad Abumrad, [05:42]

  • The table represents not just scientific abstraction, but the tangible world and its underlying order.

The Origin Story of the Periodic Table

Ancient Simplicity to Modern Marvel

• [06:34-07:47] Sacks recounts how ancient thinkers imagined only four elements (earth, air, fire, water), which chemistry later expanded to dozens, each with unique properties.
  • The central puzzle: are chemical elements’ patterns random, or is there deeper order?

Mendeleev and the Dream

• [07:54-10:56]
  • Sacks introduces his hero, Dmitri Mendeleev, “the Siberian bigamist.”
    • Mendeleev used playing cards on Russian train rides to sort elements by their properties and search for underlying order.
    • [10:38-11:01] The pivotal moment: Mendeleev dreams the schema of the periodic table, awakening with his vision and scribbling it on an envelope.

    “He awoke with a vision of the periodic table.” – Oliver Sacks, [10:56]

Periodicity and Patterns

• [11:01-11:53]
  • Jad and Robert explain the table's simple genius: as elements get heavier, their properties periodically repeat.
    • Jad:

      "...while they're getting heavier, their other traits, like whether they're shy or magnetic, repeat periodically..." [11:22]

  • The table is infinitely rich—"a table that you can read in a million ways." – Robert Krulwich, [11:41]

Personal Connections and Metaphor

The “Inert” Kid

• [11:59-13:13]
  • Sacks draws a moving parallel between his own childhood shyness and the noble gases:

    “I was a rather shy kid with difficulty forming relationships. And I sometimes compared myself to the inert gases.” – Oliver Sacks, [11:59]

    • He delighted to discover, years later, that chemists had managed to combine xenon (the loner gas) with fluorine, showing that even the most isolated elements (and people) could form bonds.
    • Robert:

      “This lonely, lonely gas might find a partner somehow.” [12:55]
      Sacks:
      “Yeah.” [12:58]
      “…it came to me with great joy when I found out in the 1960s that actually a Canadian chemist had…made a fluoride of xenon.” [13:00]

Mendeleev as Moses

• [13:20-14:18]
  • Sacks shares an imaginative painting depicting Mendeleev as a kind of Moses, descending from a “chemical Sinai” with the periodic law etched in stone tablets.
  • Quote:

    “I imagined Mendeleev as a sort of Moses going up to a chemical Sinai and coming down with the tablets of the periodic law.” – Oliver Sacks, [13:41]

Deep Philosophical Questions

• [14:18-15:01]
  • Robert raises the essential mystery: Did Mendeleev invent the periodic table, or discover a pre-existing cosmic order?
  • Sacks ponders:

    “Is the periodic table a discovery or an invention? Is it a human construct, or is it a revelation of the cosmic or divine order? Is it, so to speak, God's abacus?” – Oliver Sacks, [14:33]

Notable Quotes

• Oliver Sacks: “I think there's always been a desire to somehow categorize and classify the world around us.” [02:06]
• Robert Krulwich (on Mendeleev): “Generally, if you met him on the sidewalk, you'd probably want to walk around him.” [08:16]
• Jad Abumrad: “I mean, everything that we can see and perceive...it's all made of some combination of elements from that box.” [05:42]
• Oliver Sacks: “Is the periodic table a discovery or an invention?...Is it, so to speak, God’s abacus?” [14:33]

Memorable Moments (with Timestamps)

• [03:02] – Sacks nonchalantly reveals he has a periodic table in every bathroom.
• [03:43] – The hosts encounter Sacks’ “altar”: the beautiful, tactile periodic box.
• [10:38-11:01] – The magical origin story of the periodic table: Mendeleev’s dream.
• [11:59] – Sacks relates to the inert gases as a shy child—and the later scientific realization that even the most isolated atoms aren’t truly alone.
• [13:41] – Sacks’ vision of Mendeleev as Moses, dramatizing the border between scientific insight and revelation.
• [14:33] – The episode’s philosophical crescendo: What is the periodic table’s ultimate nature?

Timestamps for Key Segments

| Time | Segment Description | |-------------|---------------------------------------------------------| | 02:06 | Sacks on humanity's drive to classify | | 03:00-04:00 | Tour of Sacks' periodic commonplaces and his element box | | 04:59 | Sacks’ “sensuous” love of chemistry | | 05:42 | Philosophical meaning of the periodic table | | 07:54 | Mendeleev’s introduction and portrait description | | 10:38-11:01 | Mendeleev’s dream of the periodic table | | 11:59-12:13 | Sacks as the “inert gas kid” | | 13:41 | Painting of Moses-like Mendeleev | | 14:33 | Is the periodic table discovered or invented? |

Tone & Style

The episode brims with curiosity, reverence, and humor. Sacks’ gentle British wit, Krulwich’s irreverent asides, and Jad’s thoughtful observations combine for an atmosphere that’s both welcoming and wonder-filled. The hosts’ playfulness and Sacks’ childlike awe serve as an invitation to explore not just the world of elements, but the greater philosophical questions of science itself.

For New Listeners

This episode is a loving, personal meditation on the periodic table—one part science, one part biography, and one part philosophical reverie. Through Oliver Sacks’ home and mind, Radiolab reminds us that behind every chart and scientific breakthrough lies a story of human longing, discovery, and beauty.