Design made of chemical icons, fractal graphics and design elements to serve as backdrop for projects related to chemistry, biology, pharmacology and modern science

They have 1,074,181 subscribers and have won numerous awards, and on Sunday 24th June 2018 the team behind the Periodic Videos celebrated ten years since they posted their very first film on Youtube.

Six hundred and thirty nine videos later they will be marking their 10th birthday with a video in which the star of the show, Professor Sir Martyn Poliakoff, from the School of Chemistry at the University of Nottingham, will list his 10 favorite videos over the past decade. 

For tens of thousands of fans world-wide Professor Sir Martyn Poliakoff is the face of the Periodic Table. He said: “It has been a fantastic and really enjoyable adventure for me and my colleagues.  What started as a quick project for the summer has become an on-going educational activity reaching out to a global audience, from young children to Nobel Prize winners. Who knows where it will lead next?”

Tables charting the chemical elements have been around since the 19th century – but this modern version has a short video about each one of the chemical elements – accessed via a special interactive Periodic Table www.periodicvideos.com. The person behind the project is video journalist Brady Haran and his videos feature real working chemists at the University of Nottingham. 

The Periodic Table of Videos (PTOV) exploded on to the social media scene back in 2008 when scientists in the University’s School of Chemistry started working with Brady Haran on their mission to document every single one of the 118 chemical elements in a fun, lively and often unconventional way.

The Periodic Videos have made unlikely YouTube stars of its scientific presenters. Since that first video was posted the team has filmed experiments for most of the elements and regularly update the videos with new stories, better samples and bigger experiments.

By Wednesday 19th June, the videos had attracted 182,840,933 views, with a total viewing time of 579,177,908 minutes – the equivalent of a staggering 1,100 years. 

In December 2010 the team filmed the making of the world’s smallest periodic table. Created by experts in the University of Nottingham’s Nanotechnology and Nanoscience Centre as a birthday present for Sir Martyn, it was officially recognised by the Guinness Book of Records the following October.

In February 2012 Professor Martyn Poliakoff received two top accolades from the world of science for his work to raise the profile of chemistry. He was awarded the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Nyholm Prize for Education for his work on the Periodic Table of Videos, and was elected as a Foreign Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Last year, He was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in recognition of his promotion of science to the public.

In 2015 when Professor Poliakoff was Knighted in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours the occasion was marked with a video. And a camera was also on hand the following June when Martyn went to the palace to receive his knighthood.  

In May 2017, the cult hero of Periodic Videos, technician Neil Barnes, received one of the highest accolades from the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) – the President’s Award for outstanding contributions to the dissemination, advancement or applications of chemical science.

Next year will mark 150 years since Mendeleev proposed the first Periodic Table. And to mark the event, UNESCO has declared 2019 as the International Year of the Periodic Table.  Periodic Videos will be making the most of the celebrations to make new videos to inspire the next generation of scientists across the world. 

In June 2009 the Periodic Videos team baked a special cake to mark their first anniversary. Because it was cooked in the lab it couldn’t be eaten – so they exploded it! See how they celebrate their 10th anniversary. The video will be available via this link youtube.com/user/periodicvideos.

Keep up to date with what’s happening on twitter:
@periodicvideos