50,000th subscriber signs up for award winning science website

A team of 10 professional chemists and one unconventional film maker have just signed up the 50,000th subscriber to their award winning science website — the Periodic Table of Videos (PTOV), www.periodicvideos.com

Without a script or a story board — just a passion for science — video journalist Brady Haran and experts from The University of Nottingham have proved science really can appeal to a general audience of all ages. And they’ve teamed up with rapper and science communicator Oort Kuiper (aka Jon Chase) to celebrate their latest milestone - http://www.youtube.com/watch’v=TF1xxPDS7Pk

Martyn Poliakoff FRS, a Research Professor in Chemistry, said: “The Periodic Tables website now boasts 348 videos and attracts several thousand more views within hours of uploading each new video. Our videos have been viewed more than 15 million times in more than 200 countries and territories with subscriber numbers easily surpassing the channel of Chelsea FC and even that of Britain’s Royal family — until the recent wedding!”

Their most popular video about a cheeseburger and hydrochloric acid has been viewed by nearly half a million people — www.youtube.com/watch’v=NddZ5ftQb0Q

PTOV has already spawned a successful sister channel ‘Sixty Symbols’ — presented by another team of Nottingham scientists in the School of Physics and Astronomy. The 151 Sixty Symbols videos reached 40,000 subscribers the same night PTOV reached the 50,000 mark.

Brady Haran, a trained journalist who now specialises in science communication, said: “It’s been so much fun making these videos and I think that fun is shared by the audience. The scientists are always open and candid, really letting their passion for chemistry shine through.”

http://www.sciencemag.org/content/332/6033/1046.full

The supporting cast of PTOV, in no particular order, in includes:

Pete Licence, Sam Tang, Darren Walsh, Neil Barnes, Steve Liddle, Debbie Kays, Rob Stockman and John Moss.

Brady is always coming up with new and creative ideas. He is now working on The Molecular Videos — which features the team’s favourite molecules and compounds.

And if he had to choose a favourite video from PTOV he says it would have to be the Ytterby road trip in Sweden to a disused mine where four elements on the periodic table were first discovered —

http://www.youtube.com/watch’v=HTvhgd84_WQ

The Professor’s favourite is about the element Hassium because he was put on the spot, talking about a subject that he knew nothing about! http://www.youtube.com/watch’v=VQ8cZoA0tiU