Rational Thinker

Rational Thinker is a podcast dedicated to exploring the rich and often surprising history of science — the discoveries, the debates, and the remarkable individuals whose curiosity and perseverance transformed our understanding of the world. From the revolutionary insights of the Scientific Revolution to the groundbreaking breakthroughs of the modern era, each episode examines the human stories behind the ideas that shaped civilization. I invite my listeners to look beyond the textbook and engage with science not merely as a collection of facts, but as an evolving, deeply human pursuit of truth. Whether you are a lifelong student of history, a science enthusiast, or simply someone who wonders how we came to know what we know, this podcast offers thoughtful, well-researched narratives that illuminate the minds and moments that moved science forward.

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20 episodes
Updated July 16

Episodes20

Newest first

July 16 · 20 min
How The Periodic Table Was Created
In 1875, French chemist Paul-Émile Lecoq de Boisbaudran discovered the element 'Gallium' after isolating it from a zinc blende ore. However, shortly after his publication, he received word from a Russian chemist with the name of "Mendeleeff" that claimed he had predicted such an element to exist 6 years earlier. This is the story of how that Russian chemist - and a fellow German chemist - turned rival - uncovered the periodic law of the elements and formulated them all into one cohesive unit, tr
July 2 · 20 min
How a Chemist Accidentally Destroyed a Scientific Myth
Before the modern days of organic and inorganic chemistry, there was an old theory called "Vitalism" that had made its way into chemistry. Pioneered into the field by the one and only Jöns Jacob Berzelius, this theory postulated that only living things can create organic compounds through acts of the 'Vital Force.' But cracks in this theory started to form when his pupil, Friedrich Wöhler, synthesized a compound that is found in the most unexpected of places: human urine.
June 11 · 29 min
How The Double Helix Was Discovered
You might think DNA was always the frontrunner by biologists to be the master blueprint of life. However, that couldn't be further from the truth. This video documents how DNA went from experimental backmarker to the frontrunner of a heated scientific race that used betrayal and abuse of power to reveal a winner... and rewrite history.
June 4 · 8 min
How Helium Was Discovered
Helium is a very common element in our universe. However, due to its characteristics, it's very rarely found on Earth. This video shows how scientists in the 19th century overcame this obstacle, over the course of decades, and isolated and discovered the rare gas.
May 28 · 22 min
How Relativity Was Validated
For over two centuries, Newton’s law of gravity accurately predicted the motions of all the planets in the solar system. But that all changed in 1859, when French astronomer Urbain Le Verrier discovered a strange anomaly regarding mercury’s orbit. This led to a problem in Newton's reality that didn't have an answer until Albert Einstein proposed General Relativity in 1915. Einstein accurately modeled Mercury's orbit with GR, but it wasn't enough for his theory to be accepted as fact. He needed t
May 14 · 20 min
How Electron Spin Was Discovered
In 1887, physicists Albert Michelson and Edward Morley discovered a new phenomenon that would come to be known as the fine structure of spectral lines. These spectral lines split into two or more components, and other effects like the Zeeman and Stark effects also showed cases where spectral lines split. The quest to answer why this happened took almost 40 years and would end with the discovery of a new characteristic of an electron known as "spin".
May 14 · 8 min
How the Atom Was Split for the First Time
Ever since the discovery of the proton in 1919 by Ernest Rutherford, scientists had been on a mission to break atoms apart, splitting them into their smaller components in hopes of changing elements into others. This was first successfully done by two of Rutherford's pupils, John Cockcroft and Ernest Walton, in 1932 after their invention of the world's first particle accelerator.
May 14 · 17 min
How Oxygen Was Discovered
In the 1770s, a revolution in chemistry had just begun, starting in Uppsala, Sweden. A young apothecary named Carl Wilhelm Scheele began a series of experiments that led to the eventual downfall of an entire theory of fire that had dominated chemistry for a century. This theory was known as the theory of phlogiston; phlogiston was an invisible substance that released from materials when they burned and was absorbed by air or other substances. Scheele supported phlogiston from his results, but hi
May 14 · 8 min
How Absolute Zero Was Discovered
Absolute zero is the theoretical limit to how cold temperature can reach. The quest to calculate the value of it started in the 1700s, but wasn't accurately done so until the mid 1800s by British physicist William Thomson.
May 14 · 16 min
How Superconductivity Was Discovered
The first liquefaction of helium in 1908 by Dutch experimental physicist Heike Kamerlingh Onnes was revolutionary. For the first time, scientists could push the boundaries of extremely low temperatures and see what happens to materials. 3 years after that feat, Onnes wanted to test something new: what happens to a metals electrical resistance as you reach those critical temperatures? 3 theories existed before Onnes tackled the problem, one by Lord Kelvin, one by James Dewar, and one by Augustus
May 14 · 19 min
The Quantum Debate That Changed Physics Forever
The 1920s were an era of intense discovery and progress in the world of physics. Concepts such as matrix mechanics, the Schrödinger model of the atom, the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, and more dominated this era of progress. All of these concepts had a particular trait in common with one another: they showed that probability was the driving force behind reality. Many physicists, most notably among them, Albert Einstein, were not so willing to accept this idea to its fullest. Einstein brough
May 14 · 17 min
How X-rays Were Discovered
In the late 19th century, cathode rays were the dominant topic of discussion in the world of physics. Scientists all over the globe were debating over what the nature of those rays were and what that implied for our reality. In 1895, a German physicist by the name of Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen joined this debate, but in his experiments, found something else entirely... something that would change the world forever.
May 14 · 19 min
How Radioactivity Was Discovered
In 1895, German physicist Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen discovered a new type of radiation. It was invisible and penetrating to some materials, but not others. He called the radiation "X-rays," and the phenomenon took over the science world. The very next year, a French physicist named Antoine Henri Becquerel, while studying these rays and trying to link them to phosphorescence, accidentally stumbled upon a new phenomenon that would ultimately shape the following century.
May 14 · 18 min
The Origin of the Gravitational Constant
The gravitational constant, or at least what it represents, is a fundamental part of our universe. It represents the strength of gravity and, to our knowledge, remains unchanged throughout space and time. But how did our knowledge of this come about? It all started with the Principia, but Newton did not introduce the constant G. This video takes you through the historical process of discovering G and integrating it into the science landscape.
May 14 · 21 min
How Electricity Was Discovered
In 600 BC, Greek philosopher Thales of Miletus noticed that the gemstone amber attracted light objects when it was rubbed against a cloth. Unbeknownst to him, he had discovered the phenomenon of static electricity. But how did humanity progress from this knowledge of a certain gemstone to powering machines with batteries? The answer lies in two centuries of innovation starting shortly after the beginning of the scientific revolution. This video doesn't cover everything, but does cover the most i
May 14 · 13 min
How the Neutrino Was Discovered
After the discovery of beta radiation by Ernest Rutherford in 1898 and the formulation of the mass-equivalency relation by Einstein in 1905, scientists realized that beta radiation was behaving in an odd way. The expected kinetic energy of the beta particles was less than expected and spread out over a spectrum as opposed to the expected single value. Some thought energy conservation was being violated, but a few scientists thought outside the box and proposed a new elementary particle, the neut
May 14 · 8 min
How The Atomic Number Was Discovered
Henry Moseley was a British physicist known for his discovery of Moseley's Law, which relates the atomic number to the "characteristic X-ray" of each element. Before Moseley's discovery, the atomic number was merely an arbitrary number given to elements, and was not the way elements were sorted on the periodic table.
May 14 · 9 min
How Atoms Were Weighed for the First Time
The weights of atoms and molecules are quite precise today, but has quite a long and complicated history. This video dives into the very beginning of that history, right when modern atomic theory was beginning to surface. John Dalton is the inventor of relative atomic weight, and his ideas were instrumental in getting atomic theory off the ground and running. Not only does this video cover Dalton's contribution, but also two scientists after him that destroyed his initial theory less than a deca
May 14 · 18 min
How Radio Waves Were Discovered
In the 1780s, an Italian physicist named Luigi Galvani made a shocking discovering when experimenting with the remains of frogs. He found that when he touched a the nerves of a frog with a lancet, and at the same time, discharged electricity from an electrostatic machine nearby, the frog legs would kick. This would spark a century-long slew of discoveries and theory that would eventually lead to the discover of the invisible radiation known today as radio waves.
May 14 · 18 min
How the First Artificial Element Was Created
Technetium is quite an interesting element and has just as interesting of a history. Many had tried to discover it and failed, and this is because of how unstable all of its isotopes are. The only way to discover the element was to make it ourselves, and that was finally done in 1937.