Appealingly shiny, nontoxic to mammals, and named for the home country of its discoverer, germanium is germane to any conversation about computer technology—it’s commonly used in the semiconductors that rule our computing lives. As part of the elemental series Everything Matters, join Exploratorium host and raconteur Ron Hipschman for a deep dive into germanium, its history, and its uses.

In the spirit of amplifying the Black Lives Matter movement and to avoid any appearance of having appropriated that title, our series of talks formerly called Everything Matters: Tales from the Periodic Table will now be called, simply, Tales from the Periodic Table. Please excuse the former title on videos made in the past.