The Mystery of Matter: Search for the Elements: Story, Cast and Series Facts

Story and premise

The Mystery of Matter: Search for the Elements is an exciting PBS series about one of the great adventures in the history of science: the long (and continuing) quest to understand what the world is made of—to identify, understand and organize the basic building blocks of matter. Three hour-long episodes introduce viewers to some of history's most extraordinary scientists: Joseph Priestley and Antoine Lavoisier, whose discovery of oxygen—and radical interpretation of it—led to the modern science of chemistry; Humphry Davy, who made electricity a powerful new tool in the search for elements; Dmitri Mendeleev, whose Periodic Table brought order to the growing gaggle of elements; Marie Curie, whose groundbreaking research on radioactivity cracked open a window into the atom; Harry Moseley, whose discovery of atomic number redefined the Periodic Table; and Glenn Seaborg, whose discovery of plutonium opened up a whole new realm of elements, still being explored today.

Series details

• Title: The Mystery of Matter: Search for the Elements
• Format: Documentary
• Language: English
• Genres: History
• Premiere date: 2015-08-19
• Final broadcast date listed: 2015-08-19
• Status in TVmaze: Ended
• Network listed by TVmaze: PBS
• Network country: United States
• Typical episode runtime: 57 minutes
• TVmaze community rating: 8/10
• TVMaze ID: 2854

Cast and credited roles

• Michael Emerson — Narrator

Seasons in the TVmaze catalogue

• Season 1: premiered 2015-08-19; final listed air date 2015-08-19; episode order: 3.

Source and licence

Adapted from The Mystery of Matter: Search for the Elements on TVmaze. The synopsis is reproduced as plain text; catalogue facts, cast and season records are selected and reformatted. This adapted text is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, following the TVmaze API licence. Network and web-channel credits identify the service listed in this source; they do not establish current streaming availability.