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WIP video about Rubber — Kindly Requesting Feedback!

🕑 Added 2025-08-16 10:25:45 +0000 UTC

Comments

Veritasium

Both answered here: There is work going on to make more blight resistant rubber trees. I am not sure if the fungi attacks that entire family. But there are rubber producing species that aren't affected by the blight (like guayule and dandelion). Milkweed latex does have rubber, but it's a much lower concentration (2-3%) compared to Brazilian rubber tree (30-40%) - Sulli, writer for this video

SKIP SPEER

here is a question. Are all plants of the Euphorbiaceae family subject to the rubber tree blight. If there is a member of this Family that is not subject to the Microcyclus ulei or ascomycete Pseudocercospora ulei are there any efforts by geneticist to possibly use Crispr to gene splice those genes resistant to the blight to produce a blight resistant Rubber Tree.

SKIP SPEER

How closely is the sap from milkweed related to natural rubber

Veritasium

Good to know! What is the correct labelling of the carbons? No number 5? Or just no labels? - Sulli, writer for this video

Ben Northrup

The sound levels vary too much. I can't hear some sections well

Paul Peijzel

As a chemist, I would like to insist on correct nomenclature. The numbering shown at 34:40 is a bit strange, as the 1 and 4 in the name of poly-isoprene come from the carbons from the monomer, which has a fifth carbon, but is not numbered with a 5. Here it works out by coincidence, as in the polymer you can count from 1 to 4 again, and they connect. For some other polymers of isoprene, like the 1,2-polysioprene and the 3,4-polyisoprene, the numbering does no longer coincide with the carbons in the polymer chain.

Timothy-Douglas Alvey

Two small items: Don’t touch the script; it’s very good. (I’ll show this to my 4, 6 and 8 year grandchildren, with rubber band toys, while they watch! I think they’ll understand the basics and will enjoy the Brazil history.) Item 2: keep Richard Feynman’s name and the date when he commented. Great People should not be forgotten (thanks for including him)! Otherwise, I’m going shopping for a box of good rubber bands and looking forward to the Final version.

Derek Muller

Thank you for these detailed notes!

Kat Seibert

While rubber with carbon black is conductive you might want to compare how conductive a tire is so people don't think you can substitute it for copper.

chromicacid

@1:04 "All our best rubber comes from a single natural source" Is "best" a good word here? The latter 3rd of the video on synthetic rubber makes it more complicated than "best". @12:27 "...but it was so smelly that they rejected it" Out of curiosity, do you think that they thought it might be a health hazard and not just unpleasant? The idea of any "bad air" being a source of sickness was still common in America in the 1800s. @14:16 "So, step 1, add the rubber" This segment could use a little introduction. The terms "cured" and "uncured" aren't introduced until 14:50. Also, could benefit from annotations clarifying: (1) if the producer is inserting uncured rubber into the first machine (or something else) (2) what "add these two in" (@14:25) refers to (3) what the blackened material is that comes out @14:51 video showing cured and uncurred stretching Is this a different stage of processing? The cured rubber is a beige color, similar to the uncured, not like the blackened rubber we saw come out the machine a moment ago. @17:08 "When Charles kneaded in sulfer and then heated the entire mixture" Is this a callback to @12:40? Without the animations, I'm not certain what this is talking about @20:00 "...it conducts electricity" This whole section is fascinating! I had no idea @26:39, @27:00, @27:40, @34:40 (cuts of producer against dark background) Audio is weak compared to adjacent recordings @28:16 "...that's roughly a third of the Manhatten Project" To drive home the point, maybe repeat the amount: "Equivalent to $11.1B today was spent on the Dayton Project, part of the larger Manhatten Project, to create synthetic rubber." @32:20 section on the stress/strain of rubber This whole section is very cool. The idea of rubber having "crystals" is so weird.

Charles S. Cook

Incredibly interesting. There is no mention of Thomas Edison and his research with Milkweed or Goldenrod. I was a production supervisor in a tire factory and am a bit familiar with much of this, but not as a chemist. I do agree with all that you have on this, especially the fragile arrangement of resource availability. I think (hope) someone has Edison’s work in an old book someplace, just in case. Thank you, I totally enjoyed this draft and am anxious for the finished video!