The crystals that wiped out an HIV medication, almost overnight. Thanks to SoFi for sponsoring the video! Click here to sign-up for SoFi Checking and Savings: https://sofi.com/ve
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Check out the excellent video by Reactions here: https://youtu.be/PccOwGEbtQU?si=NOpmaulDcoq6Kif-
This video was a huge collaborative effort!
Special thanks toโฆ
Dr Andreas Kafizas for all his help with the Silver and Tin demonstrations, and staying up for those 14 hours with us monitoring the timelapse! As well as Conrad Duncan and the team at Imperial College London.
@ChrisYoungCooks for teaching Casper how to temper chocolate and @jameshoffmann and the team for letting us take over their studio; we had a great day!
Many thanks to Professor Adam Matzger, Professor Katharina Fromm and Professor Mike Zaworotko for taking the time to talk to us.
Also thank you to Dr. William McVicker and the British Institute of Organ Studies and Chris at Luciteria Science for helping us source our grey and white tin samples.
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0:00 The Disease Infecting Miracle Medicine
4:20 An Explosive Feud
10:05 How The Same Compound Can Behave Two Different Ways
13:18 Polymorphs Of Chocolate
19:51 Why Ritonavir Stopped Working
22:57 The Tin Pest
27:28 Disappearing Polymorphs
30:20 Is Everything Polymorphic?
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References can be found here – https://ve42.co/PolymorphRefs
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Special thanks to our Patreon supporters: Adam Foreman, Albert Wenger, Alex Porter, Alexander Tamas, Andrรฉ Powell, Anton Ragin, Balkrishna Heroor, Bertrand Serlet, Blake Byers, Bruce, Bryan Ackermann, Cartier, Chris Brewer, Daniel Martins, Data Don, Dave Kircher, David Johnston, David Tseng, EJ Alexandra, Evgeny Skvortsov, Garrett Mueller, Gnare, gpoly, Hayden Christensen, Hong Thai Le, Ibby Hadeed, Jeromy Johnson, Jesse Brandsoy, Juan Benet, Kelcey Steele, KeyWestr, Kyi, Lee Redden, Marinus Kuivenhoven, Mark Heising, Martin Paull, Meekay, meg noah, Michael Krugman, Orlando Bassotto, Parsee Health, Paul Peijzel, Richard Sundvall, Robson, Sam Lutfi, Shalva Bukia, Sinan Taifour, Tj Steyn, Ubiquity Ventures, Vahe Andonians, William Yoon, wolfee
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Writers: Gabe Strong & Casper Mebius
Producer and Director: Gabe Strong
Presenters: Derek Muller & Casper Mebius
Editor: Trenton Oliver
Assistant Editor: James Stuart
Art Director: Mathias Hawk
Illustrators: Jakub Misiek, Emma Wright & Maria Gusakovich
Animators: Fabio Albertelli, Andrew Neet, Emma Wright & Alex Drakoulis
Researcher: Sophia Rose
Additional Research: Callum Cuttle
Camera Operators: Rob Newman, Casper Mebius, Gabe Strong, Callum Cuttle & Derek Muller
Voice-over Artist: Gregor ฤavloviฤ
Thumbnail Designers: Abdallah Rabah, Ren Hurley & Ben Powell
Production Team: Jess Bishop-Laggett, Glen Griffiths, Mathew Cavanagh & Anna Milkovic
Executive Producers: Derek Muller, Casper Mebius & Gregor ฤavloviฤ
Additional video/photos supplied by Getty Images & Storyblocks
Music from Epidemic Sound
50 Comments
I am getting deja vu, have you made this video already? Or am I remembering a different but similar vid by someone else.
I thought this was a very good video, Veritasium. Thanks for making it, I found it fascinating.
23:26 did they change from florescent light to led somthing?
Did the host dye his beard and hair?
thats a really cool thermometer, I wonder where you can get one…
Wow… this sounds like a massive headache to deal with!
His beard looks really weird with that dye.
Well, that was a surprising, and somewhat scary, video! So I liked it… and I didn't (being old) ! ๐ฏ ๐ฆ๐บ
This is an insanely interesting and terrifying science history story, and being interested in that, it's weird I hadn't heard about it yet.
Great episode, crystallisation is an artform sometimes living its own life. What a polymorph nightmare for Abbotโฆ..
Comes out like what
Rupert Sheldrake explained crystallisation like this with the theory of Morphic Resonance
21:46 I got vacuum decay PTSD
This is why Walter white was obsessed with contamination
Is the chocolate making demo filmed in the James Hoffmann set?
I have had one other Chemistry lesson in my life which was as loaded as this video, and that was on coordination compounds. This is the second video where I really learnt something from the ground up, and the copper wire activation energy graph was a great visual aid for anyone interested in chemical kinetics.
Have I seen this info on another channel before or was it the same one reposted?
I accidentally made a silver fulminate โbombโ when I was like 11, it kinda blew up in my face but no real damage done except ringing ears.
Moral of the story, donโt do that.
as a programmer,this kind of issue,where something seems to be exactly the same,but acts different,feels very familiar
This is easily one of the scariest episodes ever.
โNot only is the Universe stranger than we think, it is stranger than we can think.โ Werner Heisenberg
Morphic resonance at work?
"If there's a 1% chance the world's going to end, you're gonna do something about it, right?"
AI companies racing for AGI: "Er…"
Leibig is cooler because he has a condenser. Wohler just has processes and synthesis
Re-upload
I suspect most drugs are already at their most stable polymorph, simply because of probability.
This is great material for "Aliens" like saying they are spreading these "seeds" so that we can not have scientific breakthroughs as this can block all progress
13:30 wait wait waitโฆ I know that studioโฆ.. whereโs the Hoff?
Looks like prions
What was the motivation behind putting a chocolate-smeared girl chewing with her mouth open at 13:40? I really see no benefit from her being there. Was it like 'Yeah, our demonstration is boring, let's show people how chocolate is eaten just in case their attention span is shorter than that of a housefly, or if someone has forgotten how to do that'?
The part they gave up Form 1 is not well explained. Why isn't moving to a new place and using brand new production lines working?
So it's just… gone? That thought is terrifying. At least there was a solution, and not everything was put into form 1 as the be-all end-all….
I swear I already watched a veritasium video on ritonavir before
"nature seems to favor it" is the essence of wisdom.
21:41 that's a surprisingly very nice graph.
The fact that AIDS, a completely avoidable disease, still exists in 2026… WTF is wrong with people.
That must been the most convoluted way of getting a course in chocolate by Chris Young
I like the idea and flow
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Sounds like false vacuum decay.
Very good content, as always, BUT, what is the Chocolate Guy doing at Coffee Nerd James Hofmann's studio set?? :O
I feel this video would've been better if Beaker from the muppets did it.
Ritonavir is still available and they are still able to manufacture it! surprised you didn't cover this in the video!
Development of a New Formulation: Abbott rapidly reformulated the product, moving from the original soft gelatine capsules to a new, refrigerated capsule and eventually a stable tablet formulation, which was re-marketed in 1999โ2000.
Seeded Crystallization (Form Control): Scientists discovered that Form II was being "seeded" by contamination in the manufacturing environment. To ensure the production of the desired Form I, they implemented a strict "seed" technique. This involved introducing pure seeds of Form I into a new, cleaner, controlled manufacturing environment to force the drug to crystallize only in that form.
Replacing Manufacturing Lines: Abbott reconditioned and replaced existing manufacturing equipment, including production facilities in Italy, to eliminate any traces of the stable Form II crystals.
Amorphous Solid Dispersion Technology: In later formulations, particularly for the Kaletra combination, they used amorphous solid dispersion (a solid amorphous dispersion of the drug) to keep the ritonavir in a highly soluble state, preventing it from converting into crystalline Form II
Is it just me or does Derek Muller look healthier, possibly less stressed out, than a year ago? Looks like stepping a bit back, has been good for him.
Are Prions a worry too ?
Why an add of interest ?
I really like your work but that add is a mistake
Ice 9.
inb4 polymorphic water
… make chewable tablets?
Temperatures in Celsius. Thanks for that!
16:00 now I want to see mono-crystalline chocolate