Guess Which British YouTuber Just Got Knighted?

Did you automatically guess Zoe Sugg when you read that headline? Because I did.

So YouTubers have become so influential they’re now getting honored by the Queen of England. Good work if you can get it. And, naturally, NMR wants to extend our congratulations (Good on ye, Guv’na!) to Martyn Poliakoff — correction: Sir Martyn Poliakoff! Double correction: Professor Sir Martyn Poliakoff. Damn! Our brainier YouTubers will recognize the mad-haired genius for his chemistry and science videos on the Periodic Videos channel.

The channel, which is predominantly hosted by Poliakoff, basically breaks down science into digestible pieces for the YouTube set. They initially started by explaining the Periodic Table of Elements (hence the channel name!), but branched out once they ran out of elements (including all known lanthanides and actinides).

“It is partly through my role at the Royal Society as an ambassador for UK science, but also it is for my role in chemistry,” Sir Martyn told the UK’s The Guardian. “Partly my research in green and sustainable chemistry.”
“But [it also recognises] my efforts — thanks to you, the YouTube watchers — to promote chemistry through YouTube,” Sir Martyn continued. “I think it may be the first time that YouTube has been mentioned when somebody has got a knighthood, and so I feel really quite proud about that. And I also really want to thank you YouTube viewers who have made this possible through your enthusiasm for chemistry. So in a way, this is an honour we can all share together.”

If you don’t watch this channel already, you’d better start — that was a damn nice thing for him to say about you.

 

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