The periodic table turned 150 earlier this year, or at least March 1 was the 150th anniversary of the publication of Dmitri Mendeleev's version. Chemists had organized the elements in a tabular fashion previously, and some features (like interactivity!) of contemporary representations would be added later. Still, Mendeleev's published version was a significant milestone, since he recognized regularities within properties of the elements which suggested some elements with specific features were undiscovered. Even better … [Read more...] about Science Corner: Predicting Periodically
periodic table
Science Corner: All Signs Point to Nihonium
There are now 118 named elements on the periodic table. The latest additions made big news last week. Elements 113, 115, 116 and 117 are now named nihonium, moscovium, tennessine and oganesson respectively. The actual event triggering the headlines wasn't what you'd traditionally picture as science however. It wasn't the actual discovery or synthesis of these elements; that happened years ago. It wasn't even the selection of the names which was announced back in June. It was simply the completion of the bureaucratic … [Read more...] about Science Corner: All Signs Point to Nihonium