"By clicking on the image above, you'll be able to explore:

*The history of the Periodic Table in just 2 minutes
*How certain elements changed the course of history
*How the different parts of our planet are made up of the same elemental building blocks
*Where different elements occur, and what places they get their names from
*Which elements make up the human body
*The elements that are vital, and dangerous, to human life"

Two new elements have been added to the periodic table after a three-year review by the governing bodies of chemistry and physics.

Believe it or not, some chemists do have a sense of humour, and this page is a testament to that. Here we'll show you some real molecules that have unusual, ridiculous or downright silly names. If you know of any other potential candidates for this page, please let me know. People from all over the world have sent me so many contributions to this page, that I've now had to split it into four smaller pages.

In honour of the International Year of Chemistry, Dimensions takes a peek behind recent changes to the periodic table — that marvel of simplicity and scientific achievement that represents the building blocks of chemistry.

The Periodic Table of Videos is a collaboration between the University of Nottingham's School of Chemistry and video journalist Brady Haran.

We initially made videos about all 118 elements.

Starting today, I'll be posting on a different element each weekday (the blog will run through early August), starting with the racy history of an element we've known about for hundreds of years, antimony, and ending on an element we've only just discovered, the provisionally named ununseptium. I'll be covering many topics—explaining how the table works, relaying stories both funny and tragic, and analyzing current events through the lens of the table and its elements. Above all, I hope to convey the unexpected joys of the most diverse and colorful tool in all of science.

Out of all Isaac Newton’s myriad interests, alchemy appears to have been his passion. His famous works on optics, mechanics and mathematics were mere side-thoughts in comparison to the thirty years he spent on alchemy. He read hundreds of alchemical texts and wrote more than one million words in his notebooks. These notebooks include experimental notes, which appear to only hint at the many hours spent in his laboratory. His thoughts on alchemy developed throughout his life but he seems to have never let go from the belief in a ‘subtle, vegetative agent’ that produces all of nature’s marvellous forms.

Hover over an element and get basic info.

Whisper it, but the periodic table does not exist even in the way that the Tube map exists, representing the actual position of the stations on the ground. But the table traps the elements it represents in a kind of prison and stops us seeing them for themselves.

At readings of my new book, Periodic Tales, parents have come up to me afterwards and told me their child is having “to do the periodic table”, and how can they help?

Here’s how: get them thinking about the individual elements instead. After all, the periodic table is only a checklist of what is truly elemental. Mendeleev’s table shows how the properties of each are similar, but this tends to obscure their uniqueness. What is more, each element is linked to our lives in unique and often unexpected ways. We know them through our human culture, how they have been woven into our objects and stories, not by entering the privileged space of a laboratory.

There is hardly a boy or a girl alive who is not keenly interested in finding out about things. And that’s exactly what chemistry is: Finding out about things–finding out what things are made of and what changes they undergo. What things? Any thing! Every thing!
–The Golden Book of Chemistry Experiments

Today we have the so-called long form of the table. This has emerged supreme from well over 100 designs that have been proposed since the time of Mendeleev. With the advantage of hindsight we can now see why this form of the table was bound to succeed.

On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the awarding of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry on December 10, 1904 to Sir William Ramsay (1852–1916) “in recognition of his services in the discovery of the inert gaseous elements in air, and his determination of their place in the periodic system,” this article reviews his life and career and discusses his most important contributions.

Although Dmitri Mendeleev is often considered the "father" of the periodic table, the work of many scientists contributed to its present form.

Funny song about the elements in the periodic table.

"We etch a tiny periodic table onto a hair belonging to chemistry Professor Martyn Poliakoff. "

"One way to wear the periodic table is to break down your own body into its constituent elements."

List of alternative ways of visualising  the periodic table.

Image showing state at room temp, appearance in nature (element, compound, both) and common uses.

See summaries, photos and related images (usage, discoverer, etc)  for each element.

Toggle views for properties, orbitals, isotopes etc. Select elements, groups and periods for Wikipedia summaries, photos, podcasts.