In this collection we explore the history and significance of the periodic table. We cover its origins and evolution, from Dmitri Mendeleev’s groundbreaking arrangement to the modern periodic table’s organisation, its influence and role in science and culture, the discovery of new elements and element scarcity.
Mike Sutton looks at how Mendeleev’s patience revealed periodicity in the elements
Author and chemist Primo Levi was born 100 years ago this July. Philip Ball looks at his chemical and literary legacy – including his books The Periodic Table and If This Is a Man
From the law of octaves to the periodic table as we know it, Mike Sutton traces how chemists put their house in order
How scientists look into the past, present and future
Chemical space contained sufficient information to formulate the periodic system 25 years before Mendeleev
Hand painted table commissioned by Mendeleev dates back to 1876
Yuri Oganessian tells us how nihonium, moscovium, tennessine and oganesson were made
Five jointly discovered superheavy elements completed the eighth row of the periodic but then Russian revanchism reared its head
Nuclei with mass numbers above 260 are produced in r -process events
Fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sees US go it alone on efforts to synthesise new elements
Element 114 predicted to be a volatile semiconductor with a melting point around 10°C
Could a Japanese scientist, whose claim to have discovered an element was dismissed, been right all along? Kit Chapman investigates
Meera Senthilingam