What’s next after the International Year of the Periodic Table?
Chemistry outreach needs to build on IYPT in ways that connect with people and their lives
This year, all over the world, a spotlight has shone briefly but brightly on the periodic table, opening up conversations about chemistry. 150 years since the discovery of periodicity, 2019 was a perfect candidate for a year-long celebration of the most iconic diagram in our discipline.
Children have memorised it and sung songs of the elements; arrays of cupcakes have been baked, iced with element symbols and then devoured; and countless science outreach events have explored the origins, history and future of the building blocks of our universe. But what comes next?
As chemists we don’t need to be convinced of the importance of the elements and our subject for society, but sadly some members of the public still seem to feel detached from both.