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The periodic table is 150 years old this week
- Isamu 8y agoHey, to celebrate this, everybody share your favorite "Periodic Table of X" where X is something that is absolutely not periodic at all!
- saagarjha 8y agoPeriodic table of Pokémon
- andrewflnr 8y agoThe Periodic Table of Things Not On Any So-Called "Periodic Table of X".
- WrtCdEvrydy 8y agoPeriodic Table of AWS Services was a hit at the office.
- harshulpandav 8y agoPeriodic Table of Bitcoin
- cafard 8y agoDouglas Copeland had a couple in Shampoo Planet. I have never read the novel, but when the NY Times printed them I did have to explain what the joke was to a household member who either never had encountered or had entirely forgotten the periodic table.
- ryanmcbride 8y agoPeriodic Table of Adobe Products. Not enough for a full table, but their icons are already basically formatted like elements.
- app4soft 8y agoPeriodic Table of Periodic Tables
- zapzupnz 8y agoTom Lehrer made mention of the elements of the ancient world. If compiled into a periodic table of elements, it would be: Earth, Air, Fire, & Water
- arthurfm 8y agoInternet time-wasting periodic table (created with CSS Grid) https://codepen.io/oliviale/full/ZmvPPd https://codepen.io/oliviale/full/ZmvPPd
- cr0sh 8y agoIt's things like this that should serve as good reminders just how young our "modern existence" is, how far we've come as a species in such a short time, and (potentially) how easy it could all slip away if we let it. Maybe that's not the best way to put it, but I hope my point comes across anyhow... Happy Birthday, Periodic Table. May you have 150+ more...
- throway88989898 8y ago> reminder Time https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XkV6IpV2Y0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XkV6IpV2Y0 Space https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fKBhvDjuy0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fKBhvDjuy0 It's like asking a 2 year old to count way... way past 10
- TomMckenny 8y ago>Space https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fKBhvDjuy0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fKBhvDjuy0 Made in 1977 and we can already comfortably go two orders of magnitude larger. Not bad.
- amelius 8y ago(They should make a similar movie about wealth distribution, going from someone who makes 1 dollar a month up until Jeff Bezos.)
- throway88989898 8y agoMoney https://xkcd.com/980/ https://xkcd.com/980/
- hjk05 8y agoLook up dollar street by the same people who made gap minder. It’s a wonderfully simple look into the differences in wealth and living, which shows you things like “favorite thing” filtered along an axis of wealth.
- aasasd 8y agoA more modern soundtrack for ‘Powers of Ten’: https://youtube.com/watch?v=NvG-jqGsWSk https://youtube.com/watch?v=NvG-jqGsWSk
- doggydogs94 8y agoIn the last fifty years or so, 15 elements have been added to the periodic table.
- ekun 8y agoI went to a talk at Oak Ridge National Lab soon after the discovery of Ununseptium (element 117 that is now called Tennessine) and it was really interesting the international collaboration needed to make the discovery happen. Basically, at Oak Ridge they produced radioactive isotopes with the appropriate number of neutrons and protons to match the theoretical ratio of the atom. Then, those isotopes needed to be shipped to Russia so they could be smashed together in a particle accelerator to briefly create the atom which we know existed from its specific decay and gamma ray emission. But there was a lot of political hurdles in the way of shipping the isotopes to Russia in the first place, and it almost didn't happen because the isotopes were decaying while paperwork was floundering between state departments.
- acqq 8y agoThe accessible (no registration/subscription required) article: https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24132190-300-the-true-story-of-the-birth-of-the-periodic-table-150-years-ago/ https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24132190-300-the-true...
- pradn 8y agoThere are now attempts to create a "periodic table" for data structures. Such a table would allow you to predict variations of data structures and the behavior of such variants. You can see such an example in page 7 of the PDF below. https://stratos.seas.harvard.edu/files/stratos/files/periodictabledatastructures.pdf https://stratos.seas.harvard.edu/files/stratos/files/periodi...
- eggpy 8y agoThat's pretty interesting, I look forward to see what comes out of this! People often tend to conflate "computer science" with "professional software development" and I admit my first reaction was "so what? I routinely use just a small handful of data structures, do we really need something like this?" but seeing it visually laid out in an easily-digestible format is somehow inspiring. From a scientific perspective I can imagine discovering more advanced structures much like "missing" elements from the periodic table.
- iaabtpbtpnn 8y agoI'm very interested to read this paper, but the grammar mistake in the first sentence of the first section doesn't bode well...
- killaken2000 8y agoIs it the is/are issue? Maybe they are using it as a mass noun or speaking specifically about the the phrase itself or the idea of data structures. Could stem from a cultural or ESOL reason.
- sasaf5 8y agoThis is very nice! Allow me to make a post about it :)
- antpls 8y agoAre neural networks (for example from TensorFlow) considered data structures? They store data, so maybe it would have been nice to mention them in the paper even if it's to put them out of scope for X reasons.
- lkbm 8y agoI'm pretty under-educated on chemistry, but I read Asimov's _Search For The Elements_ a few years ago and loved it. It really demystified things. In modern times it's easy for laymen to just wave our hands and say "yeah, we use fancy technology to do this stuff, which pretty much just treats it as magic. Asimov goes through the development of the periodic table and the discover of individual elements using classic technology. Scanning tunneling microscope is still opaquely magic in my brain, but reading about discovering an element using technology I already understand makes even modern chemistry feel more in the realm of stuff I can get a solid grip on.
- xkcd-sucks 8y agoSo I actually did a PhD in chemistry and just happen to work in software for reasons [0]. A thing that totally blows my mind about the periodic table and early materials chemistry is how it's in essence a derivation of "quantum mechanical" electronic structure. One which was achieved through top-down "black box" debugging of nature on a scale too small for any human to see or touch! [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19266614 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19266614
- dsteinman 8y agoOne of the best documentaries I've seen on the subject is BBC's A Volatile History : https://youtu.be/g_2bo4abkPI https://youtu.be/g_2bo4abkPI
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- apo 8y agoOne of the most interesting controversies I've seen about periodic table schemes is the placement of helium. It usually sits above neon as a noble gas. However, not everyone agrees with that: "Two things are surprising about Mendeleev’s classification of the chemical elements according to the Periodic Law,” Bent writes. “One is how much of the classification has not needed revision. The other is how long the scheme’s second element has been misplaced, above neon, despite Mendeleev’s Rule of Light-Element Distinctiveness; despite his statement that the Periodic System is about atoms, not simple substances; despite classification by atomic physics of helium atoms as s2 systems (not p6 systems); despite appearance of the Left-Step Periodic Table nearly eight [now over nine] decades ago; and despite numerous implications of the LSPT that require placement of helium above beryllium.” https://cen.acs.org/unassigned/Reactions/97/i3 https://cen.acs.org/unassigned/Reactions/97/i3 How you view the placement of helium (and other more difficult elements) comes down to what you believe the table represents: - empirically-derived reactive trends of elemental substances (in which case helium above neon makes much more sense); or - a summary of theoretically-derived electronic configuration (in which case helium above beryllium makes perfect sense). You can see aspects of both views in the modern canonical table. It's weird exceptional cases like this that can, among other things, make chemistry such a difficult (and fun) subject to learn.
- trophycase 8y agoWhy does electronic configuration put it above Beryllium? Helium has a full first shell of electrons, and other noble gases have their subsequent shells filled with electrons, this is why they all have their property of being more or less inert. The reactive trends of noble gases aren't "emperically derived" as you say but as a result of being extremely energetically stable due to having full electron orbital shells. EDIT: Perhaps I misunderstood and you meant that its initial placement was due to empirical data. But for good theoretical reason it has remained where it is IMO.
- gus_massa 8y agoBeryllium has 2 electrons and 6 holes in the last shell. Neon has 8 electrons and 0 holes in the last shell. Helium has 2 electrons and 0 holes in the last shell. How do you align Helium, in the 2 electrons column over Beryllium or in the 0 holes column over Neon? [I vote for aligning it over Neon.]
- exochrono 8y agoHighly recommend reading Oliver Sacks' Uncle Tungsten - his tale of growing up and discovering the beauty of the periodic table with his home chemistry set. Made me appreciate chemistry and the periodic table and Oliver Sacks so much more.
- richardhod 8y agoHere's a bunch of other interesting subsequent designs https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_periodic_tables https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_periodic_tables
- tonymet 8y agoMendeleevs Table
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- wwarner 8y agoI think the coolest thing about the periodic table is that it's macroscopic evidence of the discrete, particle nature of atoms and the rest of the sub-atomic universe.
- readhn 8y agoQuote from Mendeleev himself: "I saw in a dream a table where all the elements fell into place as required. Awakening, I immediately wrote it down on a piece of paper." This is fascinating to me -- Our brains continue working during our sleep on problems we think about during our day!
- cheerlessbog 8y agoThe structure of Benzene was famously conceived in the same way.
- steve76 8y agoIt always helped me to think of atomicity, not atoms. As in, not little building blocks, but what do I have to do to get that to work, and realizing the massive effort that is behind bringing a spec of redundant matter into existence. I see science not as subjective, nor a sacred truth. Nature and perpetual decay? Unacceptable. Science? My cheat codes to checkmate nature. Atoms huh? Well you can only move so fast before little points appear, and you want more, not just down through the matter but all around. Sure that potential moves as fast as possible, but the actual weight through the circuit, rather slow. Oh, and that's not good enough for you. So I am going to control over the void you create now, changing how everything pulls into that. That's still not enough? Well I will create points inside points inside points, all the way up to triggering another Big Bang if I have to, and nothing so coarse, only in my benefit. Our shared puniness is no handicap. Yes, one blue pixel, for sure. But that's all I have to worry about, and I have all this. But also, all that too. Ours. It's our bumbling and shortcomings that are to blame. Death is far more horrible than anyone can imagine, and I will do anything to survive, up to and including turning our Sun into a black hole as easy as I dim the lights in my living room.