When you walk into Heather and Jon's house, you can't miss the Periodic Table that takes up most of one wall. It was an extraordinary gift to Heather years ago from an extraordinary friend.

Science museums around the world should hope to have such extraordinary friends of their own so that they can acquire the new interactive Periodic Table displays produced through a partnership of Theodore Gray and the Red Green and Blue Company. If you can't wait until the exhibit is available at your local science museum, check it out online. If you can be deal with the relatively long download times, you can click on the individual elements and get a glimpse of how wonderful the physical display must be. I was most fascinated by how many of what I thought were unusual elements turn up in common use, something I first learned from The Radioactive Boy Scout.

Posted by sursumcorda on Monday, February 21, 2005 at 7:46 am | Edit
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What a beautiful display. It would probably be much more effective in getting kids interested in chemistry than the mere memorization of the periodic table. All I remember about chemistry are the letters s, p, d, f which is what my high school chemistry teacher basically yelled at us over and over again after a particularly bad showing by most of the class on one of her exams. I checked out Radium on the table (I would have done more, but the download is fairly long). It reminded me of a story I heard not too long ago. Radium based paint was used to decorate clock faces because it would glow in the dark. The women who painted the dials were paid by the dial and to speed their pace would often stick the tip of their brush into their mouth to form it into a sharp point. Many developed cancer and died, the bones in their jaws disintergrating.

Posted by DSTB on Monday, February 21, 2005 at 9:54 am
How cool! Thanks to our high-speed DSL, I am able to look at as many as I want. It would be really great to see a live display.

When I first started reading the description and noticed that they had actual samples in the display, I wondered how they contained the radioactive ones. Then I clicked on a few - they just have a radioactive symbol and they say "if we had an actual sample here, you would be dead." (:

Posted by Joyful on Monday, February 21, 2005 at 10:16 am