Your earliest memory of the periodic table may be from high school chemistry class. Most science teachers had this nifty tool plastered everywhere — on the walls, the desks and it was even in the back of science books. It also makes for a great gift for the science nerd in your life. In case that sentence reminded you that your nerdy brother-in-law’s birthday is coming up here is a link to all the cool periodic table gifts Amazon has – you’re welcome. Anyways, the periodic table gives us ample information for solving problems and understanding more about elements, but how do scientists use it in their day-to-day lives?
The History
The first periodic table w
as published in 1869 by Dmitri Mendeleev. However, there were many scientists who had a part in discovering new elements, and many would say these experts built off of the ideas and discoveries of each other.
As you know, the periodic table contains chemical elements and is organized based on the elements’ atomic number, recurring chemical properties, and electron configuration. Over the last century, and as scientists have better understood chemical properties, the periodic table has evolved and changed to be the great tool it is today.
In January 2016 it was announced that four new elements were added to the periodic table – which completed the table’s seventh row. And you better believe that laboratories are already on the hunt for elements in the eighth row.
Is it still relevant?
Yes – absolutely! The periodic table is utilized for a wide range reasons. In fact, we reached out to our team at Polymer Solutions and asked them how they use the periodic table. Our team explained they refer to the periodic table on almost a daily basis. It comes in handy for various ICP and ACS methods for determining what elements can be detected by which methods. It is also referred to for SEM-EDS testing to analyze overlapping peaks and determine which elements are more likely to be there and which may be false positives. In addition, our scientists use it to calculate molecular weight and look up atomic weight. And maybe our favorite answer, one team member said he enjoyed how our shower curtains and pillows had the period table on them, which he uses “periodically”.
So whether you realize it or not, the periodic table is not just used in chemistry classes. It spans far beyond that and the information it contains helps us better discover and understand science, which will continue to move our world forward to becoming a better place.