At the Tables Edge

From the time that they first used tools and tried to change their environment in other ways, humans have known that the world is made up of basic materials. Thousands of years later, ancient civilizations agreed on a few main elements such as fire and water that they thought were the building blocks of everything on Earth. The modern list of elements and their properties was discovered only in the past few hundred years. The simple yet elegant family tree of all matter, the periodic table of the elements, was finally uncovered in the nineteenth century. The building blocks of elements themselves—the reason that the periodic table is periodic—were not known until the early twentieth century, when subatomic particles were finally revealed. The most recent elements added to the periodic table did not exist at all until scientists identified them in the debris of war and created them from scratch in the middle of the twentieth century. 

But is the long history of the periodic table of elements finally over After all, the boxes have been filled, and the pattern that connects them into periods and groups is well known. Are scientists and inventors, doctors and artists still interested in the periodic table and the things it can tell us  

The answer is a definite yes. Ever since Mendeleyev transformed a simple list of elements into a useful scientific tool, the periodic table has been the doorway through which researchers of all kinds can explore the universe of matter. Old elements are put to new uses, like the zinc nanoparticles in sunscreen. Familiar reactions are found to create serious problems, such as the destruction of the ozone layer by chlorofluorocarbons. Like Mendeleyev himself, scientists are predicting the existence of brand-new elements that have never been seen but are certain to be built someday in the laboratory. 

The future of chemistry still lies within the rows and columns of the periodic table, as some cutting-edge research proves. The future of life also lies within the periodic table as people are constantly looking for ways to improve the quality of life through medicines, alternative fuels, and high-tech gadgets. 

Small amounts of gadolinium and indium make MRI pictures of the body clearer and easier for doctors to read. 

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