The Elements

The Elements A Visual Exploration of Every Known Atom in the Universe The periodic table is the universal catalog of everything you can drop on your foot. There are some things, such as light, love, logic, and time, that are not in the periodic table. But you can’t drop any of those things on your foot. The earth, this book, your foot—everything tangible—is made of elements. Your foot is made mostly of oxygen, with quite a bit of carbon joining it, giving structure to the organic molecules that define you as an example of carbon-based life. (And if you’re not a carbon-based life-form: Welcome to our planet! If you have a foot, please don’t drop this book on it.) Oxygen is a clear, colorless gas, yet it makes up three-fifths of the weight of your body. How can that be? Elements have two faces: their pure state, and the range of chemical compounds they form when they combine with other elements. Oxygen in pure form is indeed a gas, but when it reacts with silicon they become together the strong silicate minerals that compose the majority of the earth’s crust. When oxygen combines with hydrogen and carbon, the result can be anything from water to carbon monoxide to sugar. Oxygen atoms are still present in these compounds, no matter how unlike pure oxygen the substances may appear. And the oxygen atoms can always be extracted back out and returned to pure gaseous form. But (short of nuclear disintegration) each oxygen atom can never itself be broken down or taken apart into something simpler. This property of indivisibility is what makes an element an element. In this book I try to show you both faces of every element. First, you will see a great big photograph of the pure element (whenever that is physically possible). On the facing page you will see examples of the ways that element lives in the world— compounds and applications that are especially characteristic of it. Before we get to the individual elements, it’s worth looking at the periodic table as a whole to see how it is put together.