New American Chemical Society video showcases the “Periodic Table Table”

By American Chemical Society —— Bio and Archives March 1, 2012

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WASHINGTON, — Almost everyone has seen the Periodic Table of the Elements, the chart gracing walls of science classrooms that shows relationships between the chemical elements that make up everything on Earth — and beyond. The American Chemical Society (ACS), the world’s largest scientific society, now is offering viewers of its award-winning Bytesize Science series a tour of what may stake a claim to being the world’s first and only Periodic Table table.

Put together by Theodore W. Gray, winner of ACS’ 2011 James T. Grady-James H. Stack Award for Interpreting Chemistry for the Public, it is a real wooden table with compartments that hold samples of almost every chemical element. The Periodic Table Table video is available at www.BytesizeScience.com. Gray, an author of several books and a column in Popular Science, opens little doors on the compartments to reveal in the video everything from gold ingots to an iridescent bismuth crystal to a niobium earring and a neon lamp. Pointing out some of the several thousand samples in the table and around his workshop, Gray, co-founder of Wolfram Research, describes ways people encounter the chemical elements in everyday life. Viewed nearly 2 million times in 2011, the Bytesize Science series uncovers the chemistry in everyday life. Subscribe to Bytesize Science on YouTube for new videos featuring hands-on demos of scientific phenomena, cutting-edge research found in ACS' 41 peer-reviewed journals and Chemical & Engineering News, interviews with scientific leaders and episodes highlighting the chemistry behind popular foods, products and discoveries that improve people’s lives around the world.