The periodic table stares down from the walls of just about every chemistry lab. The credit for its creation generally goes to Dimitri Mendeleev, a Russian chemist who in 1869 wrote out the known ...

For those of us who care about things like beauty in science, we're witnessing a special moment in periodic table history—though disenchantment will come soon enough. In April, a joint ...

It says something about Dmitri Mendeleev that he had an easier time keeping track of the number of protons in the nucleus of an atom than the number of brothers and sisters living under his roof. The ...

Editor's note: The following is a text-only version. The complete version with artwork is available for purchase here (PDF). The periodic table of the elements is one of the most powerful icons in ...

In some sense, what you might have suspected from the first day of high-school chemistry is true: The periodic table is a colossal waste of time. Nine out of every 10 atoms in the universe are ...