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Not Your Father's Periodic Table

Posted by michael on from the thanks-ms.-fujinaka dept.

grahamkg writes "Science Daily has an article about a new periodic table of elements oriented toward cosmology. A PDF of the actual table can be found here."

21 of 28 comments (clear)

  1. As the old joke goes.... by Asprin · · Score: 3, Funny


    The astronomer's periodic table:

    1 Hydrogen
    2 Helium
    Metals

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    1. Re:As the old joke goes.... by Urkki · · Score: 1

      But wouldn't you have to have some special designation for elements up to iron, and other for elements after iron? I mean, the first group can be produced in stars while producing energy, while the 2nd group needs extra energy (such as a supernova) to be produced. I'd think that's quite an important disticntion for an astronomer...

    2. Re:As the old joke goes.... by iggymanz · · Score: 1

      you can simplify that, as hydrogen is metallic in solid form

    3. Re:As the old joke goes.... by Asprin · · Score: 1


      It's about ABUNDANCE. There just isn't enough of anything heavier than Helium for astronomers to be concerned about.

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    4. Re:As the old joke goes.... by Carnildo · · Score: 1

      In astronomy, "metals" is the technical term for anything other than hydrogen or helium.

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  2. Save Yourself The Time by rmohr02 · · Score: 1

    It's the same periodic table, they just put weird numbers on it. All the symbols are the same and are in the right spot.

    1. Re:Save Yourself The Time by Fly · · Score: 1

      Wow, did you come up with that yourself? Of course they are the same elements, but the information presented is different because it is intended for use by astronomers and cosmologists rather than terrestrial chemists.

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      end of line
    2. Re:Save Yourself The Time by crapulent · · Score: 1

      I think the point was that with a headline like "Not Your Father's Periodic Table" we (I, at least) expected to click on a link and see something earth shatteringly novel, unique, and different... Instead it's the same chart, with the same format, in the same shape, with the elements in the same order. Only instead of atomic number it's got abundancy and condensation temperature. Whohoo. Oh, and instead of being colored by solid/liquid/gas, it's something different. I'm sure this is interesting to cosmochemists (wtf?) but to me it's rather dull.

      I contend that, indeed, my father WOULD recognise this as his periodic table.

  3. which makes it worthless.... by barakn · · Score: 1, Insightful

    because it strips out the color-coded information on what sort of 'phile the element is. Iron, for example, is obviously an unusual element when looking at the pdf, as the colors indicate it likes hanging out with everything but atmospheres. In the html version, you don't see it.

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  4. good, but... by falsification · · Score: 1
    I find it striking. So mathematical. So precise. So practical! I love it.

    And yet....hmmmm. The colors. They're--how do you say--so Mondrian, so Vegas. The neon yellows and the puke green--they just don't do it for me.

    It would be better with a pastel yellow, and a softer green, like a seagreen. As for the grey background. . . . Uck! That has to go. You can always use eggshell white.

    All in all, I'd give it an A for originality, but only a B- for aesthetic value.

    Advice to the artist: just improve your color choices and it will look great!

    1. Re:good, but... by russellh · · Score: 1
      All in all, I'd give it an A for originality, but only a B- for aesthetic value.

      I'd give it an F for aesthetics. No cherubs, no demons, no skulls, no Latin, no half naked goddesses in flowing robes with sceptres, no twisted vines and flowers. I mean, where's the life? The struggle? the humanity?

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  5. I prefer this one.... by Mark+Hood · · Score: 1

    Periodic Table of the Elements

    and in case you'd not noticed the URL, it's a comedy show (just imagine a parody of the Open University, or all those 'Science' shows you had to watch at school when you were a kid that patronised you and told you utter rubbish). Hilarious, and now out on Dependable Video Discus.

    Mark

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  6. In other news by You're+All+Wrong · · Score: 1

    Egon Ronay has released a new gastronomic periodic table, with the elements arranged by taste. Along the bottom are the tasteless ones such as the inert metals, and higher up are more astringent ones such as iodine and sulphur. Egon has yet to place fluorine and potassium, but is said to be recovering well, according to his wife who visits him daily.

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  7. True Cosmologists Table by G4from128k · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Although very interesting, this color-coded table does not speak to the cosmological origins of each elemental species. For a truer cosmological table I would expect a more radical rearrangement of the table into a tree or mesh based on the fusion and other nuclear reactions that spawn the elements from the primordial mix of the early universe.

    Elements lighter than iron would probably sit on a nice tree associated with the hydrogen, helium, carbon, etc. fusion cycles. Heavier stuff would be in some type of mesh of fusion and decay reactions that occur in supernovae.

    Such a cosmological orgins table might get a bit messy as each different isotope might be the product of multiple reaction/decay pathways. Maybe a 3-D visualization tool could help present the data in all its glory.

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  8. Re:fp! (first periodic) by earlbecke · · Score: 1

    Well, it's all the same elements, but it provides different information about them that's specially relevent to cosmology.

  9. a truly aesthetic periodic table by calyxa · · Score: 1
    by Theodore Gray - http://theodoregray.com/PeriodicTable/

    -calyxa

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  10. I prefer... by dnahelix · · Score: 1

    ...the Chart of the Nuclides .

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    1. Re:I prefer... by dnahelix · · Score: 1

      Well, maybe I shouldn't say "prefer."
      But I think the Periodic Table and
      the Table of Nuclides should be combined.
      I found another version here.
      I think the shape of the table is very interesting.

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  11. I agree with that earlier post by Squiffy · · Score: 2, Interesting
    I think my father would recognize that table.

    I prefer this one.

  12. Re:Why isn't this on the front page? (OT) by Cy+Guy · · Score: 2, Informative

    Something actually useful on ./, except its hidden away in the science section instead of the front page.

    Go to your Homepage preferences and put a check in the box "Collapse Sections (show stories from all sections, unless specifically excluded)"

    If you only want 'regular' front page stories and Science stories, then click the Section boxes to specifically exclude BSD, Games, Apple, etc.

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  13. Re:Why isn't this on the front page? (OT) by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 1

    Yeah, or just make this your link to Slashdot.

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