Chapter 3 summary and reflection

In chapter 3, the author begins with talking about Robert Bunsen and how he perfected the Bunsen burner and with his obsession with arsenic and how an explosion left him half blind for the last 60 years of his life. Kean goes on to introduce and give short biographies of the people who built the periodic table. Next, the author talks about Dmitri Mendeleev, the man accredited for creating the first periodic table. Mendeleev put the 62 known elements into columns and rows although he wasn't the only who did this. Mendeleev's rival Julius Lothar Meyer also worked on his own periodic table. The difference between the two men was that Mendeleev actually predicted the new elements that were yet to be found.

Kean also went on to introduce other scientists with contributions. Mendeleev had left blanks in his table where the lanthanides are. Mendeleev didn't know what belonged in those spots so he left them blank but those elements were later found in the mine called Ytterby in Sweden. There, people like Johan Gadolin isolated clusters of lanthanides. Many other scientists made the trip to Ytterby to find the missing elements from Mendeleev's table and seven were found. Of the seven lanthanides found, six were from the elements Mendeleev predicted on his table.

I really enjoyed this chapter because it provides a perspective on the periodic table that you don't see everyday. For me the periodic table is a big map of letters and numbers. The way Kean uses analogies and stories makes me learn more about how elements work and how they were found. I also learned that scientists are also human and make mistakes or let their talent get to their heads. An example is that of Mendeleev where he said Lecoq de Boisbaudran's findings of gallium was wrong because the density and weight was wrong. Although Mendeleev could have been wrong, he was confindent in his findings and it turned out he was right so Lecoq de Boisbaudran had to retract his findings.