the periodic table

so there i was browsing the widgets on the apple pages, and i saw a new one - the periodic table (oddly named the 'period' table, which made me think for a moment, although not in an appropriate direction). i how have it on my widgets. it is not as nice as this one from an aesthetic perspective, but very handy.



very handy? what am i saying? i was the girl who was thrown out of the chemistry class because sophie bit me and i screamed. i had squirt fights with the distilled water containers, and hysterics when the teacher got his white coat caught in the centrifuge and it was horribly ripped.

yet i was strangely fascinated by the chart. first of all, i was amazed that i could recite, in order, the inert gases. next, there seemed to be a lot more of which i'd never heard. and some of them had the weirdest names (if you're not a scientist) : darmstadtium (i've been there, i think); ununbium, ununtrium, ununhexium et al; and then a bunch more named after people and places. they all have little radioactive signs at the top of the boxes so i guess they are another result of nuclear proliferation.

o, let's be honest here, i probably just want to learn all the words of the tom lehrer song :-)