New American Chemical Society Video Showcases the “Periodic Table Table”

WASHINGTON, March 1, 2012 — 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.

For more entertaining, informative science videos and podcasts from the ACS Office of Public Affairs, view Prized Science, Spellbound, Science Elements and Global Challenges/Chemistry Solutions.