The issue will include 89 essays on the entire Periodic Table of the Elements, written by luminaries from across the chemical enterprise — industrial, academic and government. Among the essayists are Nobel Prize winners, chief executive officers of major chemical and pharmaceutically oriented companies, literary lights such as Oliver Sacks ( "Uncle Tungsten" and "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat" ) and Alan Lightman ( "Einstein's Dreams" and "Reunion" ). Among the authors will be those who helped discover elements.
Overall, the issue will examine elements that play key roles in everyday life from the TV screens we watch to the food we eat. It will be a personal exploration of the elements at a glance, in a style appropriate for high school-age students. Each essay also contains pertinent technical information about the elements.
This entire special issue of C&EN will be available on the Web at no charge. To access it go to http://www.cen-online.org and click on the special icon.
"This issue is a very fresh look at the periodic table," says Madeleine Jacobs, C&EN editor-in-chief. "This special issue really brings chemistry to life. We see how something as abstract as a chemical element can play a fundamental role in our everyday life."
To C&EN managing editor Rudy M. Baum, "the Periodic Table is nature's Rosetta Stone." He says that while to most people it is just 100 plus numbered boxes, each containing one or two letters, the table reveals the organizing principles of matter to chemists. "At a very fundamental level, all of chemistry is contained in the periodic table."
Among the essays and their authors in the special issue are:
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