The periodic table stares down from the walls of just about every chemistry lab. The credit for its creation generally goes to Dimitri Mendeleev, a Russian chemist who in 1869 wrote out the known ...

Published: November 26, 2020 9:03am EST The periodic table of the elements, principally created by the Russian chemist, Dmitry Mendeleev (1834-1907), celebrated its 150th anniversary last year.

So the beauty of the periodic table is that the elements that are in columns, up and down, have similar properties. But there are similarities within a group going across too.

Each area of the new table has been colour coded to indicate its vulnerability. In most cases, elements are not lost but, as we use them, they become dissipated and much less easy to recover.

A new version of the periodic table arranges elements by protons instead of electrons. The perennially useful original Mendeleev periodic table has led to spinoffs, including for quantum dots.

The periodic table of the elements isn't as confusing as it looks. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. Scientists had a ...