Damn, this periodic table is beautiful

Say hello to your newfangled desktop background .

In May 1949 , LIFE Magazine published a stunning serial of ikon to company an offspring dedicate largely to The Atom . You cancheck out the feature in its entireness here , but the reimagination of the periodic tabular array of elements as a colored spiral is easily one of the most striking graphics of the lot . [ dawn here to see it in hi - res ]

Here in its entirety is the legend that accompanied the original graphic :

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The maverick spiral above is a systematic arrangement of the 92 natural element , the four new factor so far created by man and eight more elements which is theoretically potential to create . It is called the occasional tabular array of the element . The sequence begins with H ( at the snapper of the spiral ) , which is the first and simplest component . Under its name appears its chemic symbol ( left ) , its atomic weighting ( right ) and a larger numeral which gives the total number of electrons in its atom . It is on the base of this number that the elements are arranged in chronological sequence : after hydrogen , with its individual negatron , get along helium with two , lithium with three , beryllium with four and so on around the spiral .

The colors and construction of the tabular array utter another kind of kinship among the elements : the repeat , at regular intervals , of the chemical properties of the first few . machine characteristic are thus recur periodically in the procession form the simplest to the most complex . The table is so organized that element whose chemistry is almost monovular are grouped together in blocks of relate by substantial arrows ( all the indifferent gases – helium , neon , etc.–fall in the single gray auction block at the left ) . Broken arrows interrelate groups of elements which are similar in most regard but differ in a few of their properties . All related to element are given different shades of the same color . The key to this similarity among element is find in the arrangement rather than the figure of the electrons in their atom . Only the negatron in the KO’d shell affect an atom ’s chemical nature . Therefore all elements whose atoms have identical stunned shells are chemically related , regardless of the full deep brown of electrons which each of them may own . For example , Li , sodium and the other factor in the ruby segment at left all have one negatron in their outer shell and are therefore similar though they take issue in the entire act of their electrons . Each consummate electric circuit of the table pop with one of these elements and ends with an element in the side by side grey-haired segment whose atom ’s out plate is complete .

This tabular array , like all attempt to boil down the basic phenomena of nature to a simple practice , falls somewhat short of its aim . For one thing , there are variations in the succession of elements which do not fit readily into its graphic conformation . For another , it is not so much a reduction as an neat presentation which specifies the relationship between elements but leaves much about them to be explain … Yet in expressing this relationship the board reveals the sinful symmetricalness and order which underlie the universe .

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