ELEMENTARY, MY DEAR MENDELEEV

Sometimes how you organize things makes all the difference.

- Nick D'Alto

YOU'VE GOT A BUNCH OF STUFF, BUT EVERYTHING LOOKS DIFFERENT, AND NOTHING MATCHES. How can you organize this mess? No, we're not talking about your room-let's not go overboard here! We're talking about the elements. You know, carbon, magnesium, lead. They were all just rocks-in-a-box, until a Russian guy with a messy beard named Dmitri Mendeleev (1834-1907) arranged them into the famous periodic table of the elements. Now, an updated version of that chart hangs in science classrooms around the globe.

Except that it's much more than a chart. The periodic table lists the substances that make up everything we can see and touch. Plus, it tells you how every substance combines with every other substance. Talk about the ultimate collection. So, how did Mendeleev do it?

Getting Organized

Think of the messiest person you know. Dmitri Mendeleev had a tangled beard and wild hair. But it wasn't just that. Mendeleev's entire profession was disorganized. As a chemist, he studied the elements substances that can't be broken down into simpler forms. Except in those days, no one had yet arranged these elements in a way that made sense.

Mendeleev started his organizing project by writing down lists of all the known elements, along with their properties. For example, are they heavy or light? What color are they? Do they react with other materials easily, or not at all?