Category Archives: Periodic Blackwork

The patterns I have chosen for boron and aluminium allow me to introduce you to one of my favourite books. From Atoms to Patterns by Lesley Jackson concerns the Festival Pattern Group, a project instigated by Cambridge crystallographer Dr Helen Megaw for the Festival of Britain in 1951. She brought together British crystallographers and industrialContinue reading “Patterns in crystals”

I have previously posted fluorine and chlorine, the two elements at the top of Group VII – the halogens – and astatine near the bottom. Today the two in between: bromine and iodine. These patterns result from their physical properties and give me the rare opportunity to incorporate some organic chemistry. Similarly to fluorine andContinue reading “Properties of halogens”

One for the toxicologists and one for the immunologists today: polonium and astatine – the two elements I have struggled with most so far to find something I could work into a design. Both are radioactive – a property that can be harnessed for good or for harm. Astatine (from the Greek astatos meaning unstable)Continue reading “For better, for worse”

Following on from radon and argon, two more elements in Group 18: neon and xenon, both of which find use in bright and showy lighting. We are all familiar with the bright “neon” lights used in advertising displays and in signage such as exit arrows. Neon lends itself for this purpose as it emits aContinue reading “Light fantastic”

Today, two elements in the last group of the Periodic Table, Group 18: radon and argon. Radon is found towards the bottom of the group; it is a heavy element that is unstable and therefore radioactive. It has a half-life of only 3.5 days so doesn’t hang around for long, but is continually generated fromContinue reading “House and home”

Fluorine and chlorine, the two elements at the top of Group 17, are both important for keeping us healthy. The elements themselves are highly reactive toxic gases and if inhaled cause severe lung damage. Several chemists were injured, some fatally, in attempts to isolate elemental fluorine, and chlorine gas was put to devastating use inContinue reading “Health and hygiene”

According to the rules of the international Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), a new element can be named after a mythological concept or character (including an astronomical object), a mineral or similar substance, a place or geographical region, a property of the element, or a scientist. These three elements, numbers 115, 116 andContinue reading “Location, location, location”

First posted on FB 15/04/2020 One year ago today a huge fire took hold of the cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris. She has stood on the bank of the Seine for over 850 years and in the aftermath of the fire it became clear just how much this church building means to France. In contrast,Continue reading “Symbols of nations”

First published on FB 13/03/2020 This was supposed to be a periodic table devoid of letters and numbers, so why do we have here alpha, beta, gamma – the first three letters of the Greek alphabet? The element cadmium is named for Cadmean earth, an ore found near Thebes, the ancient Greek city founded byContinue reading “Now you know your A, B, G…”