Volume 41, Issue 4

The Periodic Table of Chemical Elements has without any doubt developed to one of the most significant achievements in natural sciences. The Table (or System, as called in some languages) is capturing the essence, not only of chemistry, but also of other science areas, like physics, geology, astronomy and biology. The Periodic Table is to be seen as a very special and unique tool, which allows chemists and other scientists to predict the appearance and properties of matter on earth and even in other parts of our the universe.

We are moving into the last part of the 2019 International Year of the Periodic Table and one wonders: Is there anything left to say? Has the equation Elements of X, not been thoroughly investigated? Not quite we think, and an amazing set of authors from around the globe* * who accepted the challenge adequately proves the point in this special issue of Chemistry international.

The chemical elements tiles illustrating the features of this special IYPT2019 issue of Chemistry International are part of the IYPT Timeline of Elements project organized by Chem 13 News and the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. The project attracted worldwide participants. Teachers were asked to apply on behalf of their students to design an artwork for one assigned element. 200 applications from over 29 countries were initially received, and ultimately all the elements were assigned to 118 schools from 28 countries, including every province and territory in Canada.

The periodic table was born in chemical education and thrives there still. Mendeleev was inspired to create his primitive but pregnant table in order to provide a framework for the textbook of chemistry that he was planning, and it has remained at the heart of chemical education ever since. It could be argued that the education of a chemist would be almost impossible without the table; at least, chemistry would remain a disorganized heap of disconnected facts. Thanks to Mendeleev and his successors, by virtue of the periodic table, chemical education became a rational discussion of the properties and transformations of matter. I suspect that the educational role of the periodic table is its most important role, for few research chemists begin their day (I suspect) by gazing at the table and hoping for inspiration, but just about every chemistry educator uses it as a pivot for their presentation.

What are stars made of? Less than 200 years ago this basic, simple question was deemed impossible to answer. As Auguste Comte put it in 1835: “On the subject of stars…While we can conceive of the possibility of determining their shapes, their sizes, and their motions, we shall never be able by any means to study their chemical composition or their mineralogical structure.” Today, we have a broad, clear answer to the question: “What are stars made of?” We also understand its far-reaching implications in relation to the evolution of the cosmos . Satellites and many ground-based spectroscopic surveys routinely provide new discoveries on the chemical composition of astronomical objects. In parallel, the nuclear processes that produce the elements inside stars are investigated in increasingly sophisticated nuclear physics experimental facilities across the world. At the same time, supercomputers allow us to calculate detailed models of the evolution of stars and galaxies: how much of which element is produced where? Finally, the presence of tiny amounts of extra-solar material can be found within meteorites, whose analysis is reaching unparalleled precisions with uncertainties down to parts per million. How have we managed to travel from an impossible question to such broad knowledge filled with discoveries?

When Dimitri Mendeleev assembled his periodic table in 1869, the heaviest known element was uranium, element 92. As the table filled, it soon became clear that this was the heaviest element that existed in large quantities on Earth. But it was far from the limit of the building blocks of matter.

We live on a planet bathed in dioxygen. Iron, the most abundant transition metal element on Earth, reacts with dioxygen to form rust and red clays. It is also an essential component of enzymes that generate the energy we need to live, but alas, many of these reactions can be harmful, leading eventually to destruction of vital organs in our bodies. We can’t live without iron and dioxygen, but there are challenges living with them!

There are many ways to look at the periodic table. When Mendeleev established the table, he arranged the elements according to atomic number and chemical properties. Here, we try a different look. We discuss the influence and links of elements on the development of cultures and technologies. Some of the elements have a direct impact on our life: carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen and phosphorous are the main building blocks of our organism, besides small amounts of other elements. Many other elements, especially metals, are the base of the development of our social and technological world, due to the availability and/or innovative use of new or already known elements. We will have a look on the relevance and importance of these elements for the development of technologies over the last 10 millennia.

We used to chant a rhyme when we were young (I had three dominant sisters and no brothers!): “What are little girls made of? Sugar and spice and all things nice. What are little boys made of? Slugs and snails and puppy dog’s tails.” The truth is, of course, that they are all made from the same things, as is everything around them that makes up our diverse and beautiful world as well as much of the universe—the 90 natural elements that are the building blocks of life. It is an amazing thought that these are only building blocks so it is essential that we should nurture and cherish all of them if we are to continue to enjoy life in its abundance.

Let us start with a simple question: what allows you to read this article? Your eyes, the light? Whatever your answer is, you are right. But now, please, keep your eyes open and the light on, and imagine that this text is written exactly in the same colour as the paper. Would you be able to read?

In today’s periodic table, 118 elements stand side by side, neatly arranged in rows and columns, mapping out their relative size, proudly sharing their family’s traits, and showcasing their relative reactivity and predicted behaviour in different situations. Back in 1869 when Dmitri Mendeleev devised the arrangement of elements we use to this day, there were notable gaps left for elements that had not yet been discovered. As the arrangement of the elements was based on a range of physical and chemical properties, it was easy to predict some of the properties of the missing elements. It was in these gaps that both scientists and artists alike dared to dream about elemental discoveries with both predicted and unpredicted properties. Comic book and science fiction writers in particular had fun postulating some of the possible elements that would give their superheroes the characteristics they required to carry out their tasks. They created fictional elements in place of some of the as yet undiscovered elements, many of which now share properties with elements that exist today.

IUPAC has released its call for proposals to identify the top ten emerging technologies in chemistry with the results to be announced in 2020.

The 2020 IUPAC-Richter Prize will be presented during the XXVI EFMC International Symposium on Medicinal Chemistry (6-10 September 2020) in Basel, Switzerland, where the recipient will also give a plenary lecture on the subject of their research.

The first four recipients of the recently established IUPAC-Zhejiang NHU International Award for Advancements in Green Chemistry go to  Mingxin Liu  from McGill University, Montreal,  Xiaofu Sun from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing,  Julian West  from Rice University, TX, and to  Fabio Aricò  from the Università Ca’ Foscari, Venezia, Italy. The collaborative award in Green Chemistry has been established to encourage young and experienced chemists, and to emphasize the importance of advancements in Green Chemistry and the value of sciences to human progress.

I first met René when the IUPAC General Assembly came to Brisbane Australia in 2001. IUPAC was not an organization I (then) knew much about, but I found myself confronted by Paul De Bièvre demanding that I join a task group on metrological traceability. At the time I would not have called myself a metrologist in chemistry (MiC) or in any other field. The great minds assembled for the project were Paul De Bièvre, René Dybkaer, Ales Fajgelj, and me. I had no idea that our task would take ten years (finally published as De Bièvre, P.; Dybkaer, R.; Fajgelj, A.; Hibbert, D. B.: Metrological traceability of measurement results in chemistry: Concepts and implementation (IUPAC Technical report) Pure Appl. Chem. 2011, 83, 1873-1935), and that during the time I would come to form strong friendships with my comrades in the “Gang of Four.” Paul is no longer with us and now René has left the stage.

Provisional Recommendations are preliminary drafts of IUPAC recommendations on terminology, nomenclature, and symbols, made widely available to allow interested parties to comment before the recommendations are finalized and published in IUPAC’s journal Pure and Applied Chemistry ( PAC ). Full text is available online.

A few years ago, the International Year of Chemistry (2011) was celebrated throughout the world with the organization of thematic conferences and symposia, special activities for children, the publication of a myriad of articles and reviews, and, of course, the release of postage stamps by many countries. Likewise, the International Year of the Periodic Table (IYPT) presents now another rare opportunity to relate the history of chemistry and showcase its societal benefits to a worldwide audience. As originally proclaimed by the United Nations and UNESCO, the IYPT also offers an incentive to promote international cooperation in the basic sciences for sustainable development and science education.