International Year of the Periodic Table of Chemical
Elements (IYPT2019) : Commemorating it’s sesquicentennial year.
The profundity and extraordinary significance of
the periodic table - a prophetic invention of Dmitri Mendeleev, which in its sesquicentennial year has been deservingly recognised by the United Nations
General Assembly and the UNESCO, for celebration as the IYPT2019 - can best be
appreciated from the epiphanic statement of Richard Feynman; “If some universal
catastrophe was to engulf the world and humankind could retain only one scientific
concept to rebuild civilization, what would it be? The chemist’s answer is
almost invariably the Periodic Table of the Elements”.
It was one hundred fifty years ago (1869) on 6th March, that a
Russian scientist, Dmitri Mendeleev, published his monumental findings on the
Periodic Table in an obscure Russian journal, that gave to the world a periodic
predictive order to the chemical elements. The German translation of his work,
which appeared shortly thereafter, facilitated his periodic arrangement of the
chemical elements to reach far and wide drawing a wide scientific audience and
recognition. Mendeleev also recorded his new findings of the periodic table in
his popular textbook, Principles of Chemistry, which were published in many
editions in Russian, German, English, and French thus increasing the awareness
and popularity of his Periodic Table.
The periodic Table (PT) is as omnipresent
(particularly in science class rooms, research institutions and labs) as the
calendars, but with a difference. The Periodic Table needs no replacement at
the year end, unlike the calendars which are replaced every year. The world
that we see around - including the unending cosmos - is made up of matter,
which is formed from the fundamental building blocks of the chemistry, the
chemical elements. Ever since the dawn of organised knowledge, the Scientists
are constantly untangling the mysteries of the world by discovering and
inventing new found scientific knowledge and harvesting this knowledge for the
benefit of human society and for this, the Periodic Table has been their
constant companion. The PT facilitates a orderly and predictable organisation
to the whole of chemistry. An awareness of the PT is therefore essential and
the UN recognising this aspect has rightfully declared this year as the IYPT,
which will be celebrated by our centre and the whole of NCSM and so also the
other scientific institutions and science centres from across the world, by
organising series of events, lectures, exhibitions etc.
Commemorating the IYPT, the Royal Society of
Chemistry, England, has come out with an outstanding Periodic Table App, which
is so very user friendly and will serve as an all important tool in creating an
awareness among the public about the PT. I would appeal to all friends to
please download this App and help spread awareness on the PT. http://www.rsc.org/periodic-table
Like most other scientific discoveries and
inventions the PT findings of Dmitri Mendeleev has also been built by “standing
on the shoulders of the giants”. As more and more elements began to be
discovered it necessitated a rationale looking into the physical and chemical
properties of the new elements and by the early 1800s, chemists started working
in this area. A German chemist Johann Döbereiner, in 1817, made an early
attempt to organize the chemical elements in some order. He noticed that
certain sets of three elements had similar chemical properties. For example,
lithium, sodium, and potassium, which had been discovered by electrolysis, had
similar chemical properties. He called such groups triads. His ideas weren’t
taken too seriously by other chemists because only a few elements fitted into
the triad scheme. By 1860 there were about 60 elements which had been
discovered. Italian chemist Stanislao Cannizzaro and a British chemist John
Newlands also worked on arranging the chemical elements in some order. It was
however the Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev, whose findings on the periodicity
of the chemical elements and the subsequent publication of his PT, formulated
in 1869, that was to be one of the major conceptual advances made in the
history of science.
Julius Lothar Meyer (1830–1895) German chemist,
also published his classic paper (1870), independent of Mendeleev, which too
presented the periodicity of atomic volume plotted against atomic weight. Meyer
and Mendeleev carried on a long drawn-out dispute over priority. But it was
Mendeleev’s predictions of yet-unknown elements that etched his name and fame
in the annals of human history. The most famous of these predictions was for
eka-silicon (germanium), a new element, which not only did he postulate its
existence, but also its properties in its chloride and oxide combinations.
Mendeleev’s classification of the then unknown
chemical elements makes an interesting connect with Sanskrit. The eight
elements that Mendeleev used Sanskrit text to describe include; Eka-aluminium
for Gallium, Eka-boron for Scandium, Eka-silicon for Germanium, Eka-manganese
for Technetium, Tri-manganese for Rhenium, Dvi-tellurium for Polonium,
Dvi-caesium for Francium and Eka-tantalum for Protactinium. Mendeleev used the
prefixes of eka, dvi, and tri (Sanskrit one, two, three) in the naming of the eight
predicted elements. I shall not dwell any further on the subject of Sanskrit
and Mendeleev’s Periodic Table lest I am dubbed as Bhakt, not withstanding
fairly established connection. For those who are interested in Knowing more on
this subject, you may please refer https://arxiv.org/vc/physics/papers/0411/0411080v1.pdf
Wishing you all, a year long celebration of the
IYPT2019.
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