[Music]
the periodic table is instantly
recognizable it's not just in every
chemistry lab worldwide it's found on
t-shirts coffee mugs and shower curtains
but the periodic table isn't just
another trendy icon
it's a massive slab of human genius up
there with the Taj Mahal the Mona Lisa
and the Ice Cream Sandwich and the
tables creator Dmitri Mendeleev is a
bonafide science hall-of-famer but why
what's so great about him in his table
is it because you made a comprehensive
list of the known elements now you don't
earn a spot in science Valhalla just for
making a list
besides Mendeleev was far from the first
person to do that
is it because Mendeleev arranged
elements with similar properties
together not really that had already
been done - so what was Mendeleev genius
let's look at one of the first versions
of the periodic table from around 1870
here we see elements designated by their
two letter symbols arranged in a table
check out the entry at the third column
fifth row there's a dash there from that
unassuming placeholder Springs the raw
brilliance of Mendeleev that dash is
science by putting that dash there
Dmitri was making a bold statement he
said and I'm paraphrasing here you all
haven't discovered this element yet in
the meantime I'm going to give it a name
it's one step away from aluminum so
we'll call it eka aluminum Iike being
Sanskrit for one nobody's found eka
aluminum yet so we don't know anything
about it right wrong based on where it's
located I can tell you all about it
first of all an atom of eka aluminum has
an atomic weight of 68 about 68 times
heavier than a hydrogen atom
when eka aluminum is isolated you'll see
it's a solid metal at room temperature
it's shiny a conducts heat really well
it can be flattened into a sheet
stretched into a wire but its melting
point is low like freakishly low oh and
a cubic centimeter of it will weigh six
grams Mendeleev could predict all of
these things simply from where the blank
spot was and his understanding of how
the elements surrounding it behaved a
few years after this prediction of
guy named paul émile lecoq de bois
spelled lung
discovered a new element in our samples
and named it gallium after gall the
historical name for France gallium is
one step away from aluminum on the
periodic table it's iike aluminum so
we're Mendeleev's predictions right
gallium is atomic weight is 69 point
seven to a cubic centimeter of it weighs
5.9 grams it's a solid metal at room
temperature but it melts at a paltry 30
degrees Celsius 85 degrees Fahrenheit it
melts in your mouth and in your hand
not only did Mendeleev completely nail
gallium he predicted other elements that
were unknown at the time scandium
germanium rhenium the element he called
eco manganese is now called TechNet 'i'm
TechNet IAM is so rare it couldn't be
isolated until it was synthesized in a
cyclotron in 1937 almost 70 years after
Dmitri predicted its existence thirty
years after he died
Dmitri died without a nobel prize in
1907 but he wound up receiving a much
more exclusive honor in 1955 scientists
at UC Berkeley successfully created 17
atoms of a previously undiscovered
element this element filled an empty
spot in the periodic table at number 101
and was officially named mendelevium in
1963 there have been well over 800 Nobel
Prize winners but only 15 scientists
have an element named after them so the
next time you stare at a periodic table
whether it's on the wall of a university
classroom or on a five-dollar coffee mug
Dmitri Mendeleev the architect of the
periodic table will be staring back
you