Two Body Problem (orig)

When I was maybe 8 or 9, my parents took my sister and me to the Lawrence Hall of Science in Berkeley. I remember a couple things clearly from that visit. First, it was the only time (I know of where) I have hitch-hiked. We took BART to Berkeley and didn't realize how far and uphill the museum was from the station. My whole family was picked up by a den mother and her boy scout son who kindly drove us up the hill to the museum. The second was seeing animatronic dinosaurs for the first time. And third - seeing a large periodic table on the wall where different elements lit up when you pressed different buttons. I was entranced. Not only from the childish joy (that never went away) from pressing buttons on a museum display, but also from this organized table of letters and numbers in front of me that didn't mean anything. I remember thinking, someday I'm going to understand what this table is all about. And lo' and behold, I became a chemist. The moving dinosaurs on the other hand were frankly a bit frightening - maybe why I didn't become a paleontologist.

I thought I would start a semi-regular Element of the Moment post. I'm not sure if I will go in order or if I will instead pick elements that have been in the news. But I will discuss the element way that all the non-chemist readers can enjoy.