Shedding Light on Atoms The Periodic Table

We begin this program, The Periodic Table, by comparing and contrasting metals with non-metals. We then describe how Dmitri Mendeleev, the scientist who devised the first Periodic Table, organised the elements not just into metals and non-metals but also into groups based on patterns in the way that they chemically react. Finally, we explain how Mendeleev was able to use the Periodic Table to predict the existence of and many of the properties of, elements that hadn't at the time been discovered.