A beautifully done geek’s guide to the periodic table. Atomic number (the number of protons in the nucleus), atomic weight (number of protons and neutrons), electron orbit shells, spectra, and other things I haven’t thought about for 50 years.  The 118 elements are described and photos of the author’s collection highlight how elements are utilized in industry (lots of steel alloys and machine tools for grinding, cutting, boring, and smoothing), medicine (radioactive Tc and Gd), jewelry, pigments, and energy production.  Fascinating factoids fill the pages based on Dmitri Mendelev’s table constructed so that each column has elements with similar chemical properties based on the number of electrons in their outer shell (i.e. their valence)—alkali metals (-1), alkali earth metals (-2), transition metals (-3), ordinary metals, metalloids, non-metals, halogens, noble gases and the two horizontal rows of rare earths, lanthanides an actinides, characterized by their magnetic properties.  Tons of interesting tidbits—bronze is copper and tin, brass is copper and zinc; nickels are 75% copper and pennies nearly 100% zinc.  Elements are named after planets, places (four are named after Ytterby, Sweden!) and people (Curie, Rutherford, Bohr, but only one living person, George Seaborg).  The last naturally occuring element to be discovered was either Franium (87) in 1939 but is unstable or Neptonium (93). All elements from H (1) to U (92) are naturally occuring except for Tc (43) and all beyond Np, are man-made. All elements except Tc and Pm up to Bismuth (83) are stable and all beyond Bi are radioactive.  Fascinating and worth owning to refer to.