YOU'VE GOT A BUNCH OF STUFF, BUT EVERYTHING LOOKS DIFFERENT, AND NOTHING MATCHES. How can you organize this mess? No, we're not talking about your room-let's not go overboard here! We're talking about the elements. You know, carbon, magnesium, lead. They were all just rocks-in-a-box, until a Russian guy with a messy beard named Dmitri Mendeleev (1834-1907) arranged them into the famous periodic table of the elements. Now, an updated version of that chart hangs in science classrooms around the globe.
Except that it's much more than a chart. The periodic table lists the substances that make up everything we can see and touch. Plus, it tells you how every substance combines with every other substance. Talk about the ultimate collection. So, how did Mendeleev do it?
Getting Organized
Think of the messiest person you know. Dmitri Mendeleev had a tangled beard and wild hair. But it wasn't just that. Mendeleev's entire profession was disorganized. As a chemist, he studied the elements substances that can't be broken down into simpler forms. Except in those days, no one had yet arranged these elements in a way that made sense.
Mendeleev started his organizing project by writing down lists of all the known elements, along with their properties. For example, are they heavy or light? What color are they? Do they react with other materials easily, or not at all?
Esta historia es de la edición April 2022 de Muse Science Magazine for Kids.
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Esta historia es de la edición April 2022 de Muse Science Magazine for Kids.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
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Who's Your Cousin?
The great apes are among the most popular animals in most zoos. Their actions, facial expressions, and family life remind us so much of ourselves. Have you ever wondered, though, how we might look to them?
Is it possible to die of boredom?
To figure out if we can die of boredom, we first have to understand what boredom is. For help, we called James Danckert, a psychologist who studies boredom at the University of Waterloo in Canada.
THE PROBLEM WITH PALM OIL
Palm oil is all around you. It’s in sugary snacks like cookies and candy bars. It’s in lipstick and shampoo and pet food.
SERGE WICH
Serge Wich’s favorite days at work are spent out in the forest, studying orangutans in Sumatra and Borneo or chimpanzees in Tanzania.
ELODIE FREYMANN
When you’re feeling sick, it probably doesn’t occur to you to try eating tree bark.
Guardians of the Forest
EARLY, MAKESHIFT WILDLIFE DRONES HELPED TO DETECT AND PROTECT ORANGUTANS.
APE ANTICS
The Whirling World of primate play
Dr. Ape Will See You Now
HUMANS AREN’T THE ONLY PRIMATES THAT USE MEDICATION.
THE LEFT OVERS
A lot has happened for modern humans to get to this point. We lost most of our hair, learned how to make tools, established civilizations, sent a person to the Moon, and invented artificial intelligence. Whew! With all of these changes, our bodies have changed, too. It’s only taken us about six million years.
SO, WHAT IS A PRIMATE?
What do you have in common with the aye-aye, sifaka, siamang, and potto? If you said your collarbone, you re probably a primatologist—a person who studies primates. If you’re not, read on.
