During my 3 hours of sleeplessness yesterday morning, I found myself randomly researching an occasional hobby of mine:  Elements.  I stumbled across Theodore Gray’s PeriodicTable.com, and browsed for hours.

The concept of elements in their purest form is very interesting to me.  There are only around 100 different atoms that make up the entire universe, as far as we know.  The differences between each atom are minute…add a proton to helium and it becomes lithium.  The mathematical and cyclical nature of it all also amazes me.  Keep adding protons, and an atom will keep changing from noble gases, to alkali metals, and so on.  Each layer seemingly has it’s own increased properties as well.  Lithium will create energy and zoom around on the surface of water it’s placed in, while sodium will explode on contact with the same water.  Cesium, another alkali metal, will react similarly from simply being exposed to the moisture in the air.

When atoms combine into molecules, they become even more fascinating.  Mix sodium (the alkali metal so unstable that it explodes in water) and chlorine (a gas that is so poisonous in its purest form, that it could kill you instantly) and you end up with ordinary salt.  That’s fucking amazing!

I think what I like so much about Theodore Gray, though, is that he’s doing something I’ve always wanted to do:  Collect actual samples of all of the elements.  He even explains how to begin your own collection, which I think I may have to do one day.

There’s a theoretical experiment I’d love to know the results of, but would be very afraid to try.  If exactly one ounce of each existing element, were placed in a small box, and mixed together, what would the result be?  Of course, this is not unlike another imaginary experiment I’ve always wondered about:  If you took one of each animal, and placed them all in a giant room …which would be the last one standing?  I somehow don’t imagine it would be the human.