Here is the updated essential guide to the Periodic Table, an authoritative reference book and timeline with at-a-glance information for every element. The Periodic Table, set out by Dmitri Mendeleev in 1869, is the result of centuries of accumulated knowledge. It is a powerful yet elegant tool that opens a window onto the very stuff of nature stars, rocks, life, and more and it shows us the way to make ever smarter technologies. One hundred ponderables, the puzzles solved and inspirations reached, tell the story of how the Periodic Table came to be. The journey begins just as the first cities are forming and follows the contributions made by philosophers, alchemists, industrialists, and great scientists. It ends with the synthesis of superheavy elements never seen before on Earth and an understanding of how the universe really works.