The Periodic Table: The elements that shape the Universe

Laboratorium Science Museum
Bergara, Basque Country (Spain)

The General Assembly of the United Nations Organization has proclaimed 2019 as the International Year of the Periodic Table. This year marks the 150th anniversary of the periodic table created by Russian scientist Dimitri Mendeléiev in 1869. In this latest version of the table, the elements are ordered according to the characteristics of their atoms.

In this exhibition, we show the visitor the importance of the invention of the periodic table and pay homage to the Elhuyar brothers who, in 1783, managed to isolate the tungsten in the facilities of the Chemical Laboratory created in 1778 associated with the Bascongado Patriotic Seminary of Bergara.

The creation of the periodic table is one of the most representative milestones in the history of science. In this first exhibition the periodic table is presented in an interactive format, its function and its evolution until it reaches its current configuration and the characteristics of each of the chemical elements that compose it.

We also get to know the Table of Abundance, created by the European Chemical Society (EuChemS) and presented in the European Parliament in 2019. This periodic table contains the natural chemical elements and represents the abundance or shortage of each of them on Earth. The abundance table helps us understand what resources we must protect, since they are at serious risk of supply in the coming years.

For this exhibition we have created a large interactive periodic table with all the chemical elements represented by wood cubes. Those cubes include a multimedia content activation system that shows, through audiovisual pieces, graphic resources or animations, the characteristics or peculiarities of each chemical element.