Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Elements

By Lisa Congdon

A gorgeous nonfiction book for kids from bestselling artist and author Lisa Congdon!

The Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Elements leads young readers in an exploration of all 118 known elements.

From their discoveries to their uses to their special properties, this vibrant book explores all things elements.

• A visually stunning tour of the periodic table
• Complete with profiles of notable scientists, amazing infographics, and more
• Features an illustrated history of the periodic table's origins

This artful survey of the elements combines science, history, trivia, humor, and endless fascination for science enthusiasts of every age.

Middle grade readers will delight in this interesting take on the periodic table of elements.

• Great for science lovers and Lisa Congdon fans alike
• Resonates year-round as a go-to gift for birthdays and holidays for the science-loving kid
• Perfect for children ages 10 and up
• Equal parts educational and entertaining, this makes a great pick for parents and grandparents, as well as librarians, science teachers, and STEM educators.
• You'll love this book if you love books like The Elements Book: A Visual Encyclopedia of the Periodic Table by DK, The Periodic Table by Sean Callery and Miranda Smith, and Elements: A Visual Exploration of Every Known Atom in the Universe by Theodore Gray.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Chronicle Books Digital
• Release date: Jul 13, 2021
• ISBN: 9781452162706

Lisa Congdon

Lisa Congdon es ilustradora. Su particular estilo de coloridos dibujos gráfi cos y lettering manuscrito es reconocido internacionalmente. Ha trabajado para clientes de todo el mundo, entre ellos Comme des Garçons, Crate and Barrel, Facebook, MoMA, REI y Harvard University. Es autora de varios libros sobre creatividad y práctica artística. Además, aparece en el libro 200 Women Who Will Change the Way you See the World.

Book preview

hen I was a little girl, I would sit at the kitchen table and watch my father work. After dinner he would write equations on graph paper. I knew he was a scientist, but the exquisite handwritten equations were all I knew about what my father did in his career as a physicist. At that time, I was intrigued, but science seemed mysterious and complicated to me. It wasn’t until I became an elementary school teacher in my early twenties and began teaching various science subjects to my students that science came to life for me. I loved learning with my students about the elements that make up the universe. Years later, I am no longer a teacher, but a professional artist, and making this book is a way for me to use my interest in science and my love for drawing pictures to bring the elements of the periodic table to life for kids and adults alike. Both art and science are enormously creative fields. Both require openness to innovation and rigorous discipline. Both force us to experiment with our ideas in the zone where our minds and hands come together. Artists and scientists dive deep into their subject matter and study things, such as people, culture, history, religion, and mythology. From these investigations, we have the opportunity to transform information into something new.

The periodic table is a catalog of everything tangible in our world. Everything we touch, eat, drink, and breathe is made up of the elements. Some elements are so common that they are part of our everyday vocabulary, such as oxygen, aluminum, and silver. Conversely, some elements, such as yttrium, antimony, and moscovium, are so obscure that their names and uses are unknown to many of us.

At first glance, the periodic table of elements might look like a boring, uninspiring chart. And if you look at it simply as a series of boxes, it will be pretty boring. However, if you dive into the table, you will begin to understand that it is not boring at all, nor is it mysterious or random, as I once thought. It is a chart that is organized by predictable truths about the way everything on Earth is built, starting with tiny atoms and even tinier protons, neutrons, and electrons.

With a few exceptions, nearly every element on the periodic table has a purpose in our world. Even some of the most poisonous or dangerous elements have compelling roles in our lives. Some elements keep our bodies working efficiently. Others kill deadly cancer cells and help us detect harmful diseases. Still others are mined from rocks for bridges, buildings, and airplanes. We are constantly finding new ways to use the elements in technology, health care, and the generation of energy to fuel our world.

If you are a person who likes to ask why and how, you might already be a scientist. In this book, I will introduce you to the dynamic and fascinating elements, the roles they play in our lives, and how they function in the world, as well as some of the compelling stories about the people who discovered them. Dmitri Mendeleev, the guy who organized the periodic table back in 1869, was a curious young person, just like you! Every discovery starts with curiosity.

verything in the world that you see and feel—your body, the ground you are standing on, the book you are holding, the stars in the sky—is made of elements. There are 118 known elements in the universe. More than 90 are naturally occurring on Earth, and the remainder are human-made. In turn, the elements are made up of gazillions of tiny atoms. A single element is a pure substance that is made from one kind of atom, and can’t be broken down into any smaller, simpler substances. For example, the element hydrogen contains only hydrogen atoms, and the element silver contains only silver atoms.

A helium (He) atom has two protons, so its atomic number is 2. The atomic mass (the weight) of helium is 4 and is measured by the sum of the protons and neutrons in the atom. The number of electrons in an atom doesn’t affect either measurement.

Small Wonder

Atoms are so tiny that they are too small to see except with extremely powerful microscopes! Every atom has a dense center called a nucleus. Forming the nucleus are two kinds of particles: protons, which have a positive electrical charge, and neutrons, which have no charge. Bound to the nucleus are one or more electrons, which are particles with a negative charge. Scientists used to describe atoms as tiny solar systems, with the electrons orbiting around the nucleus like planets around the sun, but atoms are a lot hazier than that. If you imagined the tiny nucleus as a pea, it would be centered in a football stadium–size cloud that includes the electrons. We can’t be sure where the electrons are because they are impossible to pin down.

Protons, We’ve Got Your Number

All atoms have at least one proton in their core. And protons determine an atom’s uniqueness. The number of protons determines the element. For example, hydrogen has just one proton. No other element is made up of atoms that contain one proton. For this reason, we list the different elements by their number of protons. This is called the atomic number. The atomic number determines where the element sits on the periodic table of elements, the organized chart of all of the elements that have been discovered.

Neither Here nor There

Neutrons have neither a positive nor a negative charge. No matter how many neutrons are in an atom, they do not affect the charge. However, neutrons do affect the mass (the weight) of an atom. The atomic mass is the sum of all the protons and neutrons in the element.

Electrons in Orbit

In addition to protons and neutrons, all atoms have electrons. Electrons are negatively charged particles that orbit the space surrounding the positively charged nuclear core. These orbits are called electron shells. Each electron shell has a different energy level, with the electron shells farthest from the nucleus having the highest energy levels. This outermost shell is known as the valence shell, and the electrons found in it are called valence electrons. The number of electrons in the valence shell determines the atom’s reactivity or tendency to form chemical bonds with other atoms. Atoms are most stable and least likely to be reactive when their valence shell is full of all the electrons it can hold.

In Balance

Neutral atoms have an equal number of protons and electrons, and the number of protons and neutrons is usually the same—but sometimes not. Adding or removing neutrons to an atom makes an isotope: a heavier or lighter version of that same element with the same chemical properties. Changing the number of electrons in an atom also does not change the type of element it is, but it does change its chemical behavior (the atom is no longer neutral in charge and is now called an ion). But adding a proton? Suddenly you’ve got an entirely new element with—you guessed it—a new atomic number.

An atom is about one angstrom in diameter, which is about 100,000 times smaller than a red blood cell.

Electrons travel at a speed of 1,367 miles (2,200 kilometres) per second, and at this speed they could orbit Earth in 18 seconds.

99.99999999999 percent of an atom is empty space.

A single human hair is about as thick as one hundred thousand atoms.

Make a fist. It contains about 15,000,000,000,000,000,000, 000,000 (that’s 15 septillion) atoms! If each atom in your fist were the size of a marble, your fist would be the size of Earth.

nytime two atoms join together, they make a molecule. Everything around us is made up of molecules. When atoms from two or more different elements bind together, the molecule is a compound. The chemical bond is so strong that the atoms from the different elements all behave like a single substance. Compounds are not simply mixtures or blends, but a bind that happens at the atomic level. Sometimes an element will lose traits when it is bound in a compound. An element that is reactive on its own (meaning it will release energy in a chemical reaction with another element), like sodium (Na), can become nonreactive when it binds with another element like chlorine (Cl), forming sodium chloride (NaCl), which is everyday table salt.

All compounds have a definite composition. For example, a compound you may have heard about before is H2O, or water. Water always has two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom. If you take away one of the hydrogen atoms, it is no longer water. While we have only 118 elements in the periodic table, there are millions and millions of compound combinations that are each unique.

Alloys Versus Compounds

Alloys are not compounds. An alloy is a mixture of metals, or a metal and another element. Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc, which are both metals. Steel is an alloy of iron (a metal), carbon (a nonmetal), and sometimes other elements. The alloy components are usually melted at very high temperatures, mixed, and allowed to cool to a solid alloy. In general, alloys are stronger and