Sometimes the best things in life are just a big mistake. My writing PopSci’s chemistry column the past few years? All based on a complete misunderstanding. I read in Oliver Sacks’s Uncle Tungsten that Sacks liked to visit a periodic table at the Kensington Science Museum in London, and I actually thought it was a real table with samples sitting on it for people to look at. Disappointed to learn t
![Dow/Popsci Periodic Table](https://cdn-ak-scissors.b.st-hatena.com/image/square/4b578e98ffc328b9b487027f25fd0fa252f67201/height=288;version=1;width=512/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.popsci.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2019%2F03%2F18%2FVZ5NRZKEVUQOHRLKZ73FCRJ7Z4.jpg)