Robert Bunsen
Bunsen was a Germany scientist who, yes, is the Bunsen burner guy, but no, did not actually invent that staple of science labs across the country. He did, however, improve upon the original version. This major alteration’s impact upon the periodic table was it facilitated a more rapid process for the discovery of elements not yet known.
Dmitri Mendeleev
Mendeleev was a Russian scientist who happened to be a student of Bunsen. He is also the answer to the burning question at the heart of the periodic table: who came up with this thing? Even if he wasn’t credited with inventing the table, fellow would be worth reading about. In fact, one may come away from this book with a desire to learn more about this exceedingly idiosyncratic comrade of both scientists and anarchists.
Marie Curie
Probably no name immediately comes to mind when one hears the words periodic table as often as the tragically heroic Madame Curie. Her discovery along with her husband Pierre added radium to the table as well as polonium and she would go to win the Nobel Prize. Not once, but twice. Despite all that, however, she is probably destined forever to be known for dying of cancer as result of all that exposure to radiation emanating from her discovery.
Clair Patterson
If Marie Curie sits at one end of the spectrum of fame regarding the characters in the book, then Clair Patterson is surely somewhere the opposite end. And yet, when it comes to infamy, Clair Patterson likely ranks up by or at least near Fritz Haber, the Nazi scientist who invented the poisonous gas used in concentration camps to kill millions. Why would Patterson be on the same end of the infamy spectrum as a Nazi war criminal? Because he is the bane of creationists. Patterson is the scientist who used elements on the periodic table calculate the earth was 4.55 billion years old. Which is, of course, considerably older than the calculation based on Biblical scripture: roughly 6,000 years old.
