Eric Scerri
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Covers:
chemistry, physics, philosophy of science, history of science, science education
UCLA chemist - public speaker -author on periodic table, history & philosophy of science, chemical educator, blues guitarist.
Articles by Eric Scerri
The Elements: A Visual History of Their Discovery
" The Elements: A Visual History of Their Discovery ." Ambix, ahead-of-print(ahead-of-print), p. 1
The tree of life and the table of the elements
Darwin’s tree of life and Mendeleev’s periodic table of the elements share a number of interesting parallels, the most meaningful of which lie in the central role that each plays in its respective domain. Darwin’s tree of life, incidentally the only diagram of which appears in his book The Origin of Species, is a sketch of the central idea that all animal species have a common descent, much like members of an extended family can be displayed on a genealogical tree.
The Past and Future of the Periodic Table
This Article From Issue January-February 2008 Volume 96, Number 1 It graces the walls of lecture halls and laboratories of all types, from universities to industry. It is one of the most powerful icons of science. It captures the essence of chemistry in one elegant pattern.
Oct2020ScerriWorkshop — ACS New Haven Local Section
Eric Scerri is the founding editor of Foundations of Chemistry. He was educated in the UK and moved to the US in 1995 as a postdoctoral fellow at Caltech in Pasadena. He is currently in his twenty-first year in the Chemistry Department at UCLA where he teaches chemistry as well as history and philosophy of science. He has a total of 40 years teaching experience.
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A
1. Introduction The International Year of the Periodic Table has been a cause for much celebration and re-examination of Mendeleev's outstanding discovery of the mature periodic system (figure 1). Figure 1. Mendeleev's 1871 table. As many authors have pointed out, Mendeleev was by no means the first scientist to publish a periodic table but there is nevertheless widespread agreement that his work was the most influential in bringing about its acceptance [1].
On Chemical Natural Kinds
Abstract A critique of LaPorte's views on chemical kinds, like jade and ruby, is presented. More positively, a new slant is provided on the question of whether elements are natural kinds. This is carried out by appeal to the dual nature of elements, a topic that has been debated in the philosophy of chemistry but not in the natural kinds literature.
WIN: A Tale of Seven Scientists
WIN: A Tale of Seven Scientists And a new philosophy of science Written by Eric Scerri Scerri presents an original account of the nature of scientific progress consisting of a unified approach in which science is seen as a living an evolving organism. To be in with a chance of winning a copy, just send your name, address and organisation/institution to sarah.lawton@synthesismedia.co.uk by May 31.
Mendeleev’s Legacy: The Periodic System
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the death of one of the most famous scientists of all time, the Russian chemist Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev (1834–1907). The periodic table that he introduced in 1869 was a monumental achievement—a wonderful mnemonic and a tool that serves to organize the whole of chemistry.
The Periodic Table at 150
This year marks the 150th anniversary of the development of the periodic table by the most famous Russian scientist of the modern era, the chemist Dmitri Mendeleev. This anniversary has been deemed important enough that the United Nations, and in particular UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), to declare 2019 as the International Year of the Periodic Table.
How the periodic table changed my life
Where were you when humans first set foot on the moon? When the Berlin Wall came down? When the US Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage across the country? People tend to remember where they were and what they were doing when big events happen—particularly ones that affect them directly. They’ll later tell stories about how they reacted to the news, weaving the events into the fabric of their life narratives. Chemists are no different.
Happy 150th Birthday to the Periodic Table
Essay Happy 150th Birthday to the Periodic Table Dr. Eric R. Scerri Corresponding Author E-mail address: scerri@chem.ucla.edu http://www.ericscerri.com Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, 90095 USA Search for more papers by this author PDF PDF Share Abstract How many candles?! The year 2019 has been named as the International Year of the Periodic Table in accordance with Mendeleev's work from 1869.
150 Years of the Periodic Table
Oxford Reference Discover the best of Oxford University Press's reference titles on a dynamic digital platform. By Albert Stwertka, Eric Scerri, and William H. Brock February 7th 2019 2019 marks the 150th anniversary of the creation of the periodic table, and it has been declared the International Year of the Periodic Table by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
Can quantum ideas explain chemistry’s greatest icon?
Such has been the scientific and cultural impact of Dmitri Mendeleev’s periodic table of the elements that many people assume it is essentially complete. In its 150th year, can researchers simply raise a toast to the table’s many dividends, and occasionally incorporate another heavy synthetic element? No — this invaluable compilation is still not settled. The placements of certain elements, even hydrogen and helium, are debated.
Happy sesquicentennial to the periodic table of the elements
The periodic table turns 150 years old in the year 2019, which has been appropriately designated as the International Year of the Periodic Table by the UNESCO Organization. To many scientists the periodic table serves as an occasional point of reference, one that is generally considered to be something of a closed book.
Hibernating Squirrels and the Government Shutdown
In my lab and many others, time-sensitive research is in peril Credit: Alamy Winter, when the days are dark and short, is the time of year when the ground squirrels lying dormant in my lab provide us with our most valuable lessons. The animals spend the chilly months oblivious to the world around them, bedded down in woodchip–filled plastic crates that are stored inside a temperature-controlled cold room. The group I lead at the University of Wisconsin-Madison studies hibernation.
Happy Sesquicentennial, Periodic Table!
The organizing scheme that revolutionized our understanding of the chemical elements turns 150 in 2019 The table, emblazoned on the wall of a technical school in St. Petersburg, Russia. Credit: Steve Raymer Getty Images Scientific theories tend to come and go over the years. In fact, there is a rather pessimistic slogan among philosophers of science that says, “All theories are born refuted,” meaning that sooner or later they are all replaced.
Master of Missing Elements
This Article From Issue September-October 2014 Volume 102, Number 5 Just over 100 years ago, a young English physicist named Henry Moseley gave new life to the periodic table of the elements, and helped resolve a number of problems in chemistry and physics. There is a good chance you have never heard of him. Soon after Moseley published this work, World War I broke out, and the 27-year-old patriot felt compelled to volunteer for service on the war front, where he was killed by a sniper’s bullet.
How Far Does the Periodic Table Go?
Until December 2015, there were holes in the periodic table, elements synthesized but not yet officially recognized. But as we enter the International Year of the Periodic Table, the classic periodic table has been filled to its seventh row: In late 2015, the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry officially confirmed elements 113, 115, 117, and 118. The new elements also received their final names: nihonium, moscovium, tennessine, and oganesson.
2019, the year of the periodic table
The periodic table turns 150 next year. Given that all scientific concepts are eventually refuted, the durability of the periodic table would suggest an almost transcendent quality that deserves greater scrutiny, especially as the United Nations has nominated 2019 as the year of the Periodic Table.
Periodic table turns 150 in 2019
This is a guest editorial by Eric Scerri, a lecturer in the department of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of California, Los Angeles, and author of “The Periodic Table: Its Story and Its Significance.” The periodic table has been described in many ways, including being chemistry’s instantly recognizable icon as well as its paradigm, meaning its organizing principle or framework.
Innovation Is an Evolving Process of Trial and Error
By Edward Wasserman, University of Iowa and Eric Scerri, University of California, Los Angeles This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. Scientific discovery is popularly believed to result from the sheer genius of intellectual stars such as Darwin and Einstein. Their work is often thought to reflect their unique contributions with little or no regard to their own prior experience or to the efforts of their lesser-known predecessors.
Forget The Insight Of A Lone Genius – Innovation Is An Evolving Process Of Trial And Error
Scientific discovery is popularly believed to result from the sheer genius of intellectual stars such as Darwin and Einstein. Their work is often thought to reflect their unique contributions with little or no regard to their own prior experience or to the efforts of their lesser-known predecessors.
Forget the insight of a lone genius - innovation is an evolving process of trial and error
Scientific discovery is popularly believed to result from the sheer genius of intellectual stars such as Darwin and Einstein. Their work is often thought to reflect their unique contributions with little or no regard to their own prior experience or to the efforts of their lesser-known predecessors.
Scierri: Science is built on error and serendipity
By Eric Scerri/Los Angeles Times As scientists, we tend to tell our story via breakthroughs, paradigm shifts that shake the foundations of knowledge and remake everyone's understanding of how the world works. It's a tale of high-flying, singular brilliance, of Einsteins and Darwins, of pure genius.Such a narrative of exceptionalism isn't entirely wrong, but it's wrong enough to help skew the way society thinks about science and to sow doubt about its findings.
Scierri: Science is built on error and serendipity
By Eric Scerri/Los Angeles Times As scientists, we tend to tell our story via breakthroughs, paradigm shifts that shake the foundations of knowledge and remake everyone's understanding of how the world works. It's a tale of high-flying, singular brilliance, of Einsteins and Darwins, of pure genius.Such a narrative of exceptionalism isn't entirely wrong, but it's wrong enough to help skew the way society thinks about science and to sow doubt about its findings.
A new philosophy of science? Surely that’s been outlawed | OUPblog
The main thing that drew me to the history and philosophy of science was the simple desire to understand the nature of science. I was introduced to the exciting ideas of Popper, Kuhn, Lakatos, and Feyerabend, but it soon became clear that there were serious problems with each of these views and that those heydays were long gone. Professionals in the field would no longer presume to generalize as boldly as the famous quartet had done.
An egalitarian and organic history of the periodic table
By Eric Scerri August 21st 2016 Our story has to begin somewhere and why not with the Manchester schoolteacher John Dalton who revived the atomic theory of the ancient Greek philosophers? In addition to supposing that the ultimate components of all matter were atoms, Dalton set about putting this idea on a quantitative foundation. He published the first list in which he compared the weights of the atoms of all the elements that were known at the time.
Who was John David Main Smith?
This blog post concerns a virtually unknown chemist, John David Main Smith, who contributed a significant piece of research in atomic physics in the early 1920s at the time when knowledge of the field was undergoing very rapid changes. Main Smith is so little known that I had to search far and wide for a photograph of him before finally obtaining one from his son who is still living in the south of England.
Those four new elements
The recent announcement of the official ratification of four super-heavy elements, with atomic numbers 113, 115, 117, and 118, has taken the world of science news by storm. It seems like there is an insatiable appetite for new information about the elements and the periodic table within the scientific world and among the general public. Maybe it’s all about nostalgia and the fact that the periodic table is like an old friend to anybody who has ever taken any chemistry class whatsoever?
Who was Richard Abegg?
One of the most interesting developments in the history of chemistry has been the way in which theories of valency have evolved over the years. We are rapidly approaching the centenary of G.N. Lewis’ 1916 article in which he proposed the simple idea that a covalent bond consists of a shared pair of electrons. No doubt there will be celebrations and special issues of various journals that will be motivated by the arrival of this centenary.
Hafnium
Meera Senthilingam This week, super alloys, nuclear reactors and space rockets. Just some of the reasons that this week's uncommon and unknown element hafnium is cherished by scientists worldwide. Here's Eric Scerri. Eric Scerri Today I am going to talk about an uncommon element that is also not very well known. However it has a rather interesting history and some important commercial applications including its use in the nuclear power industry and in the making of super-alloys.
Lawrencium
Meera Senthilingam This week it's our final chemical element, and it doesn't seem to know its place. Eric Scerri. Eric Scerri Element 103 in the periodic table is called lawrencium. It was first synthesised in 1961 at what was then called the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory, situated close to San Francisco. The synthesis was carried out by a team of scientists led by Albert Ghiorso.
Periodic change
The periodic table, cherished by generations of chemists, has steadily evolved over time. Eric Scerri is among those now calling for drastic change The periodic table has become something of a style icon while remaining indispensable to chemists. Over the years the table has had to change to accommodate new elements. But some scientists propose giving the table a makeover while others call for drastic changes to its core structure.
Protactinium
Meera Senthilingam This week we've got an element whose origin and location in the periodic table seems to be causing some complications. To tell us more about the mysteries of protactinium here's Eric Scerri Eric Scerri In 1871 the discoverer of the periodic table, Dimitri Mendeleev, made the following prediction among several others. I quote: 'Between thorium and uranium we can further expect an element with an atomic weight of about 235.
Rhenium
Meera Senthilingam This week one of the rarest elements on Earth that seems to enjoy changing the laws of nature. Unraveling the mysteries of rhenium, here's UCLA's Eric Scerri. Eric Scerri Rhenium is element 75 in the periodic table and in many ways a rather unusual element. It is one of the rarest elements on the Earth with an abundance of something like 1 part per million.
How chemistry was tabulated
The periodic table: its story and its significance The periodic table: its story and its significance Eric Scerri Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press | 2007 | 346pp | ?19.99 (HB) | ISBN 9780195305739 Reviewed by Denis Rouvray It is an astonishing truism that, in spite of its central importance to chemistry, the periodic system of the elements has been largely ignored by chemical authors.
How chemistry was tabulated
The periodic table: its story and its significance Eric Scerri Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press | 2007 | 346pp | ?19.99 (HB) | ISBN 9780195305739 Reviewed by Denis Rouvray It is an astonishing truism that, in spite of its central importance to chemistry, the periodic system of the elements has been largely ignored by chemical authors.
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