|
|
Article: NATURE'S MUSIC
- Article from:
- The Boston Globe (Boston, MA)
- Article date:
- July 25, 1988
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 1988 The Boston Globe. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
|
Somewhere on the wall of every high school or college chemistry
laboratory hangs a periodic table of the elements. Every student of
chemistry has its image graven on his brain. I need only close my
eyes to summon up the periodic table that hung in my own high school
lab -- a giant, colorful thing with the symbols of the elements
printed in bold black letters on sturdy fabric.
I was not an enthusiastic student of chemistry, but when I looked
at the periodic table I knew I was in the presence of some wonderful,
fundamental mystery. The way the elements fell into place, in ranks
and rows according to their properties -- well, it was like music.
Why should the stuff of which the world is made be ...