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Politics at the periodic table

The periodic table of elements should be celebrated not only for the order it brings, but also for the fascinating stories underlying this icon of science, suggests Juris Meija.

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Fig. 1: Japan plants a flag on the periodic table in 2016.

Alamy.

Fig. 2: A stone mosaic periodic table on the wall of the Military College building adjacent to the Institute for Metrology in St Petersburg.

ACS (left) and Eric Scerri (right).

Fig. 3: Different atomic weights in different countries.

Wiley.

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Meija, J. Politics at the periodic table. Nat. Chem. 13, 814–816 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41557-021-00780-5

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