NOVEL versions of the periodic table are everywhere these days, with Mendeleev’s grid being used to classify everything from social networks to bloggers, to comic books, and even heavy metal music.
It’s all good pointless fun, and is something we like here at LabHomepage because it feeds into the current ‘geek chic’ fashion that makes us feel just so validated (ahem). But seriously, we like it. Mostly.
This particular periodic table, though, we’re slightly less enthusiastic about. Sorry guys, but that’s just the way it is. The world’s first (and we hope last) dancing periodic table was created at the American Chemical Society meeting in Florida last March.
We don’t mind so much the sight of a hundred conference delegates shuffling self-consciously in a poorly executed line dance, and we can forgive the half-hearted fancy-dress to represent the elements. Heck, if we’d been there we would have taken part, and our own lack of coordination is legendary.
No, it’s the rap accompaniment that really makes us squirm. Perhaps we’re being mean, but we’d really rather they hadn’t.