Editing 2723: Outdated Periodic Table

{{comic
| number    = 2723
| date      = January 11, 2023
| title     = Outdated Periodic Table
| image     = outdated_periodic_table_2x.png
| imagesize = 360x350px
| noexpand  = true
| titletext = Researchers claim to have synthesized six additional elements in the second row, temporarily named 'pentium' through 'unnilium'.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by BERYLLIUM-BASED LIFE - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic shows figure 6.14 from a science text book, which displays ''The periodic table of the elements''. But only the first four elements are shown, {{w|Hydrogen}}, {{w|Helium}}, {{w|Lithium}} and {{w|Berylium}}. [[Randall]] claims, in the caption, that you can use a figure of the {{w|Periodic table}} to date a book based on missing elements. The joke here is that his book was somehow published just half and hour after the {{w|Big Bang}}, at which time those four elements where the only one present.

From about 10 seconds to 20 minutes after the Big Bang, occurred what is known as the {{w|Big Bang nucleosynthesis}}. Here Helium was made in abundance with traces of Lithium. Also Berylium-7 was formed, which is an unstable {{w|Isotopes of beryllium|isotope of beryllium}}, but with a half life of 53 days it would still be around for several months after the Big Bang, and most of what was created would be there half an hour after.

So when Randall's science book was published those four elements where the only one in existence, and after all Berylium had decayed only the three first would be present until star formation began and started the {{w|Stellar nucleosynthesis}}.

Of course no life as we know it could exist until long after Stellar nucleosynthesis had created all the other elements needed to support {{w|Carbon-based life}}. And no life as we could even imagine, would be able to exist the first 370.000 years after Big Bang as atoms could not form due to the high energy of the {{w|Cosmic background radiation}}, which until the {{w|Recombination (cosmology)|Recombination}} would not allow atoms to form as the energy level before that was too high.

Many {{w|Chemical elements|elements}} do not occur naturally on earth and have to be {{w|Synthetic element|synthesized}}. And others are very hard to detect, collect enough in pure form or purify enough to discover them. Until these elements where discovered one way or another they where not included in the periodic table. Or at least only as theoretical elements expected to be in a given position. 

Because (paper versions) of scientific textbooks do not update themselves after being published, one can determine the age of a scientific textbook by checking which elements are present in the textbook's periodic table. And Randall's joke is that those four in the figure date the book as published around half and hour after the Big Bang. (A few year after that Berylium would be gone, and a periodic table created at that time would only show the first three elements).

The title text refers to how yet-undiscovered elements are given a {{w|systematic element name}} as a temporary name according to how many protons they have. The names consists of Greek and Latin roots and adding an -ium at the end. The claim in the title text is that in the text book with the figure, researchers claim they have synthesized six additional elements in the second row, temporarily named 'pentium' through 'unnilium'.

Elements that cannot be found natural on Earth (or anywhere in the Universe) are generally excluded from the periodic table until they have been synthesized (and are no longer theoretical). And if elements are added to the end of the table, but it is still uncertain if they have been synthesized or who should give the new element a name, then a number system has been used, just calling for instance element 118, simply 118 using the Latin or Greek words for it digits: "Ununoctium". At the time of release of this comic, element number 118 has already been synthesized and had been called {{w|Oganesson}} and there was at that time no longer any elements higher than 118 named using this naming convention. This has been mentioned in the title text of {{w|2639: Periodic Table Changes}}, the previous comic to draw a periodic table.

In the title text the new elements numbers are very low ("pentium" being based on "pent" which means "five", and thus would refer to {{w|Boron}}) because only the four elements shown in the figure had been discovered at the time of publication. ({{w|Pentium}} is also the name of a series of microprocessors launched by Intel in the 1990s).  The term "unnilium" is a description of the digits of ten, i.e. 1 0, using the numerical roots established by convention, and would refer to {{w|Neon}}.  In reality, had Neon once been a hypothetical element, it would more likely have been called something along the lines of "decium". 

Since life could not have existed at the time this book should have been published the idea of researches synthesizing elements is of course just part of the joke.

Interestingly, despite helium being one of the first elements to exist, it did not appear in the earliest period tables. Because the noble gasses do not react chemically, they were unknown to human scientists until the late 19th century.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Subheading]: Figure 6.14
:[Title]: The periodic table of the elements

:[The following four rectangles featuring the large element abbreviation, with the full element name written below, in a typical periodic table style]
:[Top row, far left]: H Hydrogen
:[Top row, far right, detached from any other box]: He Helium
:[Bottom row, attached directly below the "H" box]: Li Lithium
:[Bottom row, attached directly to the right of "Li"]: Be Beryllium

:[Caption below the panel]:
:You can spot an outdated science textbook by checking the bottom of the periodic table for missing elements. For example, mine was published half an hour after the Big Bang.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Chemistry]]
[[Category:Cosmology]]