Los Alamos' periodic table of the elements Web site is not only an award winner, it's popular, too --since May 2000 the site has logged nearly two million hits. "The Web offers any number of periodic charts," according to the magazine, "but this one from Los Alamos National Laboratory is by far among the best."
The site is linked to the Laboratory's Chemistry Division home page and is maintained and updated by computer technician Nick Degidio and staff member Moses Attrep both of the Chemistry Division.
"We average about 30,000 hits a month," said Degidio. "And that number doubles around finals, term papers and midterm exam time. Its popularity is pretty surprising."
"Nobody quite remembers how exactly it got started," said Attrep. "It was developed more than five years ago by a grad student and was originally designed to be a resource internal to the Lab, but has evolved into a reference source externally, focused on chemistry students in the mid- and high-school age group. It's been running full-up for about four years now."
Of the many periodic table sites on the World Wide Web, originating from around the globe, most are aimed at the college or professional level. Los Alamos' site is set apart from the others because of its easy-to-use format and its feedback channel for questions and comments.
To go directly to the periodic table click on http://www.periodic.lanl.gov/ and you'll see the full color periodic table with links to every element, answers to frequently asked questions and place for asking new questions.
In just a few clicks you can find out that the periodic table was originally developed in 1872 by Russian scientist Dmitri Mendeleev, and that the table is arranged by atomic number, which generally follows atomic weight. There are detailed pages that address what a periodic table is, how it is used, what chemistry is-in a nutshell- and how new elements are named.
A quick click on the element carbon and you'll find that its atomic number is six, its symbol is "C" and its weight is 12.011. You'll also find descriptions of carbon's uses, history, forms, compounds and isotopes. The information is detailed enough for the high school chemistry student and is up-to-date. Under carbon you'll find that while three forms of carbon exist naturally, amorphous, graphite and diamond, there is new research that indicates a man-made form of carbon, so-called "white" carbon is also thought to exist.
But the really fun thing about the site for Attrep and Degidio are the questions that pour in from kids taking their first steps toward a better understanding of chemistry.
"We get two or three questions every day," said Degidio. "I do an initial screening and answer questions that don't deal directly with chemistry, then I pass the rest to Moses."
"It's fun, I really enjoy answering the questions," said Attrep. "I can tell if the kids are really curious about chemistry, or if they're just trying to get me to answer a question for their teacher. Sometimes the grammar is a bit suspect, but we try our best to supply a good answer."
None of this is new to Attrep, who taught chemistry for 19 years at East Texas University and is still teaching, not only through the periodic table site, but also at the University of New Mexico-Los Alamos.
A couple of recent questions that have come in through the site include one on April 1, 2001 from Carolyn, who describes herself as a high-school junior and asks, "Would the reaction between SrO and water be acidic or basic? What would happen if AgNO3 was added to a solution of NaAt?"
"I could tell right away that these were questions that had come from natural curiosity, and not from a test question," said Attrep.
Other questions are obviously motivated by homework assignments.
Aaron, age unknown, also wrote on April 1 and supplied a list of 13 questions that included question number eight, "What are the alkaline earth metals and what main characteristics do they possess?"
"It was very clear," said Attrep, "that Aaron was just dumping his homework on me. So I wrote him back and let him know that the answers to his questions were all there in his textbook and that he should try studying."
The periodic table website was recently featured on the Department of Energy homepage "kidzone" which features a variety of sites for children. The site has also been featured several times on Yahoo's "Science Web Ring" service that points web surfers to scientific reference materials.
"We're always thinking about ways to make the site better," said Degidio. "We're currently toying with the idea of translating it into Spanish or French." Attrep is also thinking about adding a section on nuclear chemistry, his specialty.
"The driving force has always been public and community service," said Attrep. "We just want to give something back, to share a bit of our knowledge."
Los Alamos National Laboratory, a multidisciplinary research institution engaged in strategic science on behalf of national security, is operated by Los Alamos National Security, LLC, a team composed of Bechtel National, the University of California, The Babcock & Wilcox Company, and Washington Group International for the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration.
Los Alamos enhances national security by ensuring the safety and reliability of the U.S. nuclear stockpile, developing technologies to reduce threats from weapons of mass destruction, and solving problems related to energy, environment, infrastructure, health, and global security concerns.