The Next Great Space Race?

The United States

Hearing about space from me is, at this point, probably less than shocking. This week though, I am going to be telling all of you about the plans that the United States has for its space program in the next decade or so. I will also be telling you all about Russia's plans, though they seem a little more fantastical and perhaps less realistic.

            While the budget for their project has not been approved yet (thanks Congress), the 2014 budget that President Obama released included a bizarre plan by NASA. It would seem that NASA wants to "shrink-wrap" an asteroid and drag it back to the vicinity of Earth for study.

Begin watching around 2:20 for the "Shrink-wrap mission"

            As you know, NASA's original plan was to send astronauts into deep space and have them anchor onto an asteroid and study it there. Apparently (and understandably), there are a lot of things standing in the way of this being a plausible option. Some of these hindrances include the fact that we don't have rockets powerful enough, NASA's budget could not handle the expenses, and that we have no way to protect or preserve astronauts in deep space. Read more about that plan - here.

            Due to the above factors, scientists have come up with an alterative method, one that would involve using the telescopes that orbit Earth to identify a relatively small asteroid (somewhere in the vicinity of 500 tons). Once an asteroid that met the criteria was found, NASA would send a ship with an inflatable cone on the front to the asteroid. The cone would inflate, engulf the asteroid, and then deflate around it. After capturing the asteroid, the ship would drag it back to Earth's system and put it in orbit around the moon. The estimated costs of this mission are around $2.6 billion. It is expected that the plan will be opposed in Congress, as many members would like to see NASA's focus elsewhere.

Photo from NPR

            Bringing space to us! This is a very cool prospect, but it brings to mind the book "Life As We Knew It" by Susan Beth Pfeffer. I read this book back in maybe middle school or junior high, but it is an interesting concept. In this series, the moon was hit by an asteroid and forced closer to Earth, which messes up everything! Now, I don't mean to be negative, but I am worried about some seemingly small miscalculation that could send this asteroid Earth's way instead of being safely placed in the moon's orbit. I also wonder if something of this size could actually affect us. The asteroid is supposed to be around 500 tons, and the moon is supposed to be approximately 81 billion tons (explanation of number - here), so it is unlikely.

Russia

            According to Popular Science, Russia (or at least President Vladimir Putin) wants to funnel more than $50 billion into their space program within the next several years. This announcement came on the anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's launch into space! The plan seems to be to modernize the Russian space system - a new launch point in the next two years, a manned launch in the next five years, a permanent moon base at some point, and wait for it... "the ability to take out threats from other countries through space." Hold the phones! I am fairly certain that there are laws against that kind of thing (read the UN treaty - here). And not only that, it is a terrifying prospect. Can you imagine if space became militarized?!? It brings to mind Starship troopers, Ender's Game, and..oh, I don't know... maybe the end of the world? Maybe space will be the final frontier - emphasis on final. Excuse my Star Trek joke, and to be honest the plans are very vague. Therefore,  I am not that worried about it now. But it is something to be watched.

NASA Budget article - here

Cool slideshow of the plan - here

Russia's (not yet well defined plans) - here 

Oxygen - Element of the Week from 4/9 - 4/19

  

           Finally! I am bring you element number 8 - Oxygen! This element actually has a rather complex history. Multiple people had produced oxygen prior to its "discovery," but it is Joseph Priestly, an English chemist who immigrated to the United States in the 1700s, who receives the credit. Both Priestly and Carl Wilhelm Scheele produced oxygen from mercuric oxide, which is a molecule comprised of one mercury atom and one oxygen atom. Priestly called his "dephlogisticated air" and Scheele called his "fire air."

            The name "oxygen" comes from the greek words "oxys" and "genes," which together mean "acid forming." Antoine Lavoisier, a French chemist, gave it this name because he believed that it was a necessary element for the formation of acids.

            Oxygen is the third most abundant element in the universe, and the Earth's atmosphere is comprised of 21% oxygen. Oxygen is a component of hundreds of organic compounds, and nearly all living things (that we know of) require oxygen for life. Combustion is also a process that generally needs oxygen. Humans, for example, are made of 2/3 oxygen!

            Some of the uses of oxygen are: as rocket fuel, a protective layer for the earth, in the process of smelting iron into steel, and many more. To make rocket fuel, liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen are combined. The Ozone layer, which is made of O₃, is a thin layer of gas that protects the Earth from the ultraviolet radiation of the sun. When smelting iron, oxygen is injected into the molten iron ore, which helps remove impurities. Be it sulfur or carbon that is in excess. 

LHSD - Little hagfish slime dress?

Hey everyone! I apologize for the lack of posts in the past few weeks. I have been sick, and no one is quite sure with what. I think that I am bringing you a pretty interesting post today though. One that shows how fashion and a "living fossil" are related.

From: http://www.zoology.ubc.ca/labs/biomaterials/slime.html

            There is a marine animal, which look like an eel, which is called the hagfish. It is a marine scavenger that loves dead whale. The hagfish is the only living animal that has a skull, but no vertebral column. It is a jawless animal, and a "living fossil" because the hagfish of today look nearly identical to the hagfish of 300 million years ago.

            One interesting thing that the hagfish does is that it secretes a mucus-y slime from its over 100 secretion glands. It does this if a predator has threatened it. The hagfish will produce massive amounts of slime and then tie itself in a simple knot, which effectively frees it from both the predator and the slime.

From the Vancouver aquarium 

            But enough about the hagfish and on to the news! Researchers are looking into creating fabrics out of natural resources because nylon, spandex, and several other fabrics come from oil, which is non-renewable. BBC news reported on a research group that believes that they can produce thread and eventually fabric from the slime of the hagfish. The threads within the hagfish's slime are super strong (they believe it could make fabrics that are as strong as nylon or plastics). Researchers believe that the hagfish has hundreds of kilometers of thread within each one.

From BBC article

            While hagfish produce large amounts of slime, researchers are looking more at how to replicate the threads instead of harvest it from the hagfish. Researchers have been able to replicate spider silk, but it takes some rather wonky processes due to the relatively large size of each thread. It is believed that the smaller threads within the hagfish slime would make it substantially easier to replicate.

            I sit here typing in a pair of bright yellow tights, and it kind of grosses me out to think of clothes made from spider silk or hagfish slime. In my mind, I imagine my legs wrapped in webs or covered in slime. It's not the most appealing of thoughts. I think that this use of oil is rarely thought about. I know that I don't generally think about my tights or my running leggings coming from oil. And as worried as our society is about the future lack of oil and the price of oil, it would be good to eliminate the use of petroleum in our clothing, and instead use renewable, natural options. Next year at Paris fashion week - Hagfish dresses? 

Discovery News article - here

Iridium- Element of the Week from 3/16 - 4/9

  

             Iridium is element number 77.  It is a hard, sliverish transition metal, which is related to platinum. Iridium is the second densest metal and the most corrosive resistant.

            The name of the element comes from the Latin word "iris," which means rainbow and who was the goddess of the rainbow. The name is appropriate because iridium salts are known for their bright colors.

            The British chemist Smithson Tennant discovered iridium and osmium at the same time in 1803. These elements were found in the leftover residue of dissolving platinum ore in an acid solution. Currently, platinum ores are still used to get iridium, and it can be found as a bi-product of mining nickel.

            Interestingly, there is a thin layer of iridium that spans across the entire world. Scientists believe that this is proof of a large meteor must have hit the Earth during (or at the end of, I guess) the Cretaceous period. Meteors and asteroids contain a higher amount of iridium than the crust of Earth.

            One of the largest uses of iridium is as an alloy with platinum. An alloy of 90% platinum and 10% iridium is actually the composition of the International Prototype Metre and kilogram mass. It is also used to make crucibles and other things that must undergo extreme temperatures.

            Iridium is used in particle physics for the production of antimatter, antiprotons in particular. Some other of the uses for iridium are less impressive. Iridium alloys are used in the tips of fountain pens, and an iridium pigment is used to paint porcelain an intense black color.

From pretty sure to... "more certain"

           Scientists at CERN are "more certain" that they have correctly identified the Higgs boson. For more information on the Higgs boson and the standard model of particle physics, take a look at my previous blog post - here! Essentially, the Higgs boson is evidence for the Higgs field. This field is theoretically around us and everything at all times. As anything passes through the Higgs field, it obtains mass. The discovery of the particle does not lead to new discoveries, but authenticates all of the understanding and claims that physicists have made since the introduction of the standard model.

            The initial announcement about the Higgs boson was made over the summer. Scientists announced that they had discovered a particle that was "Higgs-like," but they couldn't be sure of the identity until after they went through all of the data they had obtained. According to the New York Times, the scientists at the Large Hadron Collider went through around 2,000 trillion collisions of subatomic particles. That is an insane amount of data. Written out, this is 1 trillion - 1,000,000,000,000. So, 2000 trillion written out is - 2,000,000,000,000,000 - which I think may be 2 quadrillion.  I can't even begin to image how many hours had to be put in by how many scientists to filter through it all. This data is actually more (about double) than the amount of data that led to the initial discovery over the summer.

            The next step for CERN is determining whether or not this is the ONE Higgs boson, or if it is a lighter member of a family of Higgs bosons (scroll down about 3/4 of the page for a good explanation). According to the Standard Model, there should be only one particle. Scientists have met and discussed this, but plan on watching how the particle spins and decays to finally determine what it is. The Higgs boson should have no spin at all. There is an interesting article on spin - here.

            Well, we will all have to wait and see. CERN is now down for two years so that repairs can be made, and the data they have already collected can be fully analyzed. If the Higgs is proven to exist, then the understanding of our universe and how it interacts on the subatomic level will be greatly increased. I for one, look forward to seeing where this data and proposed Higgs boson take the world of particle physics in the next few years.

National Geographic article - here

NBC science article - here

 CNN tech article - here

Chromium- Element of the Week from 3/8 -3/16

             

            Chromium is element number 24 and, appropriately, the 24th most abundant element on Earth. It is a solid, hard metal and its name is derived from the Greek word for color, "chroma." It is malleable, tasteless, and odorless, as well as gray in color. Seeing as how its color is gray, the name doesn’t seem to make sense. But the Greek word was chosen due to the fact that many compounds involving chromium are intensely colored.

            A French pharmacist and chemist, whose name was Louis Nicolas Vauquelin, discovered chromium in 1797. Vauquelin also discovered the element Beryllium in 1798. He initially produced a chromium oxide, but after further testing was eventually able to isolate solid chromium. The method used to achieve this was by hearing chromium oxide in a charcoal oven. Chromium metal is still today obtained primarily through a similar heating method.

            Chromium is commonly used to coat other metals, as it is extremely corrosion resistant. Chromium is also what is added to steel to make it harder and create stainless steel. Chromium as a anti-corrosion agent is the most prominent use of the metal, though some others exist. Several compounds containing chromium are used as intense dyes and pigments, the tanning of leather, and chromic acid is used to destroy any trace of organic molecules in laboratory glassware.

            There are many forms of chromium. Hexavalent chromium or Cr (VI) the most toxic of these and is a known carcinogen. It makes me happy to know that I was just using this in Physical chemistry lab. 

Algernon Lives!

          

            Think Flowers for Algernon - and if you don't know what that is, then I recommend reading either the short story or the novel (and if all else fails watch the film. It is called Charly). I'll give you a brief synopsis - a mentally handicapped man and a mouse are both treated with a drug that will make them smarter, and IT WORKS! But, that is much too happy of an ending... I won't ruin it for you, but I highly highly recommend that you read it.

        Onto the story at hand! The above paragraph may seem like a bit of a disconnect from a science blog, but I promise it has a point. Scientists at the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York actually implanted human cells called glial progenitor cells (a type of stem cell) into the brains of infant mice. These stem cells produce different types of glia (sort of the glue of the nervous system), including one called astrocytes. Astroyctes are star shaped and give physical support to neurons, which are the basic building blocks of the human nervous system, through chemicals needed for proper function. They also help nourish the neurons and they form a matrix that keeps the neurons in place.

        After implanting these young mice with the glial cells, scientists did tests to see if the intelligence of the mice had been increased - and it had! The results showed not only that they were indeed smarter, but also that the human glial cells worked better than the rodent ones.  It is believed that the increased intelligence could be due to the fact that human astroyctes are larger and more complex than those of other animals.

        Another fascinating part of this research is that scientists implanted glial cells in the brains of mice that had a genetic disorder similar to multiple sclerosis. The glial progenitors healed the mice, which allowed them to live a normal life span. Scientists believe that this type of cell transplant could also help humans who are affected by neurological disorders.

        There is one very unsettling part for me though. While the glial progenitor cells either increased the intelligence of or healed the mice, it also took over the mice progenitors in about 6 months. This seems a little creepily like the Borg to me (from Star Trek - see here). The Borg assimilate other species and make them part of a collective, and I don't like the idea of human cells taking over where mouse cells should have been in control.

        This research could lead to so many cures and there could be so many uses for glial cells that scientists haven't even found yet. It should be exciting to see where this research takes them, and hopefully it's not to being the real life version of the Borg.

Full Popsci article - here

Full Science News article - here

Promethium- Element of the Week from 2/22 -3/8

            

             Promethium is element number 61, a metallic solid, and is technically a lanthanide. It was originally "Prometheum." The history of promethium is long and complicated. Bohuslav Brauner accurately predicted its existence in 1902. Then in 1914, Henry Moseley, measured the atomic numbers of the known elements and proved that there was no element with an atomic number of 61. Two separate groups in 1926, one Italian and one American, claimed to have found it, but it was later discovered that neither of them actually had.

            It was finally in 1945, that the Oak Ridge National Laboratory was able to synthesize and determine that they had element 61 - promethium. The name for promethium comes from Greek mythology. The name is derived from the Titan Prometheus, who stole fire from the Gods to give to humankind.

            Natural promethium can come from the decay of uranium and europium. All of the isotopes of promethium are radioactive. The melting point is 1100 C and the boiling point is 3000 C.

            A few of the uses for promethium are nuclear powered battery, and as a potential source for portable X-ray. 

Potential risks for diabetes: Working the nightshift?

Sorry for the impromptu hiatus. It has been a rough couple of weeks.

            So...I feel like this is a relatively well-known fact: You shouldn't eat at night. Seems simple enough, but a recent study has discovered the reasons for it. During the nighttime hours, the body actually turns more of the food into fats as opposed to fuels - like it does during the day.

            The study was published in the Current Biology journal, and in the study it was found that mice (which are nocturnal) had a variant ability to regulate blood sugar and when the researchers disrupted their sleep cycle (a circadian rhythm) they were also more likely to put on greater amounts of fat.

            This study makes me think of all of the Tom and Jerry episodes I have watched throughout the years. All I can say, is thank goodness Jerry gets all the exercise running from Tom - or he would have been super overweight (and probably eaten). I think that would have kind of ruined the show for me.

            Another interesting part of this story is that the researchers believe there is some connection between working night-shifts and the likelihood of being overweight and getting diabetes. This has been show in previous studies, but is now believed that there could be a link between the two. To test this, researchers looked to see how well the mice's bodies processed foods throughout the entire circadian cycle. It was found that during the day, the mice were not particularly receptive to insulin. Due to this lack of response, their bodies did not take sugar from the blood to use as energy, but it rather got stored as fat. They next tried keeping the mice under dim light all the time, and the mice actually became somewhat insulin resistant - and they put on more fat.

            I guess, the moral of the story is don't just watch what you eat, but also when you eat. And maybe try to get a job where you don't have to work the nightshift.

Full article - here

Info on the Circadian cycle - here

Cesium- Element of the Week from 1/25 -2/22

            

             Cesium is element 55 on the Periodic Table. It is a soft, metallic-colored alkali metal, and has a very low melting point. Cesium is one of the five metals that are liquid at room temperature. The metal is mildly toxic, but presents a high health risk to humans and the environment.

             It was discovered in 1860 by the German chemists Robert Wilhelm Bunsen and Gustav Robert Kirchhoff in mineral water from a town in Germany - Durkheim. They were able to distinguish and characterize it through the method of flame spectroscopy. When burned, its compounds give off a blue or violet color. This is why the name comes from the Latin word for "sky blue" - caesius. Its characteristics are very similar to that of Rubidium.

            Cesium forms alloys with other alkali metals. It is considered relatively rare element, with a natural abundance of around 3 parts per million in the Earth's crust. It is the 36th most common element.

            The metal is commonly used in drilling fluids to explore for petroleum, atomic clocks, and its compounds are used in the production of chemicals. One of the biggest dangers of Cesium is the fact that is lethal to humans if direct contact is made - causing spasms. It is highly reactive, as with all alkali metals. When it comes in contact with water, it is highly reactive (explosive).

That puppy/kitten/cute thing makes me feel so... aggressive?

         

           Graduate level researchers at Yale University have been researching a phenomena they have dubbed "cute aggression." Essentially, this phenomena describes the aggression that one feels when they see an image of something adorable, say a kitten or puppy. It's not necessarily that people feel angry at the animal; it's just that they begin to say phrases like: "I just can't handle this", "It's so fluffy I want to die", or want to squeeze something.

            To come to this conclusion, researchers gathered 109 participants and had them look at pictures of animals, which were cute, funny, or neutral.  It was shown that peoples' responses were most aggressive when the pictures were "cute." To further secure their results, the researchers had 90 of their participants to look at the images again, and this time pop the bubbles on Bubble wrap as many or as few times as they would like. The results showed that the cute images resulted in people popping an average of 120 bubbles, while the neutral resulted in an average of 100 bubbles, and just 80 for the funny images.

            This research seems to contradict the common notion that when an animal is cute, we strive to protect it and treat it more gently than other creatures. The researchers aren't sure why this phenomenon occurs, but they have some ideas. One idea is that this aggression may come from the fact that we want to hold or cuddle the cute animal, but we can't physically reach it. This in turn leads to frustration and aggressive behavior. It could also be similar to the reaction of children to pets - we focus on not hurting the animals so much that we end up hurting them. The last hypothesis is that when there is an overwhelming positive emotion, the response is apparently negative.

Full articles- here! here! and...here!

Cute Animals! More cute animals!  

Arsenic- Element of the Week from 1/18 -1/25

            Arsenic is element number 33, and a metalloid. It is found in minerals and alone as a pure crystal.  Albertus Magnus originally documented its existence in 1250, but it has been known of since the Early Bronze Age. Magnus, was also known as Albert the Great, and was the teacher of St. Thomas Aquinas. The element is most famously known for being exceedingly lethal in humans and other multicellular creatures.

            The name "Arsenic" comes from the Greek word "arsenikon," which means yellow orpiment. An orpiment is a mineral that contains sulfur and arsenic. Apparently, early Chinese, Greek, and Egyptian civilizations mined compounds containing arsenic.

            There are three common types of arsenic - one gray, one yellow, and one black. The gray allotrope is the most common of the three. Arsenic has one stable isotope and numerous radioactive isotopes.

             It can also be found in foods and soil, but is absorbed by all plant life. Arsenic in the groundwater is a very serious problem, and in bottled water in the United States it is allowed in concentrations between 10 and 5 ppb (parts per billion).

            Some common uses of arsenic are in agricultural insecticides, and it is still sometimes used in animal foods to prevent disease. Arsenic was common in medications prior to the 21st century - it was even used as a stimulant in the mid 1700s (though in subatomic doses). There are some modern medical uses of it - such as treatment of cancer. 

Stampede!!! Or so we thought... new evidence shows that dinosaurs may have been swimming

             DINOSAURS! Ever since I was a child, I have been obsessed. I loved learning and reading about them, I loved watching movies about them, and especially loved Jurassic Park. Though I preferred the idea of the non-carnivorous dinosaurs to the scary carnivores.  I also always felt sorry for the more goat that got eaten by the T-rex. AND.... Jurassic Park 4 is coming out in 2014 (supposedly).

            Some of my favorite childhood memories are the Dinofours books, the Mark Teague and Jane Yolen Dinosaur books, the Land Before Time movies, and I currently have a T-rex and a mini T-rex pillow pet!

            In Australia, there is an area called the Lark Quarry, which is home to the only recorded dinosaur stampede. There are more than 3300 fossilized footprints. A recent study done by researchers at the University of Queensland has provided evidence that the animals were not actually running away from a large predator  (the previous story), but instead were using the area as a water crossroads or type of "superhighway."

            They seem nearly certain that the dinosaurs were smaller, ranging in size from a chicken to an emu. By analyzing the tracks as they were, and then using a three-dimensional computer modeling software, the researchers came to the conclusion that the tracks were not actually from long-toed dinosaurs, but instead from short-toed dinosaurs that dug there toes into a river body. One of the scientists claimed that the dinosaurs were moving on the tippy-toes.

            These conclusions were published in the January 2013 issue of the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.

Full article - here

Other full article - here

Australian Geographic article - here  

Cobalt - Element of the Week from 1/11 -1/18

           

            Cobalt has an atomic number of 27. It is a silver to gray transition metal, but is never found by itself in nature. Rather, it is found in chemical compounds. The name cobalt comes from the German word for evil spirit (goblin) "kobald." Cobalt is generally isolated as a bi-product of mining copper and nickel.

            Cobalt is known for giving a distinct blue color in glass, ceramics, and glazes. It was from this fact that it was initially discovered. In 1735, Georg Brandt, a Swedish chemist, was trying to prove that some element - not bismuth, as was believed - caused the blue color mentioned above. An interesting fact about this discovery is that it was the first new element discovered since ancient times.

             The metal and its compounds are slightly toxic if it comes in contact with skin, and more so if ingested. It is also highly magnetic, even up to very high temperatures (Curie Temperature). Cobalt is quite chemically active, and this is one of the reasons that it is a component in many alloys. It has one stable isotope.

            There are numerous uses for cobalt. One of these is the coloration of glass, ceramics, and glaze as previously mentioned. When it comes to alloys, cobalt is used in numerous compounds. Cobalt superalloys are particularly stable, and are occasionally used in jet aircraft engines. These alloys are also used in many different implants and joint replacements in the human body.

            Cobalt is also used in batteries and its radioactive isotope is used as a medical radioactive tracer. Cobalt is also essential to all animal life. One of the most common supplements that contains cobalt is vitamin B₁₂. 

The Periodic Quest: Quite element-ary

            Before I begin, I need to explain the fact that myself and both of my older brothers are all studying some form of Chemistry. So, for Christmas this year our family board game was "Periodic Quest," which is a board game that involves moving along a Periodic Table, using die, and cards (one for each element) to play different variations of the game - some based on properties of the elements and others simply on atomic number.  

            We finally all sat down to play the game a few nights ago and it was...enlightening to say the least. My brother Stephen and I had forgotten that not everyone has an extensive working knowledge of the Periodic Table. My parents had both taken Chemistry courses before, in High School and College, but after years of doing nothing with Chemistry they were very very rusty.

            So, to help my parents out, I am doing this post about the Periodic Table - its history, uses, and organization.

The history

            We need to go back all the way to 1869 and a Russian chemistry professor named DmitrI Mendeleev. When he was teaching, there were around 60 known elements (compared to the 118 of today) and he began his table by ordering the elements by atomic weight - the heaviness of an atom of an element compared to an atom of hydrogen. Mendeleev was writing his own Chemistry text, and as he ordered the elements horizontally he found that if he left gaps he found periodic (see what he did there) vertical trends in the properties of some elements.

From http://www.aip.org/history/curie/periodic.htm

            He left these gaps and claimed that there were yet undiscovered elements that would fill in the table and adhere to both the horizontal and vertical trends identified. With this as a guide, some early Chemists (later 1800s) were able to discover elements that fit within the gaps that Mendeleev had claimed would be filled. After these elements were discovered, his table began to grow in importance.

The Uses

            The first huge use of the Periodic Table is the atomic weight. This means the weight of the nucleus of an atom of the element. This is generally around double of the element's atomic number - i.e. Hydrogen is number 1, etc. The atomic number is the number of protons in the nucleus of an atom of an element. The atomic weight is generally double that of the atomic number because protons (positively charged particles) and neutrons (neutrally charged particles) both exist within the nucleus and are approximately the same weight. The electrons (the negatively charged particles) exist outside of the nucleus in orbitals and have a minimal weight.

            The horizontal trends of the Periodic Table or the "periods" reveal the trends of atomic radius, ionization energy, electron affinity, and electronegativity. As you move across a period, the atomic radius decreases, as the additional protons and neutrons cause the electrons to be draw closer to the nucleus. The other trends all act opposite to the atomic radius and increase as you move across the period. Ionization energy is the amount of energy required to remove an electron. The electron affinity is the amount of energy released when an electron is added to an atom to make a negative ion (from neutral to negative). The electronegativity is how much an atom wants electrons.

Periodic trends descriptions - here!

            The vertical trends or "groups" (or "families") show some more significant properties. It must be realized that elements in the same groups have the same number of valence electrons or electrons in the outermost orbital and this corresponds to the trends the exhibit. The most recognized families are the Alkali metals (1), the Alkaline Earth metals (2), Halogens (17), and the Nobel gases (18).  Groups 3 to 10 show less strong relationships and thus don't get cool names.  Some of the trends revealed by the Periodic groups are: the atomic radius increases as you move down a family, a decrease in ionization energy (since they are bigger and are held together less tightly), and a decrease in electronegatitvity. A fun trend found in  Family 1 or the Alkali metals is that they are exceedingly reactive with water (see below).

            The two rows set of by themselves at the bottom of the Table are arranged as such because they do not quite fit the trends of the rest of the table. This is because they are radioactive, and it makes the table more aesthetically pleasing.

            I think that is enough of an overview for today. Needless to say, we didn't really end up playing the game. Instead, my brother and I got to spend the time explaining the Periodic Table and its many uses to our parents. And you know what - we had a blast.

Interactive Periodic Table - here!

Fun comic explanation - here!