A standard (if loudly colored) table from the science laboratory at Los Alamos, home of the Manhattan Project. It’s behind the times—it leaves elements 111 and 112 unnamed, and doesn’t acknowledge elements 113, 115, and 117—but it has good information about the rest.

Another standard periodic table, but with a little jazz. I especially like playing with the slider.

At last. A periodic table so small you can have it etched into every single hair on your head.

For the detailed history of the periodic table, there’s no better source than Eric Scerri, a professor at UCLA. (And I highly recommend his book, The Periodic Table: Its Story and Its Significance, both for the history and the philosophical discussions about chemistry as a science.

(N.B.: If you’re more of a visual person, check out this delightfully quirky book, Wonderful Life with the Elements. It’s like the periodic table in graphic novel form!)

One theme I develop at the end of The Disappearing Spoon is that our standard shape for the periodic table, the castle-with-turrets look, isn’t the only arrangement possible. There’s a whole universe of alternatives out there, including one of my favorites, the chemical galaxy—a solar system of elements. (See also the database of periodic tables below.)

This site contains cool pictures for every element, as well as various elements’ alchemical symbols(like the symbols on this page).

Periodic table T-shirts for (almost) every element. Or if you’d prefer not to decorate your body, how about your wall? Behold – periodic table-inspired art.

This looks familiar somehow. On his very cool blog New Cover, graphic designer Matt Roeser redesigns the covers for books he has read and liked, putting his own stamp on them. He recently took a crack at The Disappearing Spoon. Trey chic.

The periodic table overlain on a map of Manhattan. This could work for any city on a grid, really: instead of telling someone what neighborhood you live in, you just explain what element you live beneath. Mothers would tell you to watch out for the kids from arsenic, of course.

Now we move from the sincere but largely delusional world of the alchemists into a periodic table of fictitious elements. Oh, and since when did fool’s gold become an element, too?

For the adults out there, a periodic table of swear words. The really fantastic thing about this one is that, unlike many “periodic table of whatevers”, the entries in each column really build on each other here, much like elements do. Very clever.

The periodic table … of superpowers! And in this same spirit, superheroes of the periodic table. They include Arsenic (and Old Lace); Cobalt Man; Doctor Phosphorus; Ion (this one’s cheating a little); Iron Avenger; Iron Man; Silver Surfer; The Metal Men (individually: Gold, Iron, Lead, Platinum, Mercury, and Tin); and Titanium Man.

Now, here’s a man almost as obsessed with the periodic table as me. Meet Theodore Grey, who built periodic table table—a wooden coffee table with samples of every element embedded inside. Theo also offers the chance to try and spell your name (or any other word) with element symbols. (“Sam Kean”, sadly, doesn’t work out…)

For those more interested in the form of the table than the elements , check out the incredibly comprehensive Internet Database of Periodic Tables:pre-1900 tables, 1900-1950 tables, 1950-2000 tables, and 2000 and beyond tables. There are too many brilliant and/or nutty designs to highlight, so I’ll restrict myself to seven:

• A periodic table morphed topographically onto an elephant.
• A periodic gyroscope.
• A barn-and-silo periodic table (scroll down).
• A periodic phallus, with swinging doors.
• A Tinkertoy periodic table.
• A periodic table board game.
• An oh-so-meta periodic table … of periodic tables!

And finally, probably definitely my favorite periodic table page: The periodic table in almost every language on earth. As a bonus, here are t;ables in Latin, Esperanto, and Klingon as well. Enjoy!