I didn't read this forum whilst S5 was on so I don't know if this was discussed then, however I'm now watching it on DVD and I noticed that the school room has what appears to be the periodic table of the elements on the wall.
This is in the scene when Jack is cleaning the room and Ben's father enters.
The table appears to show the elements that are "man-made" (the ones that don't appear in nature) in brown. It shows elements up to the recently named Copernicium (element 112) and couple of others.
This is quite suprising for a 1977 perodic table, as only elements up to around 105 were known then (not sure exactly because the names elements 104 and 105 had then are not the ones they have now).
Another interesting feature of this is that as well as the trans-Uranic elements, it also shows a few others in brown - from their positions I assume they are Technetium, Promethium and Mercury(!). Techetium and Promethium are indeed radioactive, however Mercury is a well known, natural element!
Anyone any thoughts on this - I have four episodes left to watch so apologies if there is anything to explain this, but I thought this was interesting.
This is in the scene when Jack is cleaning the room and Ben's father enters.
The table appears to show the elements that are "man-made" (the ones that don't appear in nature) in brown. It shows elements up to the recently named Copernicium (element 112) and couple of others.
This is quite suprising for a 1977 perodic table, as only elements up to around 105 were known then (not sure exactly because the names elements 104 and 105 had then are not the ones they have now).
Another interesting feature of this is that as well as the trans-Uranic elements, it also shows a few others in brown - from their positions I assume they are Technetium, Promethium and Mercury(!). Techetium and Promethium are indeed radioactive, however Mercury is a well known, natural element!
Anyone any thoughts on this - I have four episodes left to watch so apologies if there is anything to explain this, but I thought this was interesting.
