Elements For Mac

Chemistry is much more interesting than most high school classes would have you believe, or at least the ones I've attended. If you actually take some time to learn how these abstract concepts govern the world around us, you might be surprised by a lot of things and maybe discover a new passion in the process.

Let's get to the point though. Elements is, somewhat fittingly, an Electron-based application that brings the good old periodic table to your Mac's desktop. It is far from an innovative app, but it provides essential information about the elements, in an intuitive, visually-pleasing manner.

Even if you aren't particularly knowledgeable when it comes to chemistry, you must have at least heard of the periodic table. It is the most widely-accepted method of organizing the known chemical elements, and this virtual representation stays true to the scientific consensus.

The elements are organized into periods and groups, color-coded for easy identification, and you can click any of them to inspect their properties. The app shows you each element's atomic number, atomic weight, electronegativity, boiling point, and melting point. When it comes to temperature, this can be displayed in Kelvin, Celsius or Fahrenheit.

We've already covered pretty much all of the app's features, so don't expect to be awed by its functionality. However, we have to mention the fact that atomic orbitals are animated, which is a big deal even if it might not seem so at first.

When my high school teacher was trying to explain these concepts all those years ago, I always had a hard time visualizing how an atom looked, how electrons moved, and so on. A visual representation makes these concepts much more interesting and easy to understand, especially when targeting younger audiences.

However, I do have one grievance. The default UI size makes it fairly difficult to read element properties, and the app doesn't save new dimensions between restarts. Also, for extra convenience, it would be nice if the window had a fixed aspect ratio.

With Elements, what you see is what you get. If what you see is what you need, then go ahead and download it. There are no innovative features that will blow your mind, but most users won't need anything but a simple periodic table anyway.