Chemical element native solid elements occur in alloys, such as that of iron and nickel. The history of the discovery and use of the elements began with primitive human societies that found native elements like carbon, sulfur, copper and gold. Later civilizations extracted elemental copper, tin, lead and iron from their ores by smelting, using charcoal. Alchemists and chemists subsequently identified many more; all of the naturally occurring elements were known by 1950. The properties of the chemical elements are summarized in the periodic table, which organizes the elements by increasing atomic number into rows ("periods") in which the columns ("groups") share
The Periodic Table (Basher book) website had some minor reservations about the book, but said it was "endearing" and succeeded in making learning chemistry easier and more fun. "The Periodic Table: Elements with Style" has also been reviewed in the "Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books" and the "Journal of Chemical Education". The Periodic Table (Basher book) The Periodic Table: Elements with Style is a 2007 children's science book created by Simon Basher and written by Adrian Dingle. It is the first book in Basher's science series, which includes "Physics: Why Matter Matters!", "Biology: Life As We Know It", "Astronomy: Out of this World!",