Who is a Jew? familiar with and willing to vouch for the Jewishness of their maternal lineage or the validity of their conversion. There have been several attempts to convene representatives of the three major movements to formulate a practical solution to this issue. To date, these have failed, though all parties concede the importance of the issue is greater than any sense of rivalry among them. Ethnic Jew is a term generally used to describe a person of Jewish parentage and background who does not necessarily actively practice Judaism, but still identifies with Judaism or other Jews culturally or fraternally, or both. The
Chemistry: A Volatile History for stranger). All the elements of this new group had one overwhelming characteristic; their lack of reactivity. It was this particular characteristic that brought to mind a name for the new group: the noble gases. Mendeleev's periodic table had brought order to all the elements, allowing him to make predictions that future scientists tested and found to be true. By the time he died he was world-renowned in chemistry. His periodic table was set in stone in St Petersburg and an element was eventually named after him: mendelevium. The periodic table does not however tell us why some elements are