Blogging the Periodic Table Arsenic and Old Life. Sign In Sign Up. Health and Science has moved! You can find new stories here. Slate. Elements. Each one has a story. Dec. 3 2010 5:53 PM.

Buckets of pee probably aren’t the first thing most people think of when they eye the periodic table, but such images seem to pop readily into Aldersey-Williams’ mind.

Periodic Tales: A Cultural History of the Elements, from Arsenic to Zinc Hugh Aldersey-Williams. Ecco, $29.95 (448p) ISBN 978-0-06-182472-2 ...

Arsenic is positioned just below phosphorus in the periodic table, and the two elements can play a similar role in chemical reactions. For example, the arsenate ion, AsO 4 3- , has the same ...