The periodic table of elements — A basic engineering tool

Our sophisticated technical civilization produced a large number of highly specialized scientific fields, some of which seem to have very little in common. Recently, however, this trend of extreme specialization shows signs of a definite reversal. The main reason for this is the increasing recognition of the basic sciences as an all-important foundation on which all knowledge has to be built, and to which scientists and engineers have to reach back more and more frequently in their everyday work.