Les Philosophes welcomed Dr Peter Wothers, teaching fellow at St Catharine’s College Cambridge, to talk about The Periodic Table, 1869-2019. This year has been designated as the international year of the Periodic Table to commemorate the 150th anniversary of its creation by Dmitry Mendeleev.

Our eager audience, which included 40 Sixth form students from St George’s School in Harpenden, was enthralled as Dr Wothers regaled us with history in the making and were literally in our element taking part in demonstrations showing off some of the weird and wonderful properties of what makes up our world.

As well as being a prominent chemist and educator, Dr Wothers is known for presenting the 2012 Royal Institution Christmas Lectures and for organising the International Chemistry Olympiad, for which he was appointed an MBE for services to chemistry.