GENEVA, FROM A WINDOW LEDGE ABOVE THE CONFERENCE HALL — After months of lobbying, advertising and private meetings with chemistry officials, helium has officially overtaken hydrogen as the number one element on the periodic table.
The revised table was unveiled Tuesday morning.
Helium is now listed first.
Hydrogen is second.
The atomic numbers remain unchanged, though officials said they are “under review.”
“This isn’t about chemistry,” said helium campaign director Elaine McArthur. “It’s about leadership.”
Helium’s campaign began last year with a series of ads questioning whether hydrogen still represented the values expected of a modern element.
One showed footage of the Hindenburg.
There was no text.
Another featured a child holding a helium balloon beneath the words YOU ALREADY KNOW WHO YOU TRUST.
Hydrogen initially declined to respond.
That proved to be a mistake.
“Being first because you have one proton is not a vision,” McArthur said.
Hydrogen representatives countered that having one proton was, in fact, the entire reason it was first.
The argument failed to gain traction.
At Tuesday’s unveiling, workers pulled a curtain from the new periodic table as helium supporters applauded.
Someone had brought balloons.
Dr. Michael Okafor, speaking on behalf of hydrogen, stared at the chart for several seconds.
“We make up most of the universe,” he said.
A reporter asked whether he planned to challenge the decision.
Okafor looked at the balloons.
“What exactly would you like us to do?”
Officials insisted the change was not political. They said the new rankings now consider stability, public confidence, brand recognition and “overall elemental performance.”
Atomic structure accounts for 40 percent of the ranking.
Asked how that figure was determined, officials said the methodology was proprietary.
Several countries said they would continue using the old table.
Helium executives dismissed criticism that the campaign had essentially purchased first place.
“For years, hydrogen benefited from being first simply because it was first,” McArthur said. “We challenged that assumption.”
She then inhaled from a balloon before giving the remainder of the press conference in a noticeably higher voice.
Nobody mentioned it.
By Tuesday afternoon, the old periodic table was leaning against a wall near the garbage.
Hydrogen was still first on it.
