06/03/2026
Bill Gates has an expansive, custom-made 3D periodic table display mounted on the wall of his office just outside Seattle. The massive display features glass-mounted cubes representing the chemical elements, showcasing how the basic building blocks of the universe look in physical form. Gates has shared that the wall serves as a constant daily reminder of how single scientific discoveries pave the way for modern software and AI technology.
The installation holds physical samples for the vast majority of the 118 elements on the chart, though it is not completely filled with raw materials. Highly volatile, toxic, or short-lived radioactive elements that only exist for seconds in particle accelerators cannot be safely displayed in an office. For dangerous elements like uranium, a tiny piece is safely kept behind heavy lead glass, while reactive elements like potassium and sodium are submerged in oil inside hermetically sealed capsules to prevent combustion.
For the rare or highly hazardous elements that cannot be stored, the display utilizes creative associative objects and symbolic representations. For example, a picture of Albert Einstein fills the slot for einsteinium, and the coat of arms of Poland represents polonium. Gold is uniquely represented by a classic Intel Pentium Pro processor chip, which contains up to 400 milligrams of gold plating on its connective pins.