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from the L.A. Times
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The curious tale of the wooden table that became an iPad book
Chocked with interactive photos, animations, song and text, "The Elements: A Visual Exploration" for the iPad has been hailed as the future of digital books.
But to understand the future, sometimes it helps to look at the past. Though the app itself took six weeks to develop, its genesis began eight years ago. This is the story of how a wooden conference table in Champaign, Ill., turned into a iPad phenomenon.
As with many great ideas, this one was purely accidental, according to Theodore Gray, the co-writer of "The Elements." Three unrelated things happened to Gray in 2002.
One, he was momentarily confused while reading "Uncle Tungsten" by Oliver Sacks. In the book, Sacks said he liked to visit the periodic table in the Kensington Science Museum. Gray thought it was an actual table, but soon realized it wasn't. Two, his start-up company needed a conference table, and he was loathe to spend thousands on "one of those expensive ugly ones from the office supply catalogs." Three, he had just purchased for $50 a used industrial engraving machine.
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