New York Times, Tuesday, October 10, 2017

I thought it would be interesting to make a puzzle where the entry numbers corresponded to the atomic numbers of elements. I played around with this concept for a while and realized that I could fit some of the noble gases into a grid in this way. I thought it would be cute if I could get all of the stable noble gases to fit (not radon, which is unstable and has an atomic number too high to fit into a 15x15 grid this way). This turned out to be very challenging, but I found a grid that worked and obeyed the usual symmetry and word count of the NYT. I'm not sure that this grid is unique, but I couldn't come up with any other sensible ones that work.

The grid is pretty restrictive in where I could place the revealer (initially "NOBLEGAS ELEMENT"), but I was able to get it into the grid without too much of a mess. In addition I could put the revealer ATNO in the lower right corner. Filling the grid was a bit challenging because of the asymmetric arrangement of theme words and I couldn't add any cheater squares as that would disrupt where the noble gas elements were placed. I originally had the theme words clued differently, but thanks to Will for the way he decided to present it — it's better than the way that I submitted it.

Hope you enjoy the puzzle!

I'm a chemistry wonk. Dunno why I loved chemistry so much in school. Or why I bombarded our chemists with so many curious questions at our pharma startup. (Some advice: don't bug people with easy access to strong acids and bases.) Cool to get some chemistry love today, the puzzle featuring the NOBLE GASes … each positioned at its proper atomic number! HELIUM at 2-Down, NEON at 10-Across, etc.

It would have been jump-out-of-my-seat-worthy if each had also been placed to the right of the grid, as the NOBLE GASes are in the periodic table (in light blue in the pic). The periodic table is all about proper organization, positioning elements in columns that make sense, ordering elements into families. So the chem nerd in me frowny-faced at the haphazard-feeling placements.

It's impossible to put HELIUM both at 2-Across (or 2-Down) AND put it on the right side of the grid. But a guy can wish.

It was also weird to omit radon. I can understand not giving oganesson any love — sorry Og, your atomic number of 118 is way too high — but radon at 86 might just have been possible.

Okay, it's mathematically impossible in a 15x15 grid, considering that the max number of words is usually 78. Harrumph. Fine! But the omission of radon feels so notable, like naming six of the seven dwarfs, and pretending Doc doesn't exist.

Laying out the five NOBLE GASes so that they sit at the proper numbers, plus the inclusion of NOBLE GAS and ELEMENT and ATNO = tough task. With so many themers fixed into place all over the grid, it's tough to avoid some REVE, MTN, ERGOT, STA, etc. crossword glue to hold everything together. Along with the oddball AGGRESS, the grid left me with an impression of inelegance. I'm not sure ATNO added much, and it's a piece of crossword glue in itself.

But taking a second look, I am impressed that Mark managed to get the NOBLE GAS / ELEMENT region pretty darn clean, especially considering KRYPTON and XENON are packed right in there.

Tough to balance so many constraints and demands. Audacious thinking, but it didn't all come together for this annoyingly OCD chem nerd.