西奥多·格雷（Theodore Gray），是一位化学家，更是一位疯狂的元素收藏家。他多年来费尽心血收集了2000多件与元素有关的标本和物品，其收藏可以与任何一个专业的博物馆媲美。他是一位热心的科普作家，著名的科普杂志《大众科学》（Popular·Science）上有他开辟的专栏，他还是探索频道（Discovery channel）节目的嘉宾。他设计了众多独树一帜的图标式元素周期表，它们被广泛张贴在美国的学校和博物馆中。他发明的元素周期表桌子是如此标新立异，甚至获得了2002年度搞笑诺贝尔奖，并因此闻名于世。

西奥多·格雷的著作均非常畅销，他所著的《视觉之旅：神奇的化学元素》一书已用近20种文字在全球众多国家和地区出版，其中英文版已销售20多万册，日文版在不到一年的时间内销售了8万多册。令人欣喜的是，《视觉之旅：神奇的化学元素》简体中文版也已由人民邮电出版社出版发行，读者可以从中领略元素的神奇与美丽。

In the style of popular TV science programmes, "Popular Science" magazine's columnist Theodore Gray demonstrates the wonders of science through 52 visually thrilling, often highly explosive, daredevil experiments. Watch subatomic radioactive particles dance in a cloud chamber! Save a perfect snowflake in Superglue, forever! Make your own table salt! Make your own light bulbs! Launch a rocket with a Snickers bar! Create fire without any flames! Make everything golden! Real science presented in a thrilling and easy-to-understand way, that will have students, parents and teachers reaching for their chemistry sets! This title features 450 stunning full colour photographs which take the reader right inside the science just as it's happening and provide a front-row seat to split-second chemical reactions and subatomic activity that defies the naked eye. Not only are the daredevil experiments thrilling, but each one demonstrates a fascinating principle of elemental science.