To celebrate 150 years of the periodic table, all the words in this grid are made from chemical element symbols. Fill each white square with one element. Take care! Some squares contain more than one letter, and some words can be made in more than one way: a clue asking for a seven-letter element could yield SiLiCON or SILiCoN, for example. The chemical formula below indicates how many of each element is needed to complete the entire grid. Tell us how you fared at crossword@newscientist.com

AcAl₂AmAr₃At₂BiC₇CaCo₃CrEr₅Es₄Fe₂GeH₃HeI₁₅InKLa₂LiN₈O₈Os₂P₆Ra Re₃S₁₂Ti₄Ts₂U₄V₃W₂

ACROSS

1 Summaries (8)

4 Trust fund (6)

9 Unknown (7)

10 Egg production (9)

11 Febrile (8)

12 Device for measuring thickness (7)

13 They come with rights (16)

17 Observer (7)

19 Those who prioritise professional advancement (10)

22 Dish of thinly sliced meat (9)

23 Emblematic (6)

24 Compacted fodder (6)

25 One who tells all (9)

Set by Sparticle

DOWN

1 Elements (6)

2 Notting Hill and Rio, for example (9)

3 Japanese warrior (7)

5 Italian bread-based appetisers (8)

6 Those who nictitate (7)

7 Sit on pistachio (anag) (14)

8 Female demons (7)

14 Span (8)

15 Inebriation (9)

16 Fabric samples (8)

18 Dome (6)

20 Wearing away (7)

21 More aloof (5)

Cryptic clues

ACROSS

1 Festive delivery arranged in teenager’s shop? (15)

9 Pine, say, for Nice model (7)

10 Agreed to be tugged or barged? (2,5)

11 Big investor in midrange LEDs (5)

12 Instruments with an indicator of volume in the worst places (9)

13 Real subjects of the theory of relativity? (9)

15 Phenomenon at the heart of riverbed dynamism? (4)

17 Unsolved exercise in Newton’s last letters (4)

19 In group illuminated a number: the right way to behave (9)

22 Encourages fashionable ghost to meet primary schoolers (9)

25 Acid test a Geneva complex introduced for clock (5)

26 Trinket designed by machine with gain of ten decibels (7)

27 Frosted flakes: gruel with a little phosphorus snuck in (7)

28 Sly Mr Fox stymied nervous snowflakes’ grand design? (7,8)

DOWN

1 Canine collective gets older presents (8)

2 Scientist synthesises nitrogen without electrical current (7)

3 Pretentious half-Inuit engineer (9)

4 Pole position or nth in line (5)

5 Rings dropped in lotion manufacturing plant (9)

6 Tycoon reverses natural scent embargo (5)

7 Puts up bats returning light (7)

8 Typical of setters of bones, a dismal bunch of characters (6)

14 As a mother is on chicks, or so the Selfish Gene would say? (9)

15 Place most prepared to produce paranormal matter (9)

16 Plant can say hello (3,5)

18 Drop a letter here to reprogram bots in the grip of virus (7)

20 Astronomical phenomenon 91av covered in top US review (7)

21 Halo I’m beginning to behold in the rising sun (6)

23 House starts getting liquid between one and two degrees? (5)

24 Weightless conditions in space give your heads a slushy feeling (5)

Quick clues

ACROSS

1 The third woman to win a Nobel prize in physics, 91av reported in October (5,10)

9 Site of ice spikes on Jupiter’s moon Europa, as NS reported in October (7)

10 A new shape discovered in our cells, NS reported in July (7)

11 Less restricted (5)

12 Remove dead skin cells (9)

13 Russian pie (9)

15 Methods (4)

17 We might soon be able to reproduce without these, NS reported in April (4)

19 A new type of astronomical object, NS reported in October (9)

22 Double entendres (9)

25 Nigerian currency (5)

26 Tumour of connective tissue (7)

27 Variety of rice with high levels of the aroma compound 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (7)

28 Branch of artificial intelligence used in 2018 to generate video games, short stories and horror masks (7,8)

DOWN

1 Machine-doctored video proliferating in 2018 (8)

2 Newly arrived (7)

3 We’ve lost track of more than 900 of these, NS reported in May (9)

4 A baby conceived with the help of mitochondrial replacement therapy has this many genetic parents (5)

5 By the fact itself (4,5)

6 Projecting knob (5)

7 Unexpected result (7)

8 Bumper car (6)

14 Instant (9)

15 Marconi, Feynmann and Schrodinger have been called this on account of their relationships (9)

16 Measuring the chemical composition of a sample (8)

18 The UK National Health Service plans to buy more drugs of this type, NS reported in January (7)

20 Japanese art that has inspired robot design, as NS reported in June (7)

21 Style of Chinese cuisine (3,3)

23 Bacterium that killed US consumers of romaine lettuce, NS reported in May (1,4)

24 Type of antelope (5)

Answers and the next quick crossword from Richard Smyth will be in the 12 January 2019 issue