The news broke that a railroad car, loaded with pure sodium, had just derailed and was spilling its contents. A television reporter called me for an explanation of why firefighters were not allowed to ...

A new version of the periodic table showcases the predicted properties of 2-D metals, an obscure class of synthetic materials. Arrayed in 1-atom-thick sheets, most of these 2-D metals have yet to be ...

Everything we can see and touch, and quite a lot that we can’t as well, is made of tiny particles called atoms. Some substances, like particles of this iron, contain only one kind of atom. Iron is an ...

The story of the fifteenth element began in Hamburg, in 1669. The unsuccessful glassblower and alchemist Hennig Brandt was trying to find the philosopher’s stone, a mythical substance that could turn ...

You might not realize it, but almost everywhere around you are rare metals from the earth. In your phone, computer, or any other LCD screen, for example, you’ll find a dash of indium, a soft, ...

There are lots of different substances but only just over a hundred elements. An element is a substance that is made up of only one kind of atom. The atoms in a particular element are the same as each ...