#Chemical element

Author: Tom Siegfried / Source: Science News Long before there was a periodic table of the elements, there was no need for a table — just four chairs. From ancient through medieval into early modern times, natural philosophers could count the known elements with the fingers of only one hand

Author: Paul Ratner / Source: Big Think The period table is an important but rather dry scientific tool. It lists all the chemical elements, ordered by their atomic numbers. Elements with similar behavior are grouped in the same column (called a group), with metals generally on the left and

Author: Sid Perkins / Source: Science News for Students Long ago, in Russia’s distant Northwest, a bird pooped. But this was not just any old splat of excrement. The feces landed on a very hot rock. It lay atop an underground coal fire. The intense heat quick-baked the poop. And that caused one

Author: Emily Conover / Source: Science News Helium — the recluse of the periodic table — is reluctant to react with other elements. But squeeze the element hard enough, and it will form a chemical compound with sodium, scientists report. Helium, a noble gas, is one of the periodic table’s least