A research team has discovered clusters of aluminum atoms that have chemical properties similar to single atoms of metallic and nonmetallic elements when they react with iodine. The discovery opens ...

This episode is from WHRO’s Spotlight Earth series. Watch this video to learn about matter. In this Spotlight Earth episode, you will explore the fundamental building blocks of the universe, including ...

Note: This video is designed to help the teacher better understand the lesson and is NOT intended to be shown to students. It includes observations and conclusions that students are meant to make on ...

The rare radioactive substance made its way from the United States to Russia on a commercial flight in June 2009. Customs officers balked at accepting the package, which was ensconced in lead ...

Researchers may have found a way to create a new superheavy element, known as "element 120," which would be so hefty that it would need to be put in a new row on the periodic table of elements. If ...

Note: This video is designed to help the teacher better understand the lesson and is NOT intended to be shown to students. It includes observations and conclusions that students are meant to make on ...

At the far end of the periodic table is a realm where nothing is quite as it should be. The elements here, starting at atomic number 104 (rutherfordium), have never been found in nature. In fact, they ...

The heaviest element that humans have ever found is called oganesson. Each atom of the stuff packs a whopping 118 protons into its dense center. In contrast, hydrogen—the most abundant element in the ...

You may have noticed that the rock formations are very different colors. The rock formations on the left are from Red Rock State Park in Texas, and on the right is El Capitan Mountain in Yosemite ...

Every breath of air, every strand of DNA and every cell in my body carries a chemical story that began long before Earth existed, in the violent death of ancient stars. The key elements that make life ...

This story appears in the May 2013 issue of National Geographic magazine. Last October 22, at 9:29 a.m., a bell rang in the main office of Yuri Oganessian’s lab in Dubna, north of Moscow. In a cramped ...