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 ...

The iconic chart of elements has served chemistry well for 150 years. But it’s not the only option out there, and scientists are pushing its limits. By Siobhan Roberts When Sir Martyn Poliakoff, a ...

One hundred fifty years after Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev published his system for neatly arranging the elements, the periodic table it gave birth to hangs in every chemistry classroom in the ...