Which is your favourite chemical element? To mark the International Year of the Periodic Table, our science journalists will be arguing for their pick from the 118 known elements. In this instalment, ...

Immediately after the Big Bang, before the first stars in the Universe ever formed, the Universe consisted of hydrogen (element #1), helium (element #2) and pretty much nothing else. Despite ...

The periodic table is like a map that organizes elements based on their atomic structure and properties. It helps scientists and students study and understand the vast variety of elements and how they ...

Remember the periodic table from high school chemistry class? Today, it contains 118 natural and man-made elements in tidy, equal-sized boxes from gases to heavy metals. With many natural resources on ...

David Cole-Hamilton – previously president of EuChemS – explains why we need to be mindful of many of the elements as a limited resource. The periodic table allows us to understand chemistry at a ...

Today, 13.8 billion years after the Big Bang, stars have converted about 2 per cent of the universe’s hydrogen and helium into other elements. They now exist in varying amounts, depending on the ...

Mendeleev’s chemical grid system defined our world – and the rarer elements it classifies are vital to modern life This year marks the 150th anniversary of the publication of the first periodic table.