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, ...

A new periodic table developed by online educators allows users to become more familiar with different elements by showing them how each one can be used in practical applications. Keith Enevoldsen ...

Encore episode. Helium is the second-most common element in the cosmos, but it's far rarer on planet Earth. As part of our celebration of the periodic table's 150th birthday, correspondent Geoff ...

Noble gases—helium, neon, argon, krypton, xenon, and radon—have long been believed to be the least reactive elements on the periodic table. Helium’s composition in particular, with its full outer ...

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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 ...

Hunting for (alpha,n) reactions: The experimental set-up in the ISAC-II hall at TRIUMF. (Courtesy: M Williams) New measurements by physicists from the University of Surrey in the UK have shed fresh ...

Helium is getting hard to find these days, and it’s ruining parties for people of all ages. No helium, of course, means no helium balloons, and what's a celebration without balloons? Among moms who ...

We’re all familiar with the elements of the periodic table, but have you ever wondered what hydrogen or zinc, for example, might sound like? W. Walker Smith, now a graduate student at Indiana ...