chemistry
There are about 118 known elements. One of them — carbon — has so many compounds that it gets an entire branch of chemistry to itself. Organic chemistry. A whole field, a whole course in college, a whole industry of textbooks and tutors and terrified pre-med students. All because of one element
chemistry
6.022 x 10^23. That's Avogadro's number. It's the number of particles in a "mole" of any substance. Your teacher probably wrote it on the board and told you to memorize it. You probably looked at it and wondered why anyone
chemistry
6.022 x 10^23. That's Avogadro's number. It's the number of particles in a "mole" of any substance. Your teacher probably wrote it on the board and told you to memorize it. You probably looked at it and wondered why anyone
chemistry
You've been doing acid-base chemistry your entire life. You just didn't have the vocabulary for it. When you squeeze lemon juice on fish to cut the smell, you're using an acid to neutralize amine bases. When you take an antacid for heartburn, you'
chemistry
You've been doing acid-base chemistry your entire life. You just didn't have the vocabulary for it. When you squeeze lemon juice on fish to cut the smell, you're using an acid to neutralize amine bases. When you take an antacid for heartburn, you'
chemistry
For the first four articles in this series, you've been building a framework. Elements as characters, the periodic table as a map, bonds as relationships. All of that is setup. Reactions are where the story actually moves. A chemical reaction is what happens when bonds break, atoms rearrange,
chemistry
For the first four articles in this series, you've been building a framework. Elements as characters, the periodic table as a map, bonds as relationships. All of that is setup. Reactions are where the story actually moves. A chemical reaction is what happens when bonds break, atoms rearrange,
chemistry
Everything you can touch exists because atoms stick together. Your desk, your phone, the water in your glass, the air in your lungs — all of it is atoms bonded to other atoms. If atoms didn't bond, there would be no solid objects, no liquids, no molecules, no you.
chemistry
Everything you can touch exists because atoms stick together. Your desk, your phone, the water in your glass, the air in your lungs — all of it is atoms bonded to other atoms. If atoms didn't bond, there would be no solid objects, no liquids, no molecules, no you.
chemistry
You've seen elements presented as rows in a data table. Symbol, atomic number, atomic mass, electron configuration. Clean, clinical, forgettable. The problem with that format is that it strips away everything interesting. Elements aren't data entries. They're characters — each with a distinct personality, a
chemistry
You've seen elements presented as rows in a data table. Symbol, atomic number, atomic mass, electron configuration. Clean, clinical, forgettable. The problem with that format is that it strips away everything interesting. Elements aren't data entries. They're characters — each with a distinct personality, a
chemistry
You've probably been looking at the periodic table since middle school. It hangs in every science classroom, laminated and color-coded, somewhere between the fire extinguisher and the eyewash station. You were told to memorize the first 20 elements. Maybe you made a song out of it. Maybe you