Elements

Real Geeks Dine at a Periodic Table Table

You claim to be interested in science? Do you sit down of an evening to eat your dinner at a periodic table table? No? Then be quiet. Because Theo Gray, co-founder of Wolfram Research, out-geeks you, hands down. https://gizmodo.com/lighting-a-grill-with-liquid-oxygen-is-the-opposite-of-5360234 In Gray’s home, you can find a table dedicated to all the elements. Within the table…

Tech News Jamie Condliffe Feb 23

If You Don’t Like the Names of These New Elements, Now’s the Time to Complain

Flerovium and livermorium have a nice ring, yeah? Chemistry’s governing body thinks so and wants to name two new elements with them. If you disagree, you’ve only got five months to come up with something better. The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, a union of chemists that maintains the periodic table and vets…

Tech News Andrew Tarantola Dec 3

Meet the periodic table’s newest official elements

Elements 114 and 116 are now the heaviest elements that we know for a fact exist. They can only exist for less than a second, but they get us ever closer to the fabled island of stability. Researchers have been trying to produce definitive evidence for these elements for years, with the first announced discovery…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Jun 5

Is the periodic table the law or just a good suggestion?

This week on “Ask a Physicist” we have a doomsday twist. Is it possible to make strange new elements that could ultimately destroy the world or are you destined to be Mendeleev’s bitch? In this week’s column, we find out. Today’s question comes to us from our own Annalee Newitz and Charlie Jane Anders who…

io9 Dr. Dave Goldberg Apr 13

How copper kills flesh-eating bacteria

Recently scientists staged a demonstration in which flesh-eating bacteria died off in droves when placed on a copper surface. Find out why copper engages in bactericide. Hospitals are necessary and efficient institutions meant to gather and train a variety of experts in order to serve any sick person who comes in. They’re also festering pits…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Apr 5

Geeky Restaurant Puts Their Menu Inside a Periodic Table

What’s more nerdy? The fact that the restaurant is called the Miracle of Science Bar & Grill or that their menu is re-fashioned into a Periodic Table or that I really want to take a road trip to eat there? The Miracle of Science Bar & Grill is in Cambridge, MA and wait, I’m going…

Tech News Casey Chan Dec 31

Mother Nature Has Her Way With a Lighthouse

Click to view If you think winter weather’s got you cold, consider the plight of this Ohio lighthouse—freezing lake spray has it lookin’ like some crazy-ass ice castle. Which I guess isn’t a plight so much as an excellent upgrade? [Awl]

Tech News Kyle VanHemert Dec 16

10 Amazing Science Books That Reveal The Wonders Of The Universe

If you’re looking for a perfect holiday gift for science lovers, consider these ten amazing books. They prove science is awesomer than fiction, and are packed with beautiful pictures too. On the Origin of Species: The Illustrated Edition by Charles Darwin with David Quammen Darwin’s original book didn’t just kick off the fiercest scientific debate…

Books & Comics Alasdair Wilkins Dec 14

Not Even Captain Planet Could Extinguish These Matches

Douse them with water. Bury them in earth. Blast them with air. None of it’s going to stop these matches from burning. And I’m assuming Heart wouldn’t put up much of a fight against them either. You can get two packs of 25 of these REI Storm Proof matches for just $5.50. The 2.75-inch wonders…

Tech News Brian Barrett Dec 1

What Happens When You Mix Every Single Element Together at Once?

The entire periodic table mixed together is one of those awesome what if scenarios so out there that not even scientists know for sure. Their guess? Anything from “a quark-gluon plasma” (!) to “flaming plutonium.” Do not try at home! Luckily, you could never try this at home, as NYU theoretical chemist Mark Tuckerman says…

Physics & Chemistry Sam Biddle Nov 29

Why Gold Is the Perfect Element For Money

Why did gold—and not osmium, lithium, ruthenium or any other element—become the one we humans use as money? Sanat Kumar, a chemical engineer at Columbia University, goes through the periodic table and explains why the rest wouldn’t work. Click to view Right off the bat, Kumar explains to NPR, the rightmost column of the table…

Tech News Kyle VanHemert Nov 22

When Good Apps Go Bad

In just a few short years we’ve almost forgotten the concept of “saving” a document. Close an app? It’s just there. Until it isn’t. I just got back from a manic 48-hour mental assault to pick up the used Land Cruiser I’ll be driving up and down the hemisphere next summer. (More on that later!)…

Tech News Joel Johnson Sep 24

How to harvest helium

Helium is a noble gas, so it doesn’t react chemically with anything. It doesn’t solidify at Earth’s atmospheric pressure. As soon as it is released, it streams away from earth. How is it packaged up and used to fill balloons? Most people know very well the pain of letting go of the string of their…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Aug 26

Elements: A Dropbox-Syncing Text Editor For iPads and iPhones

Dropbox is our favorite way to keep files synced across multiple machines, bar none, but its apps sadly don’t do text editing. The universal app Elements fills that role, letting you cleanly edit text and quietly keep it in sync. There have been a few Dropbox-enabled text editors for the iPad, but none quite reflected…

Tech News Kyle VanHemert Aug 18

What Is This?

What’s this here? A leaked prop from Tron: Legacy? A high-tech bug zapper? It’s something much more basic than those, but still fit for a king. What you’re looking at is a high resolution photograph of the noble gas Argon, taken by Wikipedia user alchemist-hp. It’s one in a series of 36 pictures taken so…

Tech News Brian Barrett Jul 19

The Most Magnetic Material Yet

Iron cobalt was the most magnetic material on Earth until physicists created what’s in this man’s hands. It’s an iron and nitrogen compound which is 18 percent more magnetic and potentially disproves theories about how magnetic a material can be. Jianping Wang, a physicist at the University of Minnesota, created the compound, but he’s actually…

Physics & Chemistry Rosa Golijan Apr 6

Your Guide to Reading on the iPad

I honestly can’t tell you what it’s like to see and touch and consume news, magazines and comics on the iPad. You just have to experience it. But I can tell you what to read to blow your mind. News, News, News Unlike the iPhone, there are a ton of ways to consume news right…

Tech News Matt Buchanan Apr 3

The Periodic Table of Sci-Fi

I think I would’ve done a lot better in 10th grade Chemistry if we’d studied the Periodic Table of Sci-Fi Film and Television. And I get the feeling I’m not the only one. Click to biggie-size. The chart was created by Kris Staub, who sells prints of this and other illustrations here. [TopatoCo via The…

Tech News Brian Barrett Mar 16

Periodic Table of Videos Makes Chemistry Extremely Watchable

Science nerds and fans of British accents rejoice! University of Nottingham scientist/professor Martyn Poliakoff and video journalist Brady Haran have put together what they’ve dubbed The Periodic Table of Videos, where each square contains a link to a video showing some fascinating facts about its element. Who knew Bismuth was so pretty (quite honestly, who…

Tech News Elaine Chow Aug 16

Are Gadgets Using Up Some Elements?

Gadgets are using up the earth’s elements. Like, the basic elements that make up all chemical matter according Armin Reller, a materials chemist at Germany’s University of Augsburg. Gallium is apparently critical for making LCDs. We’ll be out of it in a few years. Hafnium (part of Intel’s breakthrough with Penryn) will be gone by…

Gadgets Matt Buchanan Jul 7

Real Geeks Dine at a Periodic Table Table

If You Don’t Like the Names of These New Elements, Now’s the Time to Complain

Meet the periodic table’s newest official elements

Is the periodic table the law or just a good suggestion?

How copper kills flesh-eating bacteria

Geeky Restaurant Puts Their Menu Inside a Periodic Table

Mother Nature Has Her Way With a Lighthouse

10 Amazing Science Books That Reveal The Wonders Of The Universe

Not Even Captain Planet Could Extinguish These Matches

What Happens When You Mix Every Single Element Together at Once?

Why Gold Is the Perfect Element For Money

When Good Apps Go Bad

How to harvest helium

Elements: A Dropbox-Syncing Text Editor For iPads and iPhones

What Is This?

The Most Magnetic Material Yet

Your Guide to Reading on the iPad

The Periodic Table of Sci-Fi

Periodic Table of Videos Makes Chemistry Extremely Watchable

Are Gadgets Using Up Some Elements?

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