Physicists have filled in some longtime blank spaces on the periodic table, calculating electron affinities of the lanthanides, a series of 15 elements known as rare earths. Physicists at Michigan ...

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 ...

Chemistry’s eye-catching arrangement of elements has undergone many changes since its inception in the mid 1800s. To this day, scientists seek to improve it. Cody Cottier is a freelance journalist for ...

Electrons in atoms occupy energy levels, also called electron shells, outside the nucleus. Different shells can hold different maximum numbers of electrons. The electrons in an atom occupy the lowest ...

In the wee hours of the late 17th century, Isaac Newton could be found locked up in his laboratory prodding the secrets of nature. Giant plumes of green smoke poured from cauldrons of all shapes and ...

Learn all about the 118 combinations of protons, neutrons and electrons that make up our world. Whether hung on classroom walls, put up in dorm rooms or screen-printed on T-shirts, the periodic table ...

Recognize these rows and columns? You may remember a detail or two about this mighty table’s organization from a long-ago chemistry class. Elements are ordered according to their number of protons, or ...

In their momentary life span, atoms of lawrencium, element 103, may have left a lasting impression on the structure of the periodic table. For the first time, researchers have measured a basic ...

For now, they're known by working names, like ununseptium and ununtrium — two of the four new chemical elements whose discovery has been officially verified. The elements with atomic numbers 113, 115, ...