Chemist and writer Primo Levi’s The Periodic Table—a memoir in the form of short stories about elements—closes with a chapter called “Carbon,” which tracks a single atom through time and space.

The "lead" in your pencil is misnamed. The gray stuff is actually composed of graphite, which is the stablest form of the element carbon. Its bonded atoms are arranged in planar sheets, layered on top ...

Iron is the main ingredient in various forms of iron and steel, but the various types of metals contain other elements as well. Sometimes these elements are unwanted; other times they're intentionally ...