The elements
A hitchhiker's guide to the elements. John Emsley, University of Cambridge, takes you on a tour of the Periodic Table.
Glows liquid, glow blue and grabs neutrinos
An essential element of life and lifestyle
Technetium, so unique, so useful, so universal
Cerium, the not so rare earth with down to earth uses
Needed by nerves, plants, and spaceships
Vitamin B12, blue glass and invisible ink
Standard weight and stinging nettles
Red alert
The nuclear fuel that could last 10,000 years
The noble metal that's now down at heel
A little goes a long way
The shadowy metal that shines like the Sun
The inert element with extreme behaviour
Not just another form of silver, it's pure platinum
It's lazy, it's hard working, it's colourless, it's colourful - it's argon
Wear it sparkling on your finger, zirconium is also key to nuclear energy
Once so essential, now mired in controversy
Once the destroyer of cities, magnesium is now an energy saver
Americium emits deadly radiation - but every home should have some
Colourful in the colours it exhibits, and in its chemistry and uses
A knock-out element, xenon changed chemical theory of the noble gases
Forget iron and aluminium, titanium is the metal of the future
Long neglected, indium is essential for solar cells and flat-screen TVs
Can this most vicious of elements, Fluorine, be tamed?
Seeing red? That'll be europium
Features
The intriguing chemistry of antimony, one of the earliest elements to be discovered
A look at the life and work of Russia's most famous chemist, who died 100 years ago
How Mendeleev corrected the atomic weights of In, Ce and U, and thus constructed the remarkable Periodic Table of 1871
