Element 42 in our International Year of the Periodic Table series is molybdenum. Found in steel and used in lubricants in some engines, it’s also found in enzymes in our bodies that help us process sulfites in various foods.
Element 41 in our International Year of the Periodic Table series is niobium. A hypoallergenic metal, it’s found in superconducting magnets in particle accelerators, as well as in the glasses many of us wear to correct our vision.
Which element name will get you the highest score in a game of Scrabble? That’s the question that inspired this slightly frivolous graphic, which looks at how many points each of the elements’ names will bag you in the word-building board game.
Element 40 in our International Year of the Periodic Table series is zirconium. Its compounds are commonly used in jewellery to simulate diamonds, and in ceramic knives. It also finds use in nuclear power stations.
Has your local coffee shop recently switched to biodegradable cups? Or maybe your workplace canteen has made the switch to biodegradable cutlery? Perhaps the plastic packaging of your favourite magazine is now a biodegradable wrapper? You might wonder what materials are behind these biodegradable products, and exactly how much better they are for the environment than the materials they’ve replaced. Here, we explore these biodegradable plastics, and how they stack up against conventional ones.
Element 39 in our International Year of the Periodic Table series is yttrium. One of a number of elements discovered in the mines at Ytterby, Sweden, yttrium is found in camera lenses, some mock gemstones, and white LEDs.