Chemistry
Chemistry is the science of matter and the changes it undergoes during chemical reactions. In this section, learn about everyday chemistry, from chlorine beach to helium, and even why chocolate turns gray.
The Most Expensive Metal in the World Isn't Gold or Platinum
It's Elementary: The Periodic Table Quiz
Alkali Metals: Elements in the First Column of the Periodic Table
Understanding the Empirical Formula in Chemistry
Strong Bases: Properties, Applications and Examples
Comparing Strong Acids and Weak Acids
Delta-8 vs. Delta-9: Comparing Types of THC
What Color Is the Hottest Flame?
Why Do Bubbles Pop?
Learn More / Page 2
Mass spectrometry enables the major league to sniff out athletes guilty of doping. It can also help us locate oil or design a killer perfume. Who says chemistry isn't cool?
If you were to touch dry ice, it wouldn't be anything like touching water ice. So what's it like? Is it hot or cold? And would it leave a mark?
We've all been told not to put aluminum foil in the microwave. Stories of incredible explosions and fires are usually at the center of these ominous warnings. Why is that?
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Once considered a semiprecious metal alongside gold and silver, aluminum pretty much languished in obscurity until the 19th century. How did the metal become so ubiquitous?
Imagine spending your days racked with pain or losing pound upon pound because nausea leaves you unable to eat. Now imagine that someone offers you a wonder drug to cure all your ills. The problem? It's illegal.
More than 2.3 billion people across the globe drink alcohol, but most don't consider it a drug. But if you've ever seen someone who's had too much, you know alcohol has profound effects on the mind and body.
Smoking or chewing tobacco makes many people feel good, even mildly euphoric. It's the nicotine that produces the buzz. Find out how nicotine affects the human body and what makes it so addictive.
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Biting on aluminum foil can be painful -- basically, when you bite on foil, you build a battery in your mouth. Ouch!
I recently bought a pair of mirrored sunglasses and they are already scratched. Isn't there a way to make them scratch-resistant?
We love it. We wear it glittering around our necks and sparkling at our ears, wrists and feet. We pass it down to our children and hoard it in secret stashes. Why is this precious metal so prized?
Can you pass the acid test? That electric Kool-Aid changed the fabric of 1960's American counterculture. So, what's it's like to trip on LSD?
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Mushrooms - they're not just a pizza topping. This psychotropic fungus has guided many an adventurer on a trip. How do shrooms make their magic?
We once emptied the scent pods of male musk deer into a bottle of fragrance and doused it on, feeling like a million bucks. How has perfume changed since then?
It begins with an unassuming "H" and ends in crazy elements that you've likely never heard of. But the periodic table, encapsulated on a mere sheet of paper, can be a scientist's best friend and a testament to our human drive to organize the world.
When it comes to stimulating the human central nervous system, meth can hold its shaky, toothless head high. Why is this drug so additive?
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If the idea of being completely knocked out by a cocktail of drugs while doctors operate on you freaks you out, you're not the only one. But that's not what anesthesia is all about it - and it might scare you less if you understand how it works.
About 90 percent of Americans consume some form of caffeine every day: It's our most popular drug by far. What's so special about this stimulant?
Helium balloons tend to fascinate adults and children alike (and it's not just the Donald Duck voice thing, though that is a big draw). Learn all about helium and why it floats!
Helium is the second lightest element on the Periodic Table. How is helium created?
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Discovered in the early 1800s from a chunk of smuggled platinum ore, rhodium is the most valuable precious metal on the planet today, used mainly for keeping car emissions in check.
The main function of the Krebs cycle is to produce energy, stored and transported as ATP or GTP, to keep the human body up and running.
Cadmium is a natural metal and the leading component in rechargeable batteries and solar cells. It is also highly toxic and heavily regulated.
Bismuth is a naturally occurring element with many applications in our daily lives, but even more than that, it looks amazing when it cools!
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Denatured alcohol is useful for lots of things, but drinking definitely isn't one of them.
Diatomic elements are molecules composed of only two atoms, every time, always. There are only seven of them on the entire periodic table.