Matches, as it turns out, have been around for a long time. Sulfur-based matches are mentioned as far back as the 1200s in texts of the time, and in the 1600s a process involving drawing sulfur matches through dried phosphorus-soaked paper was devised. However, the friction matches we’re used to hav more
There are an isolated few graphics online that look at elements involved in the manufacture of a smartphone – for example, this ‘Periodic Table of iPhones’ – but there’s actually remarkably little easily accessible information out there that details the specific compounds used for specific purposes more
The latest of the element infographics looks at the Group 5 elements. There is, once again, an interesting fact that I couldn’t quite fit in, or left out at the expense of others: Bismuth-209 was long thought to have heaviest stable nucleus of any element, until 2003 when it was determined by French more