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Chemistry

Specialty Knowledge entries in Chemistry.

Pieces of nickel metal

Nickel

Nickel is the chemical element with atomic number 28 and the symbol Ni. It is a silvery metal in group 10 of the periodic table that resists corrosion even at high temperatures. Most nickel is used to make alloys such as stainless steel, and it also appears in coins, batteries and catalysts. History of nickel

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A silvery, corrosion-resistant metal with atomic number 28, used mainly in stainless steel and other alloys.

Liquid nitrogen boiling at very low temperature

Nitrogen

Nitrogen is the chemical element with atomic number 7 and the symbol N. It is a colorless, odorless gas that makes up about 78 percent of Earth’s atmosphere by volume, and it is a building block of proteins and DNA. In the air it exists as pairs of atoms, N2, that are very unreactive, so

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A colorless, odorless gas with atomic number 7 that makes up 78 percent of the atmosphere and is essential to proteins and fertilizers.

Liquid oxygen in a beaker

Oxygen

Oxygen is the chemical element with atomic number 8 and the symbol O. It is a colorless, odorless gas that makes up about 21 percent of the atmosphere by volume, and it is the most abundant element in the Earth’s crust when its compounds are counted. Most living things use oxygen to release energy from

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A colorless, reactive gas with atomic number 8 that makes up about 21 percent of air and is needed for respiration and combustion.

pH

In simple terms pH tells you how acidic or basic a water based liquid is. Lemon juice is acidic, a baking soda solution is basic, and pure water sits between them. The scale runs from 0 to 14. Seven is neutral, below 7 is acidic, and above 7 is basic, also called alkaline. How it

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pH measures how acidic or basic a water based solution is, on a scale where 7 is neutral, lower is acidic and higher is basic.

Red phosphorus powder in a small glass dish

Phosphorus

Phosphorus is the chemical element with atomic number 15 and the symbol P. It is a nonmetal in group 15 of the periodic table that exists in several different forms, the best known being white, red and black phosphorus. All living things need phosphorus, and most of the element mined today goes into fertilizer. History

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A nonmetal with atomic number 15 that exists as white, red and black forms and is essential to DNA, ATP and fertilizer.

A sample of platinum metal, element 78

Platinum

Platinum is the chemical element with atomic number 78 and the symbol Pt. It is a shiny, silvery-white metal that resists corrosion as well as gold does. Its main use is in catalytic converters for vehicles, and it also serves in jewelry, chemical manufacturing, electronics and cancer drugs. History of platinum Probably the oldest worked

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A dense, silvery-white, corrosion-resistant metal with atomic number 78, used mainly in vehicle catalytic converters and jewelry.

A sample of potassium metal in a glass ampoule

Potassium

Potassium is the chemical element with atomic number 19 and the symbol K. It is a soft, silvery alkali metal in group 1 of the periodic table that tarnishes within minutes in air and reacts violently with water. Potassium compounds are essential to living cells and are the main ingredient of many fertilizers. History of

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A soft, silvery alkali metal with atomic number 19 that reacts violently with water and is essential to living cells.

A home radon test kit

Radon

Radon is the chemical element with atomic number 86 and the symbol Rn. It is a colorless, odorless, radioactive noble gas that forms naturally from the decay of radium and uranium in rocks and soils. Radon has no stable isotopes, and the main concern about it today is that it can build up indoors and

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A colorless, odorless, radioactive noble gas with atomic number 86 that forms from uranium and radium and can build up indoors.

The open pit of the Mountain Pass rare earth mine in California, with terraced rock benches.

Rare earth elements

In simple terms Rare earth elements are a group of 17 metals: the 15 lanthanides on the periodic table, plus scandium and yttrium. They are not actually rare in the Earth crust. The difficulty is that they occur mixed together in the same ore and are hard to pull apart. How it works Because their

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Rare earth elements are 17 metals, the 15 lanthanides plus scandium and yttrium, used in magnets, catalysts, screens and alloys.

Portrait photograph of Rosalind Franklin

Rosalind Franklin

Rosalind Franklin (1920 to 1958) was an English chemist and X-ray crystallographer. Her X-ray diffraction work at King’s College London produced key evidence for the double helix structure of DNA, and she also made important studies of coal, graphite and the tobacco mosaic virus. She died of cancer at age 37. Early life of Rosalind

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Rosalind Franklin was an English chemist and X-ray crystallographer whose diffraction images gave key evidence for the double helix structure of DNA.