This post is the first in a three-part series on how living creatures use the elements of the periodic table. Learn more about the elements on NOVA's two-hour special, "Hunting The Elements." When you ...

Which is your favourite chemical element? To mark the International Year of the Periodic Table, our science journalists will be making the case for their pick from the 118 known elements. In this ...

(Phys.org)—A team of researchers from several institutions in Japan has conducted experiments with results that indicate that silicon is likely the missing element in Earth's core. The group gave a ...

Foremost among silicon's distinguishing features is that, quite simply, there is a hell of a lot of it. After oxygen, it's the second most abundant element in the Earth's crust -- but don't expect to ...

Somehow, even without silicon, this star was surrounded by dust. The dust grains were made almost entirely of iron. This has ...

Recent research showed that, although long neglected by ecologists, silicon is in fact beneficial for the growth of many plants, including major crops such as rice, wheat and barley. Researchers have ...