“The color of the emitted light depends on the relative heights of the starting and ending energy levels. A crash between closely spaced levels (such as two and one) releases a pulse of low-energy reddish light, while a crash between… — Sam Kean Copy Share Image
“Also unlike a planet, an electron—if excited by heat or light—can leap from its low-energy shell to an empty, high-energy shell. The electron cannot stay in the high-energy state for long, so it soon crashes back down. But this isn’t… — Sam Kean Copy Share Image
“So while Pauling struggled with his model, Watson and Crick turned theirs inside out, so the negative phosphorus ions wouldn’t touch. This gave them… — Sam Kean Copy Share Image
So if big enough droplets fell far enough fast enough, someone floating right near the metallic hydrogen layer inside Jupiter maybe, just maybe, could… — Sam Kean Copy Share Image
Mendeleev, unlike the squeamish Meyer, had balls enough to predict that new elements would be dug up. Look harder, you chemists and geologists, he… — Sam Kean Copy Share Image
“Lithium regulates the proteins that control the body’s inner clock. This clock runs, oddly, on DNA, inside special neurons deep in the brain. Special… — Sam Kean Copy Share Image
“Despite the earnest belief of most of his fans, Einstein did not win his Nobel Prize for the theory of relativity, special or general.… — Sam Kean Copy Share Image
“The irony is too rich not to point out. When arranging the different human races in tiers, from just below the angels to just… — Sam Kean Copy Share Image
“Think of the most fussy science teacher you ever had. The one who docked your grade if the sixth decimal place in your answer… — Sam Kean Copy Share Image
“For his part, Mendeleev scanned Lecoq de Boisbaudran’s data on gallium and told the experimentalist, with no justification, that he must have measured something… — Sam Kean Copy Share Image
“Sir Isaac Newton famously said that he had achieved everything by standing on the shoulders of giants—the scientific men whose findings he built upon.… — Sam Kean Copy Share Image
“If certain bacteria, fungi, or algae inch across something made of copper, they absorb copper atoms, which disrupt their metabolism (human cells are unaffected).… — Sam Kean Copy Share Image
“Scarily, cadmium is not even the worst poison among the elements. It sits above mercury, a neurotoxin. And to the right of mercury sit… — Sam Kean Copy Share Image
“Somehow, though, life turned that danger around, and this former poison became essential. It may sound trite, but this reversal always reminds me of… — Sam Kean Copy Share Image
