Chemistry

After radioactive elements in minerals were studied, it didn’t take long for research on various kinds of radioactive decay to begin. There are three distinct kinds of radioactive decay: alpha, beta, and gamma. […]

Nuclear fusion is what transpires in the Sun and other stars. The nuclei of two hydrogen atoms fuse under extreme pressure and heat to form helium atoms. Nuclear fusion is also used in making hydrogen bombs. […]

Half-life and decay chains are two important characteristics of radioactivity. Half-life is the measure of how rapidly a collection of radioactive atoms decay, while decay chain is the connected sequence of radioactive events. […]

The amount of materials in nature seems to make one wonder if chemistry has a definitive end where everything is known about all materials because there’s a finite amount of them. But that, fortunately, isn’t the case. […]

The process of manufacturing a diamond was not fully realized for quite some time. For more than two centuries, scientists tried to figure out how to do it. The process needed what’s called phase transformation. […]

The universe wouldn’t be as fun as it is if it were a static place where no change occurred. One kind of change that happens a lot is phase transformation, transpiring when materials can change their structure when subjected to heat, pressure, or other factors. […]

Matter can transform from one state to another through the application of temperature and pressure. Such changes of state are easy to illustrate on a phase diagram. […]

Liquid materials have a constant volume but can change shape. And there are gas materials whose shape and volume just expand to whatever available volume there is. And then there’s plasma, which forms among the stars. […]

Stones, crystals, plastics, glass, and wood are all examples of solids. The difference between these materials is in their molecular structure, making them unique. […]

Van Der Waals attraction and hydrogen bond are two types of molecular bonding. They can link hundreds and thousands of molecules to one another to make different materials. […]