Vanadium was a rare metal, but for 100 years after its first discovery in 1801 no one cared—until a chemist discovered it strengthened steel.

Would you be able to walk, think, or react without a nervous system? University of Pennsylvania engineering student Sonia Roberts explores this question while building robots inspired by real animals.

By 1790 chemistry was the up-and-coming science. The products of chemistry—industrially useful salts, acids, and alkalis—would soon be measured not by the ounce (or the gram) but by the ton.

Chemist Max Bredig’s race to save family and friends from catastrophe.

A lucky streak sends a meteorologist on the flight of a lifetime.

What a manuscript can tell us about an iconic scientist and the history we’ve built around him.