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Brett F. Thornton and Shawn C. Burdette relate how element 100 was first identified in a nuclear weapons test, but that was classified information, so researchers had to 'discover' it again using other methods.

Alasdair Skelton and Brett F. Thornton examine the twisting path through the several discoveries of ytterbium, from the eighteenth century to the present.

From grand challenges of nineteenth century chemistry to powerful technology in small packages, Brett F. Thornton and Shawn C. Burdette explain why neodymium is the twin element discovered twice by two Carls.

Alfred Nobel's eponymous element, nobelium, was 'first' discovered either in the 1950s or 1960s, in the USSR, Sweden or the USA. Brett F. Thornton and Shawn C. Burdette delve into the ensuing decades of internecine strife over the discovery of element 102.

Brett F. Thornton and Shawn C. Burdette consider holmium's hotly contested discovery and later obscurity.

Of all the things humans can bestow names upon, new chemical elements are about the rarest. Our group of periodic table experts attempts to read the tea leaves and predict the names for elements 113, 115, 117 and 118.

Methane hydrate clogs pipelines, is difficult to extract profitably, and exists in quantities sufficient to screw up Earth’s climate. Brett Thornton and Christian Stranne consider this confounding cage compound.

A century ago this month, Frederick Soddy described and named isotopes in the pages of Nature. Brett F. Thornton and Shawn C. Burdette discuss how chemists have viewed and used isotopes since then — either as chemically identical or chemically distinct species as the need required and technology allowed.

Shawn C. Burdette and Brett F. Thornton explore how germanium developed from a missing element in Mendeleev's periodic table to an enabler for the information age, while retaining a nomenclature oddity.

Brett F. Thornton and Shawn C. Burdette look back at the discovery — and the many different names — of element 86.

When elements 117 and 118 are finally named, should these new members of the halogen and noble gas families receive names ending in -ium as IUPAC has suggested? Brett F. Thornton and Shawn C. Burdette look at the history of element suffixes and make the case for not following this recommendation.

In our very first issue, eight scientists shared their visions for how they thought chemistry would develop and now, ten years on, we have asked another group of researchers to look to the future. We also take this opportunity to look back and reflect on a decade of Nature Chemistry.

Lanthanum is the first lanthanide — or the last. Or it’s not a lanthanide at all. In any case, Brett Thornton and Shawn Burdette are sure that it’s an element that might or might not be in group three of the periodic table.

Shawn C. Burdette and Brett F. Thornton examine hafnium’s emergence from ores containing a seemingly identical element to become both a chemical oddity and an essential material for producing nuclear energy.

Scientists take nomenclature seriously, but tritium was named in a casual aside. Brett F. Thornton and Shawn C. Burdette discuss the heavy, radioactive hydrogen isotope that is available for purchase online.

Michelle Francl suggests that we should expand our view of the periodic table to new dimensions.

The United Nations has declared 2019 to be the International Year of the Periodic Table to coincide with this iconic chemical chart turning 150 years old. We join in with the celebrations by publishing a collection of articles that explore the edges of the periodic system and look at some of the elements that do — and don’t — make up the table.

At its inception, the periodic table sorted elements by weight, so it may be surprising that the heaviest natural element on Earth remains controversial, or at best, nebulous. In the strange, perhaps-unfinished search for this weightiest nucleus, the only definitive conclusion is that it lies somewhere beyond uranium.

As the International Year of the Periodic Table draws to an end, we reflect on how it has prompted chemists to explore the past, present and future of this chemical icon.