“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 r...”

“Never underestimate spite as a motivator for genius.”

“Think of the most fussy science teacher you ever had. The one who docked your grade if the sixth decimal place in your answer was rounded incorrectly; who tucked in his periodic table T-shirt, corr...”

“Today alpha equals 1/137.0359 or so. Regardless, its value makes the periodic table possible. It allows atoms to exist and also allows them to react with sufficient vigor to form compounds, since e...”

“All the elements other than hydrogen and helium make up just 0.04 percent of the universe. Seen from this perspective, the periodic system appears to be rather insignificant. But the fact remains t...”

“When you do the math and examine how much energy is produced per atomic union, you find that fusing anything to irons twenty-six protons costs energy. That means post-ferric fusion* does an energy-...”

“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 wrong, because the density and weigh...”

“Move swift as the Wind and closely-formed as the Wood. Attack like the Fire and be still as the Mountain.”

“Feelings are real. They often become ones reality. But they are not always based on truth.”

“Once again, he became outraged that humansmore specifically his dadwould rather invest in something pointless than the people right in front of them. Would Earth still suffer and need movements ded...”