Which is your favourite chemical element? In a new series to mark the International Year of the Periodic Table, our science journalists will be arguing for their pick from the 118 known elements. In ...

Nitrogen is essential for growth and development of living things. It’s involved with almost all aspects of life: in amino acids that constitute protein, in DNA and RNA that control genetic ...

Millions of years ago, giant volcanic eruptions in what’s now Turkey and Peru each deposited millions of metric tons of nitrate on the surrounding land. That nutrient may have come from volcanic ...