Carolinium and Berzelium were names proposed for what were thought to be new elements supposedly isolated from a mixture with thorium (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1904, 26, 922; Science 1904, 19, 892). It was subsequently found to be a case of mistaken...

David Andrews is in the Department of Chemistry at The University of East Anglia, and works on the quantum theory of light-matter interactions. 1. What made you want to be a chemist? I had a keen interest in science from early childhood,...

I counted argon in just the way mentioned above, and helium for both the NMR and (a bit more directly) as a GC carrier gas. Now, if I count the elements only in compounds that I've made, well. . .that'll knock the list down to about 28. Some of those...

Well, wouldn't doing a reaction under Argon count as using a noble gas? And perhaps running an NMR could count for using helium. We could go further with mercury in thermometers, nickel cadmium batteries etc etc! How many different elements do we...

Lanthanides are definitely good for that - such a lot of them and with such similar sizes and 3+-ness. Stuart has now suggested that we look for the commercially available compound that features the most elements. Anyone willing to take up the challenge??