One of the biggest achievements of quantum physics was recasting our vision of the atom. Out was the early 1900s model of a solar system in miniature, in which electrons looped around a solid nucleus.

Atomic orbitals exist, sort of. The lobes, spheres, and donuts familiar to many chemists are like a map of where you might find electrons around a nucleus. The geometric patterns and motifs that atoms ...

The distribution of outermost shell electrons, known as valence electrons, of organic molecules was experimentally observed for the first time by a team led by Nagoya University in Japan. As the ...

The lanthanide elements’ 4f electron orbitals are notoriously shy and retiring, and they were long thought to be unwilling partners in chemical bonding. Now chemists have brought out a surprising ...