Many of us gained our first appreciation for chemistry upon witnessing a high school teacher drop a chunk of sodium into a beakerful of water. You may think you know the explanation behind the ...

You remember the sodium demo from chemistry class: Just a small chunk of the pure metal dropped into water causes a great big flash and bang. You might even remember ...

The spectacular reaction of alkali metals with water was poorly understood — despite being a staple of chemistry classes. It’s the classic piece of chemical tomfoolery: take a lump of sodium or ...