A class of fifth-graders from Green Acres Elementary in Lebanon, Ore., asked us to find out how pencil lead is made. That quest took us all the way back to the dawn of the universe and then all the ...

Lead is a grey or silver-white soft metal. We've been using lead for thousands of years, because it's so useful. Unfortunately, lead is quite toxic to humans, which is why we have mostly replaced it ...

If you ever asked me to define what a pencil is, I might say “Well, it’s a writing or drawing tool with a stick of graphite ...

From sticks of graphite wrapped in string to mechanical pencils made of gold, centuries of innovation went into crafting the perfect writing utensil. The pencil isn't just for the SATs. It is the ...

Sometime between 1500 and 1565 a large graphite deposit was discovered in Cumbria, England. Because the graphite was extremely pure and solid it could easily be sawed into sticks. The graphite was ...

Humans have not set foot on the moon since Apollo 17 in 1972, but those missions are still producing surprises. An analysis of a collected rock has produced the first solid evidence for graphite, the ...