According to the definition of an organic chemical, nitrogen need not apply; carbon is the essential ingredient. Yet nitrogen is found in all proteins and in many other important organic substances such as protoplasm, the living material in plant and...

Nitrogen is the first element in Group 15 of the periodic table. The elements that make up this group are sometimes known as the nitrogen family, after nitrogen itself. Nitrogen has an atomic number of 7, an atomic mass of 14.0067, and a chemical...

Comprising about 78% of the earth's atmosphere, nitrogen (N2) has an atomic number of seven and an atomic weight of 14. It has a much lower solubility in water than in air—there is approximately 200 times more nitrogen in the atmosphere...

Nitrogen waste is a component of sewage that comes primarily from human excreta and detergents but also from fertilizers and such industrial processes as steel-making. Nitrogen waste consists primarily of nitrates and nitrites as well as compounds of...

Nitrogen (pronounced /ˈnaɪtrədʒən/) is a chemical element which has the symbol N and atomic number 7. Elemental nitrogen is a colorless, odorless, tasteless and mostly inert diatomic gas at standard conditions, constituting 78.1% by volume of...

Ammonia is the principal source of fixed nitrogen. It was produced by 17 companies at 34 plants in the United States during 2003. Fifty-three percent of U.S. ammonia production capacity was centered in Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas because of their large reserves of natural...

World nitrogen supply and demand were out of balance in calendar year 1999 and market prices and industry profitability fell. The nitrogen business is cyclical. During the last few years, additions to worldwide nitrogen supply have outpaced the growth in demand. US nitrogen producers...

The next time you fire up the grill for an all-American cookout, take a minute to consider Trinidad and Tobago as you gnaw on your hamburger or corn on the cob. The tiny, natural gas-rich Caribbean islands lie just off Venezuela. Over the past decade...

I read pretty much all of At Large and At Small in one sitting, slightly hung over, lying around in bed on a Saturday morning. When I’m reading a collection of essays by a pronounced journalist (Fadiman being the former editor of The American Scholar),...