Steam power, neon lights, refrigeration—harnessing gases changed the world. Mike Jay reviews “Caesar’s Last Breath: Decoding the Secrets of the Air Around Us” by Sam Kean.

Burning wood at electrical generating facilities instead of fossil fuel could help fight global warming—at least in theory. But it’s far from a black-and-white issue in practice; it’s time to take a ...

Ever since Jan Baptista van Helmont covered his willow-tree pot with an iron lid to prevent dust from contaminating his experiment — he wanted to weigh the change in soil mass as the plant grew ...

In 1634, Jan Baptist van Helmont was arrested by agents of the Spanish Inquisition for the crime of studying plants and other phenomena. While under house arrest, he started to consider how plants ...