Q Were pencils ever really made with lead, or has it been graphite all along? A Stefan, when I read your question I thought, "I betcha they were once made with lead -- say, back before the 1920s. Then ...

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 ...

The British Library exhibition Writing: Making Your Mark tells the story of how writing flows through the last 5,000 years of human history. Visitors might easily pass by three little pieces of lead ...

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 ...

There are times in my life when I think back to my earliest years, those elusive memories that we sometimes call our very first. I recall a woman that was very kind and gentle and most understanding.