True or false: You can get lead poisoning if you’re stuck with a lead pencil. False. Lead pencils contain graphite (a form of carbon), not lead. In fact, contrary to what many people believe, lead ...

In spite of the consumer love affair with high-tech tablets and other digital devices, people are still enthusiastic about making their mark using low-tech, graphite-lead pencils. That gave pencil ...

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 ...

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 ...

School-supply lists had come in, and I sat in the store dizzied by the multitude of mechanical pencils. Rather than sink dough into something that would be thrown away within a week, I called around ...

Most of us pick up pencils—and lose them—without giving them a second thought. Pencils are a bit more interesting than you might, think, though. Here are a few not-so-frequently asked questions about ...