Most metals share a lot of properties, such as being good conductors of heat and electricity. Non-metals often have the opposite properties. For example, they are usually poor conductors of heat ...

The observations which led Beilby to formulate his famous conception of the vitreous nature of this layer were not, however, confined to metals, but had also been made with non-conducting crystals ...

Converting methane into more useful and readily transportable compounds has previously required the use of metal-based oxo catalysts, but now sulfur and phosphorus are showing their mettle.