As journalists, asking questions is the core of our job, whether to a search engine or to an interviewee. Often, the answers to these first questions lead us down a rabbit hole of more questions and answers, allowing us to collect a trove of information on the topic we are writing about, which we then have to sift through to find the core element. The stories in this issue embody this classic practice. With histories and explainers, the articles in The Element Issue break down a variety of broad topics both commonly reported on and generally left alone.
