Understanding Important Elements in the Periodic Table

The periodic table is a treasure trove of information about the elements that make up our world. It's a table that's arranged in a way that shows the relationships between elements, and it's a crucial tool for chemists and scientists.

Hydrogen is the lightest and most abundant element in the universe, making up about 75% of its elemental mass. It's also highly reactive, which is why it's often used as a fuel source.

The periodic table is organized into rows called periods and columns called groups. This helps scientists understand how the elements are related to each other and how they behave in different situations.

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Life requires a specific set of elements to thrive, and the most fundamental ones are carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, and sulfur (CHNOPS). These six elements form the basis of all life chemistry and macromolecules.

The cell's composition varies from 65-90% water by weight, with hydrogen being a major component. Cells also contain a significant amount of nitrogen, making up 96-98% of most cells along with CHNOPS.

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Here are the essential elements for all life, organized by their presence in different domains of life:

Life requires only a selected subset of atomic elements, and the major macromolecules of the cell are composed almost entirely of six elements: C, H, N, O, P, and S.

These elements are the foundation for life, but other elements are required to provide cofactors for catalysis and an appropriate chemical environment for cell function.

The cell is defined by a lipid membrane, commonly a phospholipid bilayer, that is studded with essential transport and signaling proteins.

Enzymes play a crucial role in life processes, degrading nutrients to provide energy and assembling cell constituents.

The biocentric periodic table of elements (Figure 1) organizes elements into five classes based on their importance in biology: essential for all life, essential for many organisms, essential or beneficial for many organisms, beneficial, and of no known beneficial use.

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The elements essential for all life are CHNOPS, as well as K, Mg, and Zn, which are crucial for cell function and metabolism.

In environments with limited water availability, microbial life is still present, but growth is slow and biomass is limited.

Microbes have adapted to these environments in various ways, such as colonizing spaces within rocks and accessing water adsorbed from the atmosphere through deliquescence.

Water is essential for sustaining life, and limiting access to water can prevent food spoilage.

The Earth's upper crust contains 78 naturally occurring elements of defined abundance, with a decline in abundance from lighter to heavier elements reflecting the pattern in interstellar gases that condensed to form our solar system.

Here is a summary of the essential elements for all organisms:

Phosphorus (15P) is a stable isotope of phosphorus. It has 15 protons and 15 neutrons in its atomic nucleus.

Monovalent Cations (1) are highly soluble, and one of them, potassium (K), is essential for all organisms. Potassium is the sole element in group 1 that is required for growth.

The most abundant element in group 1, sodium (Na), is not required for growth of many organisms, and is therefore classified as class (iii).

Potassium is required for humans, and its specific chemical properties in key biochemical reactions may be the reason why early evolving cells chose it as the major intracellular monovalent cation.

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Calcium (20Ca) is a common rock-forming element, making up 4.15% of crustal material by weight.

It's abundant in the ocean, with a concentration of ~10 mM.

Calcium is essential for many enzymes and plays a beneficial role in biological systems.

It can occasionally be substituted with other cations, but it's a crucial element for various biological processes.

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As we gaze into the future, we're faced with the possibility of living in cities that are almost entirely made of glass and steel. The concept of vertical farming, where crops are grown in vertically stacked layers, could become a reality, allowing for more efficient use of space and resources.

By 2050, it's estimated that over 70% of the world's population will live in urban areas. This will put a strain on resources and infrastructure, making sustainable living a top priority.

The rise of driverless cars and hyperloops could revolutionize transportation, making it faster, cleaner, and more efficient. We might see the return of the classic concept of the "city within a city", where entire communities are self-sufficient and sustainable.

As technology advances, we can expect to see more emphasis on renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind power. This will not only reduce our reliance on fossil fuels but also help mitigate climate change.

The future of work could be shaped by the increasing use of artificial intelligence and robotics, potentially leading to a universal basic income.

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The Milky Way galaxy is a vast and complex system, and understanding its structure is crucial to grasping its many mysteries. The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE) have mapped the galaxy's life stages across its vast expanse.

The SDSS/APOGEE data reveal that the Milky Way is a barred spiral galaxy with a central bulge and a disk of stars, gas, and dust. The galaxy's disk is home to a diverse array of star clusters, including globular clusters and open clusters.

These star clusters are like cosmic time capsules, preserving the history of star formation and evolution within the galaxy. The age and chemical composition of these clusters provide valuable insights into the galaxy's life stages.

Astronomers have identified several distinct populations of stars within the galaxy, including red giant stars, blue horizontal branch stars, and asymptotic giant branch stars.

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You know how sometimes you see big, bold text on a webpage, like a title? That's called a text header, and there are six different types of them: h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, and h6, with h1 being the topmost heading and the largest text.

Best SEO practices actually recommend having only one h1 tag per page, so you want to make sure you're using it wisely.

Text headers help organize your content and make it easier to scan, which is especially important for long articles or websites with a lot of information.

Life relies on a variable subset of chemical elements, and the roles of many elements are still unknown.

The simplest questions often are the hardest to answer, and one of the most basic questions is: What is the minimum set of elements essential to sustain life?

We can start by looking at the core macronutrients that are required for all known life on Earth, which are six in total and account for >99% of all elements in the human body.

These six macronutrients, known as CHNOPS, are the major building blocks of all life, and cells require them to grow and function.

Macronutrients are the building blocks of life, and there are six of them: Carbon (C), Hydrogen (H), Nitrogen (N), Oxygen (O), Phosphorus (P), and Sulfur (S). These elements make up the bulk of our cells and are essential for all living things.

The major macromolecules of the cell, such as DNA, RNA, and proteins, are composed almost entirely of these six elements. In fact, CHNOPS account for 96-98% of most cells.

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These six elements are often referred to as the CHNOPS macronutrients. They are the foundation for all life, and without them, life as we know it would not be possible.

Here's a breakdown of the essential roles of each CHNOPS macronutrient:

In addition to these six essential macronutrients, there are other elements that are necessary for life, but in smaller amounts. These are known as micronutrients.

Let's take a closer look at Table 2, which breaks down the importance of various elements in the periodic table.

Sodium (Na) is essential for animals, but its requirement varies in plants.

Boron (B) is beneficial for some organisms, particularly in supporting biomineralization in selected organisms.

Chlorine (Cl) is essential for both plants and animals.

Bromine (Br) is beneficial for some species, especially in multicellular animals for collagen formation.

Lithium (Li) has beneficial effects on mood in humans, but its relevance to natural settings is not established.

Rubidium (Rb) may have a sparing effect on potassium nutrition, but its relevance in nature is not shown.

Strontium (Sr) is beneficial for some species, particularly in supporting biomineralization in selected organisms.

Barium (Ba) is beneficial for some species, particularly in supporting biomineralization in selected organisms.

The lanthanide group of elements (Ln) may have beneficial roles in some organisms, particularly in supporting chemolithotrophy as electron donors or acceptors.

The actinide group of elements (An) can support chemolithotrophic growth.

Titanium (Ti) is beneficial for some species, particularly in supporting biomineralization in selected organisms.

Vanadium (V) is beneficial for some organisms, particularly in supporting nitrogen fixation.

Tungsten (W) is beneficial for some organisms, particularly in replacing molybdenum-dependent functions.

Cadmium (Cd) is a cofactor for carbonic anhydrase in some marine diatoms.

Silicon (Si) is beneficial for some species, particularly in supporting biomineralization in selected organisms.

Arsenic (As), Antimony (Sb), and Tellurium (Te) can support chemolithotrophic growth.

Fluorine (F) is beneficial for some organisms, particularly in synthesizing secondary metabolites.

Iodine (I) is beneficial for some organisms, particularly in synthesizing secondary metabolites and thyroid hormone production in animals.

Aluminum (Al) is postulated to be a beneficial element for plants.

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Elemental economy is a clever way cells adapt to limited resources. It's like having a backup plan to ensure survival.

Cells can suppress the synthesis of cellular constituents rich in the limiting element, which is a strategy to reduce demand. This helps them conserve resources.

Organisms can also encode two related enzymes that differ in their required metal cofactor, with the alternative enzyme induced when the cofactor for the dominant element is absent. This is a great example of acclimation.

Some organisms have genetically encoded adaptations that facilitate their survival in environments chronically depleted of specific elements. For example, phytoplankton from oceanic regions chronically deficient in P have replaced most of their membrane phospholipids with sulfolipids.

Life requires six macronutrients (CHNOPS) as the major building blocks. These are the essential elements we need to focus on.

Cells can replace one element with another as a way to adapt to elemental limitation. This is a clever strategy to ensure survival in resource-scarce environments.

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Divalent Cations play a crucial role in our bodies. They're present in biological systems as divalent cations, with magnesium and calcium being the most common.

Magnesium and calcium are abundant in the ocean, with concentrations of ~52 mM and ~10 mM, respectively. These two cations are essential for many enzymes.

Only strontium and barium, among the other group 2 elements, have beneficial roles in biological systems.

Lanthanides are a group of 15 metallic elements that play a crucial role in various biological processes. They are found in the periodic table from atomic number 57 to 71.

Lanthanides, specifically Lanthanum (La), Cerium (Ce), Praseodymium (Pr), Neodymium (Nd), and Samarium (Sm), have been found to be beneficial for certain microorganisms, known as methylotrophs, which metabolize methane or methanol as an energy source.

These elements can even be essential for the growth of methylotrophs, which is a significant discovery in the field of biology.

Ln elements function as cofactors for methanol dehydrogenase (MDH) proteins, which are key enzymes in the metabolism of these microorganisms.

Transition metals are a group of elements that play a crucial role in many everyday applications. They are known for their ability to form ions with different charges, which makes them versatile and useful in a wide range of industries.

Many transition metals are also highly reactive, which is why they're often used in catalytic converters to reduce emissions in vehicles. This is because they can easily change their oxidation state to facilitate chemical reactions.

Some examples of transition metals include iron, copper, and nickel, all of which are essential for human health and are found in small amounts in various foods.

Scandium is the smallest of the REEs, and many organisms can adsorb or bioaccumulate it.

Scandium can stimulate the production of microbial secondary metabolites, such as amylase and bacilysin in B. subtilis, and antibiotic expression in Streptomyces spp.

In fact, Sc stimulates the production of amylase and bacilysin in B. subtilis, and promotes antibiotic expression in Streptomyces spp.

These effects of Sc may result from stress responses induced by exposure to a toxic element.

Yttrium is chemically similar to the Ln elements and has been used in medicine for imaging compounds and radiotherapy.

Yttrium has no known biological roles, but it's found in nature as the Y isotope, and 8 radioactive isotopes can be generated with half-lives from hours to months.

These radioactive isotopes are used in medical imaging and radiotherapy.

Titanium is an abundant element in the Earth's crust, making up the 9th most abundant element at 5650 ppm.

It's largely present in insoluble oxides that limit its bioavailability, but levels as high as 100 μM have been noted in hot springs.

In seawater, the levels of Ti are exceptionally low at 4 pM.

Some marine species accumulate Ti to a high level, and TiO2 appears to play a structural role in some marine organisms in place of silica, SiO2.

Biomineralized TiO2 has been reported in diatoms and some foraminifera, and diatoms in culture conditions can produce mineralized cell walls with up to 80% TiO2 by weight when supplemented with Ti and limited for Si.

TiO2 is very effective at absorbing ultraviolet radiation, which may contribute to its beneficial role in some organisms.

Ti metal is also used in medicine due to its ability to bind well with bone and its biocompatibility, and TiO2 nanoparticles have been adapted for photodynamic therapy in the treatment of cancer.

Some bacteria have recently been found to liberate Ti from TiO2 minerals and incorporate the released Ti into their metallome.

Vanadium (23V) is the 20th most abundant element in the Earth's crust, making up 120 parts per million (ppm) of it.

It's found in seawater at a concentration of around 30 nanomoles per liter (nM).

One of the key roles of vanadium is to allow the synthesis of an alternative nitrogenase when molybdenum (Mo) is unavailable.

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Vanadium-dependent enzymes have been described, although they are a small set.

A rich history of vanadium biochemistry has been documented, and it's even been suggested that vanadium may be essential for some species.

Vanadium is often present as an oxyanion called vanadate, which is the cofactor for a family of vanadium-dependent haloperoxidases (VHPOs) in marine algae and some bacteria.

These enzymes play a beneficial role in generating volatile organohalogen compounds in marine systems.

Vanadium is accumulated to high levels in certain marine invertebrates, such as sea squirts, where it's found in complex with specific binding proteins called vanabins.

Despite the presence of these binding proteins, the physiological role of vanadium in sea squirts remains unclear.

Some bacteria can use vanadate as an electron acceptor in dissimilatory respiration.

Vanadium is considered a beneficial element for at least some species, although its potential benefits for humans are still a topic of debate.

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Molybdenum (42Mo) is a transition metal in the d-block of the periodic table.

It has an atomic number of 42, which means it has 42 protons in its atomic nucleus.

Molybdenum is a hard, silver-white, and metallic element.

It's highly resistant to corrosion and has a high melting point of 4610 K.

This makes it a great material for high-temperature applications, like furnace parts and heat exchangers.

Molybdenum is also an essential trace element for humans, playing a key role in many biological processes.

However, excessive intake of molybdenum can be toxic, leading to health issues like diarrhea and liver damage.

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Manganese (25Mn) is the 12th most abundant element in the Earth's crust, making up 950 parts per million (ppm) of the planet's soil.

Mn is a class (ii) element, meaning it's widely used in biology across various organisms. Its essential role in oxygenic photosynthesis makes it a crucial element for photosynthetic bacteria and eukaryotes, including all plants.

The oxygen-evolving complex within photosystem II contains a complex metal cofactor (Mn4CaO) that removes electrons from water and is responsible for generating virtually all the oxygen in our atmosphere.

In plants, Mn functions as a cofactor for numerous enzymes, with nearly 400 enzymes potentially containing Mn, but only around 20% confirmed to be active with Mn as a cofactor.

Mn is a required element for animals and many microbes, with key roles in human biology as enzyme cofactors for MnSOD, arginase, glutamine synthetase, and glycosyltransferases.

In humans, Mn deficiency is rare, but excess can cause neurological effects known as manganism.

Bacteria vary in their preference for metalating enzymes with Mn or Fe, with some relying heavily on Mn and others on Fe, and even individual enzymes can function with either metal.

Iron (26Fe) is a transition metal that's essential for life on Earth. It's the most abundant transition metal in the Earth's crust, making up about 5% of the planet's soil.

Iron's unique properties allow it to form compounds with many different elements, including oxygen, which is why it's so common in rocks and minerals. The most well-known iron compound is iron oxide, also known as rust.

Iron is also highly reactive, which makes it useful for a wide range of applications, from cooking utensils to car parts. In fact, iron is the primary metal used in steel production, which is a key component of many modern buildings and vehicles.

Iron's reactivity also means it can be toxic in large doses, which is why it's essential to consume iron in moderation.

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Let's dive into Cobalt (27Co), a transition metal that's really interesting. It's a hard, silver-white, ferromagnetic metal with a melting point of 1495°C.

Cobalt is often used in magnets because it's ferromagnetic, meaning it's capable of being magnetized. This property makes it super useful for applications like electric motors and generators.

Cobalt is also a key component in the production of lithium-ion batteries, which power many of our electronic devices. Its unique properties help to improve the battery's energy density and lifespan.

In its pure form, Cobalt is a bit toxic, but it's often alloyed with other metals to make it safer for use in various applications. This process also makes it more resistant to corrosion.

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Nickel (28Ni) is a transition metal that plays a crucial role in many organisms.

It's essential for plants and beneficial for many Bacteria and Archaea, with Ni-enzymes being most widely used in anaerobic Bacteria and Archaea.

In most organisms, there are only a handful of Ni enzymes, nearly all of which mediate reactions that generate or consume biologically relevant gases like CO, CO2, CH4, H2, NH3, and O2.

Nickel enzymes are incredibly common in Bacteria, found in nearly 60% of analyzed species, including representatives of most Bacterial phyla.

In Archaea, Ni enzymes are even more common, found in 83% of genomes, and include enzymes like urease, Ni-Fe hydrogenase, carbon monoxide dehydrogenase, and methyl-coenzyme M reductase.

Urease is the most common Ni-dependent enzyme in Eukarya, found in 32% of species, and is particularly important in fungi and plants.

Nickel is also a cofactor for glyoxalase I, an enzyme that breaks down the toxic metabolite methylglyoxal.

In some marine diatoms, Ni is important for the enzyme NiSOD, which helps reduce Fe demand by supplanting FeSOD.

The human pathogen Helicobacter pylori relies heavily on Ni-dependent urease to moderate local pH in the acidic environment of the stomach.

Zinc (30Zn) is a transition metal that plays a crucial role in many biological processes. It's essential for immune function and wound healing.

Zinc is a relatively abundant transition metal, making up about 0.01% of the Earth's crust.

Technetium and Rhenium are two of the heavier group 7 elements. Technetium is radioactive and doesn't occur naturally on Earth, with the longest-lived isotope having a half-life of 4.2 million years.

The very low level of technetium on Earth comes from the decay of uranium, not from stellar nucleosynthesis. This process has left essentially no technetium remaining from the formation of our solar system.

One metastable technetium isotope is widely used in medicine due to its short half-life and low energy gamma emission. It's used in many imaging procedures.

Rhenium, like technetium, is also one of the rarest elements on Earth. It's formed through mergers of neutron stars, an intrinsically rare event.

Technetium salts can be reduced by microbes, offering a potential mechanism for bioremediation of technetium-contaminated sites.

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The platinum metals are a group of elements that are rare and highly reactive. They're found in the Earth's crust, but not in their pure form.

Ruthenium and osmium, in particular, are toxic to both microbes and mammalian cells. This is a unique property that sets them apart from other metals.

The platinum metals are also known for their ability to form toxic complexes, which can be medically useful. For example, cis-platin is a cancer chemotherapy medication that's derived from platinum.

Some bacteria can even reduce rhodium to the metal, which can aid in bioremediation and metal recovery. This process is a promising area of research for recovering valuable metals from waste streams.

Palladium and platinum can also be subject to microbial reduction, which may prove useful in biologically-mediated recovery of these metals.

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The elements in groups 7 to 12 are all metals of industrial relevance, but they're not commonly used in biology.

Cadmium (Cd) is the only element in this region with a beneficial role in nature, classified as class (iv).

The other elements in this region, like the heavier metals, are classified as class (v) and have no documented beneficial role.

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Heavier Metals are indeed metals of industrial relevance, but they're not typically used in biology. This group includes elements like cadmium (Cd), which has a beneficial role in nature.

Cadmium is the only element in this region of the periodic table with a documented beneficial role, classified as class (iv). The others are class (v), with no known beneficial role.

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Strontium (Sr) is an element that's often found alongside calcium in certain minerals. Strontium and barium have beneficial roles in several organisms.

Strontium is commonly co-mineralized with calcium in CaCO3 or CaPO4 biominerals. This means it's often found in the same places as calcium.

Corals will precipitate calcium and strontium as carbonates in a ratio proportional to their presence in seawater. This ratio is also dependent on ambient temperature.

The strontium to calcium ratio can serve as a measure of temperature in paleoclimatology. This is because the ratio changes with temperature.

Some protists, like Radiolaria, use strontium to form skeletal structures. These structures are made of celestite, a mineral composed of strontium sulfate.

The class Acantharea of Radiolaria are defined by exoskeletons composed of celestite.

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Barium (56Ba) is a fascinating element that plays a crucial role in the natural world, particularly in the ocean. Barite, a mineral form of barium, is denser than other minerals like celestite and calcite.

Barite is used in gravity-sensing statoliths in some freshwater green algae and planktonic flagellates, which helps them maintain their balance and orientation in the water. These statoliths are usually around 1 μm in diameter.

In the freshwater ciliate Loxodes striatus, barite statoliths are enclosed in membrane-bound vacuoles and attached by a ciliary stick. This allows the cell to regulate its cilia activity and reorient itself in response to changes in its environment.

Barite precipitates are most common in marine systems, despite the very low concentrations of barium, suggesting an active and selective biological concentration mechanism is at play.

Uranium (92U) is a naturally occurring element, comparable in abundance to tin, found at 2.9 ppm in the crust. It's also found bound to proteins at low levels in some species.

Uranium has a unique property as an external electron acceptor in some bacteria, which makes it beneficial for their growth. This is especially true for gram-negative bacteria like Shewanella and Geobacter.

The conductive pili of Geobacter are essential for extracellular reduction of uranium, which reduces its accumulation within the cell. This is a crucial aspect of their ability to thrive in environments with uranium.

A thermophilic, gram-positive bacterium called Thermoterrabacterium ferrireducens can even use uranium as a growth stimulator, increasing its growth rate by ~2.5-fold.

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Tungsten (74W) is one of the densest naturally occurring elements, with a density of 19.3 g/cm3.

It has a high melting point of 3422°C, which makes it extremely resistant to heat and wear, a property that's utilized in its industrial applications.

Tungsten's high melting point is due to the strong electrostatic attraction between its atoms, which requires a lot of energy to overcome.

This makes tungsten an ideal material for high-speed cutting tools, wear-resistant parts, and filaments in incandescent light bulbs.

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Tungsten's high density also makes it useful for applications like radiation shielding and high-temperature furnace components.

Its high melting point and density also make it difficult to machine and shape, requiring specialized tools and techniques.

Tungsten's unique combination of properties makes it a valuable material in various industries, from aerospace to automotive.

Silver and Gold are two precious coinage metals with significant technological relevance. Silver has been valued for its antimicrobial properties, with bacterial mechanisms for resistance including exporters that pump toxic silver ions from the cytosol.

Silver can be used to generate silver nanoparticles, which have various developing uses in medicine. These nanoparticles are created when certain bacteria reduce silver to its metallic form.

Some bacteria and fungi can reduce silver to generate silver nanoparticles. This process has a number of developing uses in medicine, including potential applications in the future.

Gold, on the other hand, can be reduced to metallic gold by certain bacteria, such as Burkholderia contaminans.

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Cadmium is a metal that's primarily known for its toxicity. It's extremely good at binding to sulfur-containing metabolites and cysteine-rich proteins, often with toxic results.

In animals, cadmium can induce the expression of metallothionein, a protein that helps bind to cadmium and mitigate its toxicity. However, it's worth noting that cadmium has no beneficial role in animals.

But here's the interesting part: cadmium has been found to be a biologically relevant cofactor for some carbonic anhydrases in marine microbes. This means that it can help these microbes sustain their metabolism even in zinc-depleted regions of the ocean.

Mercury, on the other hand, has no known beneficial role in biology. In fact, it's primarily known for its toxicity, and many microbes work to detoxify it by reducing it to more volatile metallic mercury or by methylation.

It's worth noting that cadmium can also substitute for zinc in other proteins, at least in a lab setting. However, this is not known to occur in cells and is of uncertain biological relevance.

Gallium (31Ga) is not known to have a beneficial or nutrient role in biology and is therefore a class (v) element. It forms a trivalent ion that can replace Fe in some contexts and thereby interfere with Fe metabolism.

Gallium can be bound to siderophores to serve as antimicrobials that interfere with Fe metabolism. This strategy has shown promise in targeting pathogens that access heme iron.

Gallium nitrate (Ga(NO3)3) has antibacterial activity and has shown promise in the clinical treatment of Pseudomonas, a common lung-associated pathogen in cystic fibrosis patients.

Bismuth (83Bi) is a low-abundance heavy metal present in the crust at levels of 8.5 parts per billion (ppb).

It's actually more abundant than gold, but less than selenium. This metal has a long history, being one of the earliest discovered.

Bismuth was once considered the heaviest stable element in the periodic table until 2003. Its natural isotope does decay, but at an extremely slow rate, with a half-life longer than the age of the universe.

Chemically, bismuth has properties similar to thorium and lead, but with less toxicity. This makes it a safer option for certain medical applications.

Bismuth subsalicylate is commonly used to treat gastrointestinal distress and as an anti-diarrheal. Other formulations have been developed to target problematic Helicobacter pylori infections.

Metalloids and Nonmetals are two distinct groups of elements that exhibit unique properties. They are found on the periodic table, with metalloids located on the border between metals and nonmetals.

Metalloids, like Boron, Silicon, and Germanium, have properties that are intermediate between metals and nonmetals. They are semi-conductors, meaning they can conduct electricity under certain conditions.

Nonmetals, such as Oxygen, Nitrogen, and Fluorine, are highly reactive and do not conduct electricity. They are essential for many biological processes, including respiration and photosynthesis.

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Boron (5B) is an essential element for plants, where it's a critical constituent of cell walls. It's particularly adept at coordination to vicinal hydroxyl groups, allowing the formation of complexes between B and polysaccharides in plant cell walls.

Boron is widely used as a soil amendment, and the pathways of borate uptake and transport are well studied. B is present largely as boronic acid in the ocean, at concentrations of ~4-5 ppm, and is conditionally essential for some marine organisms.

Early studies documented that the cyanobacterium Nostoc muscorum becomes chlorotic when grown with low levels of B. This highlights the capacity of microbes to scavenge needed elements from seemingly recalcitrant sources.

The cyanobacterium Anabaena sp. PCC 7119 also exhibits a loss of chlorophyll content under B-deficiency, although this may be a secondary result of a defect N2 fixation.

The Carbon Group is a fascinating group of elements, and let's take a closer look at what makes them unique.

Carbon, or C, is the only element in this group that's widely used by cells.

Silicon, or Si, is very important for some microbes that use it for biomineralization.

Germanium, or Ge, tin, or Sn, and lead, or Pb, are noted for their toxicity and are class (v) elements.

Tellurium (52Te) is one of the rarest elements in the lithosphere, with an abundance of 0.001 ppm, making it a scarce resource.

Tellerium can adopt oxidation states ranging from −2 to +6, with the most common ions being +6 (tellurate, TeO4) and +4 (tellurite, TeO3).

High levels of Te are present near some deep sea hydrothermal vents, where microbes from this extreme environment respire using dissimilatory tellurate and tellurite reduction.

Genomic studies suggest that this mode of energy generation is a common feature in this unusual environment and is found in diverse genera including Shewanella, Pseudomonas, and Vibrio spp.

The tellurite anion (TeO3) can be toxic to microbes, possibly due to imposition of oxidative stress.

Genes implicated in resistance to Te are associated with efflux, methylation, the production of volatile compounds, or reduction leading to the formation of a black Te precipitate.

The formation of Te nanoparticles often occurs in the cytoplasm, and likely depends on glutathione as a reductant.

Although most biological transformations of Te ions seem to be directed at detoxification, Te is of clear physiological benefit to some Bacteria from extreme environments such as deep sea hydrothermal vents.

We assign Te as a class (iv) element, indicating its unique properties and behavior in biological systems.

Halogens are a group of elements that play a crucial role in our biology. They include fluorine, chlorine, bromine, and iodine, with fluorine being the most abundant in the Earth's crust.

Fluoride is a component in many minerals and can substitute for hydroxide anion, but its abundance in seawater is relatively low due to its ability to be incorporated into calcium carbonate minerals. This is especially true in ocean waters where biomineralization plays a significant role in the depletion of fluoride.

Chlorine, on the other hand, is the most important halide in cell physiology and is essential for many organisms, including humans. Bromine, while less abundant, is also essential for animals, particularly in the assembly of collagen fibers.

The Oxygen Family is a group of elements that are pretty interesting. Group 16 includes oxygen, sulfur, selenium, tellurium, and polonium.

Oxygen is an essential non-metal that makes up a big part of our air. It's also a key component of water, which is vital for life.

Sulfur is another non-metal in this group, and it's often found in volcanic regions. It's also used in the production of matches and fireworks.

Selenium is a nutrient metalloid that's important for our health. It's used in some foods and supplements to support our immune systems.

Tellurium is a metalloid that's not very well known, but it's sometimes used in semiconductors and other electronic devices.

Polonium is a metal that's not very relevant to our everyday lives. It's actually a byproduct of uranium decay and is highly radioactive.

Fluorine (9F) is not known to be essential for any organism, but it can have beneficial roles in some Bacteria, plants, and animals.

In human biology, fluorine helps strengthen the apatite mineral that makes up tooth enamel, which decreases dental caries.

Fluorinated natural products are still exceptionally rare, and the benefit to the organism is often not obvious.

Dietary sources of F can include tea, seafood, fluoridated toothpaste, and drinking water.

Fluoride toxicity has been documented in animals, plants, and microbes, and many Bacteria and Archaea have evolved specific defense systems for the export of fluoride.

These defense systems, known as fluoride export systems (FEX), have been documented in three model fungi and in plants.

Our understanding of the elements and their roles in living systems is constantly evolving. New beneficial roles are being discovered, and elements once considered critical are now deemed less important.

Elements of Life is a web-based resource that provides an accessible platform for exploring the biological role of elements. It's a moderated, public database that's available at https://elementaleconomics.wixsite.com/website.

The website features a periodic table that categorizes elements by class, making it easy to understand their significance. Elements are grouped into five categories: essential for all life, essential for many organisms, beneficial for many organisms, beneficial for some species, and of no known beneficial use.

Viewers can click on the essential and beneficial elements to learn more about each element's major functions in biology, environmental and health impacts, and notable elemental sparing mechanisms. This resource is a great educational tool for anyone interested in the fascinating intersection between chemistry and biology.