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Selenium, which is an essential element for animals and prokaryotes and is a beneficial element for many plants, is the least-common of all the elements essential to life. [3] [63] Selenium acts as the catalytic center of several antioxidant enzymes, such as glutathione peroxidase, [11] and plays a wide variety of other biological roles.
In addition to the element's name, symbol, and atomic number, each element box has a drawing of one of the element's main human uses or natural occurrences. The table is color-coded to show the chemical groupings.
See also: Carbon-based life: Fossil fuels: coal, methane and petroleum Textile industry: cellulose Metallurgy: alloys, especially carbon steel 7: N: Nitrogen 2: 15: Bacteria and archaea: nitrogen fixation by diazotrophs All forms of life on Earth: essential component of amino acids and of nucleic acids Earth's atmosphere, soil, and life forms ...
Graphic representation of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, and sulfur. CHNOPS and CHON are mnemonic acronyms for the most common elements in living organisms. . "CHON" stands for carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen, which together make up more than 95 percent of the mass of biological system
Twenty chemical elements are known to be required to support human biochemical processes by serving structural and functional roles, and there is evidence for a few more. [1] [9] Oxygen, hydrogen, carbon and nitrogen are the most abundant elements in the body by weight and make up about 96% of the weight of a human body.
Each chemical element has a unique atomic number (Z— for "Zahl", German for "number") representing the number of protons in its nucleus. [4] Each distinct atomic number therefore corresponds to a class of atom: these classes are called the chemical elements. [5] The chemical elements are what the periodic table classifies and organizes.
A trace element is a chemical element of a minute quantity, a trace amount, especially used in referring to a micronutrient, [1] [2] but is also used to refer to minor elements in the composition of a rock, or other chemical substance. In nutrition, trace elements are classified into two groups: essential trace elements, and non-essential trace ...
The s-block elements are primarily characterised by one main oxidation state, and the p-block elements, when they have multiple oxidation states, often have common oxidation states separated by two units. Main-group elements (with some of the lighter transition metals) are the most abundant elements on Earth, in the Solar System, and in the ...