Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
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.
Element Per. Gr. Role(s) in nature (non-living and living) Role(s) in technology (old and new) 1: H: Hydrogen 1 1: Astronomy: source of power by nuclear fusion (proton–proton chain reaction and CNO cycle) Biology: One of the most common elements in living organisms: Petrochemical industry: hydrodealkylation, hydrodesulfurization
The remaining elements are trace elements, of which more than a dozen are thought on the basis of good evidence to be necessary for life. [1] All of the mass of the trace elements put together (less than 10 grams for a human body) do not add up to the body mass of magnesium, the least common of the 11 non-trace elements.
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 systems. [1] "CHNOPS" adds phosphorus and sulfur.
The abundance of the chemical elements is a measure of the occurrences of the chemical elements relative to all other elements in a given environment. Abundance is measured in one of three ways: by mass fraction (in commercial contexts often called weight fraction), by mole fraction (fraction of atoms by numerical count, or sometimes fraction of molecules in gases), or by volume fraction.
Phosphorus occurs in amounts of about 2/3 of calcium, and makes up about 1% of a person's body weight. [10] The other major minerals (potassium, sodium, chlorine, sulfur and magnesium) make up only about 0.85% of the weight of the body. Together these eleven chemical elements (H, C, N, O, Ca, P, K, Na, Cl, S, Mg) make up 99.85% of the body.
Get AOL Mail for FREE! Manage your email like never before with travel, photo & document views. Personalize your inbox with themes & tabs. You've Got Mail!
The ammonia molecule (NH 3), like the water molecule, is abundant in the universe, being a compound of hydrogen (the simplest and most common element) with another very common element, nitrogen. [51] The possible role of liquid ammonia as an alternative solvent for life is an idea that goes back at least to 1954, when J. B. S. Haldane raised ...