Element factsthe story of each element

Real basis

• Hydrogen (H): about three quarters of the ordinary matter in the universe is hydrogen.

• Helium (He): first found in the Sun's spectrum in 1868 and only later on Earth; its name comes from the Greek for “sun”.

• Lithium (Li): the lithium observed in the universe is about three times less than Big Bang theory predicts, and this is the still unsolved “lithium problem”.

• Beryllium (Be): stars destroy beryllium in their interiors, and almost all the beryllium in the universe comes from cosmic rays smashing heavier nuclei.

• Boron (B): like beryllium, the boron in the universe comes mainly from cosmic-ray spallation.

• Carbon (C): the backbone element of all known life. For three helium nuclei to fuse into carbon, carbon-12 needs to have one special energy level.

• Nitrogen (N): about 78% of Earth's atmosphere is nitrogen, and the proteins and DNA of life cannot do without it.

• Oxygen (O): the most abundant element in the Earth's crust by mass, about 46%. In the universe, oxygen is the third most abundant element after hydrogen and helium.

• Neon (Ne): the red of neon signs comes from neon.

• Sodium (Na): sodium burns bright yellow in a flame, and the yellow light of street lamps is from sodium lamps.

• Magnesium (Mg): at the center of a chlorophyll molecule is a magnesium atom.

• Aluminum (Al): the most abundant metal in the Earth's crust, yet it was only extracted in the 19th century, and for a time it was more expensive than gold.

• Silicon (Si): the second most abundant element in the Earth's crust, and the star of both chips and sand.

• Phosphorus (P): the backbone of DNA and ATP, the cell's energy currency, both need phosphorus, which is relatively scarce in the universe.

• Argon (Ar): about 0.93% of Earth's atmosphere is argon, mostly from the decay of potassium-40 in rocks.

• Potassium (K): the potassium-40 in bananas is faintly radioactive.

• Calcium (Ca): the main component of bones, teeth and shells.

• Chromium (Cr): the red of a ruby comes from a small amount of chromium in it.

• Iron (Fe): iron nuclei are bound extremely tightly, so stellar fusion up to iron can release no more energy, and the core then collapses.

• Nickel (Ni): the Earth's core is made mainly of iron and nickel.

• Copper (Cu): one of the first metals humans smelted.

• Gallium (Ga): its melting point is about 30°C, so it melts in the palm of your hand.

• Germanium (Ge): in 1871 Mendeleev predicted its existence, calling it “eka-silicon”; it was found 15 years later.

• Bromine (Br): one of the two elements that are liquid at room temperature; the other is mercury.

• Strontium (Sr): the red in fireworks comes from strontium.

• Zirconium (Zr): zircon crystals are very durable, and the oldest mineral grains on Earth are 4.4-billion-year-old zircons.

• Technetium (Tc): the first artificial element, synthesized in 1937, with no stable isotopes at all.

• Silver (Ag): the best electrical conductor of all metals.

• Tin (Sn): an alloy of copper and tin is bronze.

• Iodine (I): the human body needs iodine to make thyroid hormones.

• Cesium (Cs): the vibration frequency of cesium atoms defines the “second” in the International System of Units.

• Barium (Ba): formed mainly in the slow neutron-capture process in the late life of low-mass stars.

• Neodymium (Nd): neodymium-iron-boron is the strongest permanent magnet available today.

• Promethium (Pm): the only lanthanide with no stable isotope.

• Europium (Eu): almost all of it comes from rapid neutron capture, and astronomers use it to trace neutron star mergers.

• Tungsten (W): the metal with the highest melting point, about 3422°C.

• Osmium (Os): the densest naturally occurring element.

• Iridium (Ir): the iridium found unusually enriched in the layer from the end of the Cretaceous revealed that asteroid impact.

• Platinum (Pt): a key material in car exhaust catalytic converters.

• Gold (Au): most of the gold on Earth probably came from neutron star mergers; most of Earth's gold sank into the core long ago.

• Mercury (Hg): the only metal that is liquid at room temperature.

• Lead (Pb): the end point of the uranium and thorium decay chains.

• Bismuth (Bi): once thought to be the heaviest stable element; in 2003 it was found to be very faintly radioactive, with a half-life more than a billion times the age of the universe.

• Polonium (Po): discovered by the Curies in 1898, and named after Marie Curie's homeland, Poland.

• Radium (Ra): discovered by the Curies, it was once added to cosmetics and drinks, and only later was its danger recognized.

• Thorium (Th): the half-life of thorium-232 is about 14 billion years, comparable to the age of the universe.

• Uranium (U): the half-life of uranium-238 is about 4.5 billion years, comparable to the age of the Earth.

• Plutonium (Pu): the heat from the decay of plutonium-238 generates electricity for deep-space probes such as the Voyagers.

• Einsteinium (Es): discovered in 1952 in the debris of the first hydrogen bomb test.

• Oganesson (Og): the heaviest known element, atomic number 118, first synthesized in 2002.

• Fluorine (F): fluoride toothpaste makes tooth enamel stronger.

• Sulfur (S): the sulfur at volcanic vents and the rotten-egg smell of hydrogen sulfide both come from sulfur.

• Chlorine (Cl): it was used as a poison gas in the First World War.

• Scandium (Sc): the “eka-boron” predicted by Mendeleev, discovered in 1879.

• Titanium (Ti): strong, light and corrosion-resistant, it is often used in artificial joints and aircraft frames.

• Vanadium (V): the blood cells of some sea squirts concentrate vanadium to a level millions of times that of seawater.

• Manganese (Mn): the core of the water-splitting site in photosynthesis, a cluster of manganese and calcium atoms.

• Cobalt (Co): at the center of vitamin B12 is a cobalt atom.

• Zinc (Zn): about 300 enzymes in the human body need zinc.

• Arsenic (As): chemically similar to phosphorus. In 2010 a paper claimed to have found a bacterium that used arsenic in place of phosphorus, and it was later refuted.

• Selenium (Se): its name comes from the Greek for “moon”, and it pairs with tellurium, named for “Earth”.

• Krypton (Kr): from 1960 to 1983 the meter was defined as 1,650,763.73 wavelengths of a spectral line of krypton-86.

• Rubidium (Rb): rubidium atomic clocks are smaller than cesium clocks, and navigation satellites carry them.

• Yttrium (Y): yttrium barium copper oxide was the first material to superconduct above liquid-nitrogen temperature.

• Niobium (Nb): the superconducting magnets of the Large Hadron Collider use a niobium-titanium alloy.

• Molybdenum (Mo): the core of nitrogenase contains molybdenum, and living things cannot turn nitrogen in the air into nutrients without it.

• Palladium (Pd): it can absorb hydrogen gas equal to 900 times its own volume.

• Cadmium (Cd): the cadmium in nickel-cadmium batteries is toxic, and Japan's “itai-itai disease” was caused by cadmium pollution.

• Indium (In): indium tin oxide is transparent and conducts electricity, and is a key material for touchscreens.

• Antimony (Sb): the ancient Egyptians drew eyeliner with a powder of antimony-containing minerals.

• Xenon (Xe): in 1962 Bartlett synthesized the first noble-gas compound, and it was made with xenon.

• Lanthanum (La): the first of the lanthanides, often found in the high-refractive-index glass of camera lenses.

• Cerium (Ce): the main component of lighter flints is a cerium-iron alloy.

• Gadolinium (Gd): the contrast agents used in MRI scans contain gadolinium.

• Holmium (Ho): holmium has the largest magnetic moment of any naturally occurring element.

• Erbium (Er): erbium-doped fiber amplifiers let optical signals cross oceans.

• Ytterbium (Yb): ytterbium optical atomic clocks are among the most accurate clocks today.

• Hafnium (Hf): chemically extremely similar to zirconium, it was not separated until 1923.

• Tantalum (Ta): corrosion-resistant, and tantalum capacitors let phone circuits be made very small.

• Rhenium (Re): discovered in 1925, the last stable element to be discovered.

• Thallium (Tl): highly toxic, once called “the poisoner's poison”.

• Radon (Rn): a colorless, odorless radioactive gas, the second leading cause of lung cancer after smoking.

• Astatine (At): there may be less than 1 gram of it in the Earth's crust at any moment, making it the rarest naturally occurring element.

• Francium (Fr): there may be only a few dozen grams of francium in the Earth's crust at any moment.

• Actinium (Ac): its intense radioactivity makes actinium glow a faint blue in the dark.

• Protactinium (Pa): the half-life of protactinium-231 is about 33,000 years, and it is used to date seafloor sediments.

• Neptunium (Np): the first transuranic element, synthesized in 1940 and named after Neptune, just as uranium was named after Uranus.

• Americium (Am): household smoke alarms contain a trace of americium-241.

• Curium (Cm): named after the Curies. Mars rovers use its alpha particles to analyze the composition of rocks.

• Berkelium (Bk): named after Berkeley, where it was discovered.

• Californium (Cf): californium-252 fissions spontaneously and releases neutrons, and is used to start nuclear reactors.

• Fermium (Fm): named after Fermi, and found, like einsteinium, in the debris of a hydrogen bomb test.

• Mendelevium (Md): named after Mendeleev.

• Nobelium (No): named after Nobel.

• Lawrencium (Lr): named after Lawrence, the inventor of the cyclotron.

• Rutherfordium (Rf): named after Rutherford.

• Seaborgium (Sg): named after the chemist Seaborg, who was still alive when it was named.

• Hassium (Hs): named after the German state of Hesse.

• Meitnerium (Mt): named after Lise Meitner, one of the discoverers of nuclear fission.

• Copernicium (Cn): named after Copernicus.

• Nihonium (Nh): synthesized at Japan's RIKEN, the first element discovered in Asia.

• Flerovium (Fl): named after Russia's Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions.

• Tennessine (Ts): first synthesized in 2010, named after the US state of Tennessee.

Related research

These studies relate to this topic but are not direct proof of this page.

• The αβγ paper: Alpher and Gamow calculated how light elements formed in the Big Bang, and Bethe's name was added to make “αβγ.”

  Source: Alpher, Bethe & Gamow, Physical Review 1948, "The origin of chemical elements"

• The atomic nucleus: Alpha particles occasionally bounced back off gold foil, and Rutherford concluded that an atom's mass is concentrated in a tiny nucleus.

  Source: Rutherford, Philosophical Magazine 1911, "The scattering of α and β particles by matter and the structure of the atom"

• B²FH: This hundred-page paper explained, step by step, how stars forge the elements of the periodic table. We are all stardust, and this is where that idea starts.

  Source: Burbidge, Burbidge, Fowler & Hoyle, Reviews of Modern Physics 1957, "Synthesis of the elements in stars"

• Hoyle's prediction: For stars to make enough carbon, Hoyle predicted that carbon-12 must have a special energy level, which experiments then confirmed.

  Source: Hoyle, The Astrophysical Journal Supplement 1954, "On nuclear reactions occurring in very hot stars. I. The synthesis of elements from carbon to nickel"

• Where gold comes from: The material thrown out by neutron star mergers contains large amounts of heavy elements. The gold on your ring probably came from such a collision.

  Source: Kasen et al., Nature 2017, "Origin of the heavy elements in binary neutron-star mergers from a gravitational-wave event"