Best known for being everyone’s favourite chemistry pun (“all the good chemistry jokes argon”), argon is the next element in our International Year of the Periodic Table series. Though it’s an invisible gas, it pops up in a number of places in our everyday lives.
Here’s element number 17, chlorine, in our International Year of the Periodic Table series with the Royal Society of Chemistry. Chlorine is essential for safe drinking water, but also has a history of use in chemical warfare.
Continuing the International Year of the Periodic Table theme, today we look at the elements we can’t live without. Which elements from the 118 in the periodic table are essential for human life, and what role do they play? See the full graphic on the C&EN site.
Element 16 in our International Year of the Periodic Table series is sulfur. Known since ancient times, but only confirmed as an element in the late 1700s, it’s responsible for a host of bad smells we encounter, and also finds uses in car tyres and gunpowder.
The latest element in our International Year of the Periodic Table series is phosphorus – essential for life, found in several forms, and the element that helps safety matches light when you strike them.
Element number 14 in our International Year of the Periodic Table series is silicon. The second most abundant element in the Earth’s crust, silicon is found in almost all electronic devices, glass, and in some lubricants.