Chemical elements in the human body are interesting facts. Synopsis “The Vanishing Spoon”: how chemical elements changed human history

As we know, substances are made up of atoms. And different types of atoms are called chemical elements. In this post you will read many interesting facts about chemical elements.

There are significantly fewer chemical elements than different substances. There are only 80 stable elements (the atoms of which do not decay over time), and there are also several radioactive, but long-lived ones that are also found in nature. All the variety of substances is formed due to the fact that atoms are able to connect with each other. Positively charged nuclei of atoms, when brought closer together, attract negatively charged electrons of other atoms and because of this, a stable bond is formed between the atoms.

Atoms of chemical elements differ from each other in the number of protons in the nucleus of the atom. Protons and neutrons are held in the nucleus by nuclear forces, but electromagnetic forces try to push the protons away from each other. The more protons in a nucleus, the stronger the repulsion, so nuclei that are too large cannot exist for long. The last chemical element whose atoms are stable is lead (number 82), and the last one that occurs in nature is uranium (number 92). All known elements with high numbers were obtained artificially in nuclear reactors or accelerators. The heaviest element to date that has been obtained artificially is ununoctium (number 118). It was synthesized by Russian scientists at an accelerator in Dubna. All elements numbered 100 and above are obtained in very small quantities (sometimes only in quantities of a few atoms).

According to modern concepts, all elements heavier than hydrogen and helium were formed during the evolution of stars. The nuclei of atoms from hydrogen to iron are capable of merging with each other, releasing energy, and are gradually formed during the life of the star. But all the chemical elements whose atoms are heavier than iron, according to scientists, were formed during the explosions of supernovae or neutron stars.

The very first chemical element is hydrogen. It is the most common in the Universe, more than 90% of atoms are hydrogen atoms. But there is not much hydrogen on Earth, and the most common element is oxygen. The earth's crust contains about 50% oxygen, followed by silicon (26% by mass) and aluminum (7%).

Even pure chemical elements can exist in the form of different substances, since the atoms in them can be combined in different ways. This phenomenon is called allotropy.

example of allotropy - crystalline boron (left) and amorphous boron

Chemical elements differ greatly from each other in their ability to enter into chemical reactions. The most chemically passive elements are inert gases, especially helium. This is because their outer electron shell is completely filled. Helium and neon do not form true chemical compounds at all. Also characterized by low chemical activity are the so-called. noble metals - gold, silver, platinum and platinum group metals.

The most active chemical elements are those that easily give up or gain electrons. The most active metal is cesium, and the most active non-metal is fluorine.

Cesium is so active that it spontaneously ignites in air and explodes in water.

video - reaction of cesium with water (first rubidium is thrown into the water, and then cesium)

Fluorine is so active that it reacts with almost all known substances. Even substances such as sand and water ignite in this gas. Fluorine is so dangerous that many chemists, trying to obtain it in its pure form, died during experiments.

video - burning of asbestos and water in fluorine

video - even a brick catches fire in fluorine

Of all the chemical elements in their pure form, 11 elements under normal conditions are gases, and almost all the rest are solids. Only mercury and bromine are liquids.

In their properties, many chemical elements are somewhat similar to each other. For example, among them there are such groups as alkali metals, halogens, inert gases, etc. At the same time, almost any known chemical element is unique in some way and in some areas of application is irreplaceable. For example, titanium, on which super-strong alloys are made, is indispensable in aircraft construction. Silicon is indispensable in microelectronics. Lithium is indispensable in the production of compact batteries. Cesium is indispensable as a material for infrared sensors. Uranium is indispensable in the nuclear industry.

The human body consists of more than 30 chemical elements, without which it cannot function normally. For example, bones are made of calcium compounds, iron is part of blood hemoglobin, iodine is needed for the synthesis of thyroid hormones, etc.

The achievements of this science surround people everywhere: from medicines and non-stick frying pans to magically disappearing ink on receipts. Chemistry is difficult for schoolchildren - perhaps it is not interesting? Nothing like this! The article contains the most interesting facts about chemistry and chemists. Find out about Moscow's most famous ghost, how a grumpy wife helped invent rubber, and the main value of Iturup Island.

Dissolve and mix

Aqua regia is not the drink of monarchs, but a mixture consisting of a quarter of nitric and three-quarters of hydrochloric acids. This rich carrot-colored liquid dissolves even difficult-to-etch metals such as gold and platinum.

Acid "Royal vodka"

In 1940, aqua regia saved the Nobel medals of two German physicists: James Frank and Max von Laue from destruction. The Nazis forbade accepting this award because it was given to an irreconcilable opponent of National Socialist ideas, Karl von Ossietzky. Chemists at the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen threw the medals into a bottle of aqua regia and even placed the container in a prominent place.

The awards disappeared without a trace. Abwehr officers walked by and did not notice anything. After the war, the gold was recovered from the acid and the medals were recast.

Disappearing Spoon

“There is no spoon,” said Neo from the movie “The Matrix,” while waiting to be received by the prophetess. But even he would be surprised if the prophetess served gallium cutlery with tea and cookies.

You don't need a blast furnace to melt this metal. It is enough to heat it to 28 degrees, and it will flow. Even in your hands, gallium melts like ice cream, let alone boiling water!

The Glowing Monk and the Hound of the Baskervilles

The face of the Hound of the Baskervilles from the story was smeared with phosphorus for criminal purposes. And the Soviet academician Semyon Volfkovich, who zealously studied this element, simply neglected safety precautions. As a result, his suit and shoes became saturated with phosphorus gas.

Walking home through Moscow at night, Volfkovich emitted a mystical glow. Each time, the scientist was followed at a respectful distance by amazed people, to whom the “luminous monk” inspired both horror and curiosity.

Chemistry and ghosts

The Canterville Ghost and the many ghosts that inhabit Hogwarts are not entirely fictional. Until now, thousands of inhabitants of ancient houses and castles complain about mournful voices and mysterious steps in the dark, cannot sleep properly and are even selling their mansions.

The culprit of the nightmares has been found: it turned out to be carbon monoxide. The outdated heating design in homes of past centuries releases it into rooms in such quantities that it causes auditory and visual hallucinations.

Is it possible to walk on water

It is possible if it is not pure water, but a mixture of it with starch. If you pour such a starch suspension into a swimming pool, it will behave like a liquid. But as soon as you hit its surface sharply or even jump on it, it instantly thickens under your feet and then spreads out again. A fast running person literally makes a solid path for himself on liquid.

The fact is that the viscosity of a starch suspension depends not only on temperature, but also on the use of force. Cream behaves in the same way, thickening when whipped. But ketchup, on the contrary, deigns to flow only after hitting the bottle.

Record holders of the periodic table

The created table of elements is the alpha and omega of chemical science. There is a lot of interesting things in it, let’s look for the most unusual specimens in its cells:

• astatine is the rarest element found in nature: there is less than 1 g of it on the entire planet;
• rhenium is the rarest metal: to obtain 1 kg of rhenium, 2000 tons of ore are processed; a deposit of this metal was discovered on the island of Iturup, which, among others, the Japanese dispute with Russia;

• californium - the high cost of this radioactive element has no equal: for 1 g of the substance you will have to pay 27 million dollars;
• tungsten is a record holder for refractoriness: the temperature to melt it has to be raised above 3400 degrees;

• gold is a champion in malleability: from 1 g of gold a jeweler can draw a wire over 2 km long;
• nitrogen – the atmosphere consists of 78% nitrogen, but it is not used by any living organism except nitrogen-fixing bacteria;
• hydrogen – The Universe belongs to hydrogen, which makes up 90% of it.

How a broken flask served the aircraft industry

The French artist and chemist Edouard Benedictus in 1903 became the author of an invention that saved more than one life. That day he was conducting experiments with nitrocellulose and carelessly dropped the flask. The glass cracked, but the bottle retained its shape. However, Benedictus was so annoyed that he simply threw it away.

In the evening, the scientist witnessed a car accident. The windshield, shattered into sharp fragments, disfigured the face of the surviving driver. And a broken flask appeared before the chemist’s eyes... It was carefully removed from the trash can and served for science. This is how humanity received triplex - a material for vehicle windows, glass canopies and doors.

A grumpy wife and the birth of rubber

American chemist Charles Goodyear tried for many years to improve the properties of rubber by mixing it with various substances to no avail. The scientist's wife was dissatisfied with his work, since his invention did not bring money, and the stench in the house was quite noticeable. Goodyear was nervous and began to hide his experiences from his wife, but did not lose hope.

Once he mixed rubber with sulfur, but again nothing came of this venture. Hearing Mrs. Goodyear's steps, the scientist threw the mixture onto the hot coals of the stove, trying to pretend that he had not done anything like that. After listening to his wife's next lecture and waiting for her to leave, the inventor took out of the stove exactly what he had wanted to see for many years - vulcanized rubber.

The art of naming

The tiny Swedish town of Ytterby is mentioned four times in the periodic table. The names of the elements ytterbium, yttrium, erbium and terbium are derived from this toponym. All of them were found as part of an unusually heavy mineral, which is mined in the vicinity of the town.

Miners from Norway still worship the mountain spirit Kobold, who has the power to fill up the mines or let people go alive. When smelting silver ores in former times, poisoning often occurred, which was also attributed to the harmfulness of the mountain spirit. The metal extracted from this ore was named cobalt in his honor, although arsenic oxide was to blame for the poisonings.

The sonorous name “Amkar” of the Perm football club misleads everyone who is not familiar with the history of its creation. But this name, like a charade, consists of the first syllables of the words “ammonia” and “urea”. This is explained simply: the company that created the club produces mineral fertilizers.

A small additive – completely different properties

The German mortar "Big Bertha", created for the destruction of forts and fortresses, had a serious drawback - the legendary Krupp steel barrel was deformed from overheating. To correct the situation, it was necessary to alloy the steel with molybdenum. The largest deposit at that time was discovered in the US state of Colorado. By cunning, persuasion and even, as they say, almost by raider seizure, the path of molybdenum was paved to Germany.

The Lego constructor is one of the favorite children's toys. And the smaller its details, the more interesting it is to tinker with it. However, there is a danger that, after playing too much, the child will swallow the construction element. The game creators thought about this and added harmless barium sulfate to the plastic. Now the swallowed part is detected using x-rays.

Chemists joke

Most scientists are so tired of amateurish horror stories about GMOs that in response, chemists began to send out calls for a complete and irrevocable ban on dihydrogen monoxide. They write that this dangerous compound leads to corrosion of metals and deterioration of most other materials, and is part of acid rain and discharges from enterprises. A person into whose body dihydrogen monoxide enters inevitably dies, sometimes even after a minute.

In 2007, things came to a real curiosity: having received from voters an angry description of the terrible poison that is everywhere added to food, one New Zealand MP addressed a request to the government, demanding a complete ban on such “chemicals.” But we were talking about water.

Chemistry is our life. We ourselves consist of “dihydrogen monoxide” and tens of thousands of other substances that constantly interact with each other, giving birth to new compounds. And how many more wonderful discoveries and inventions await enthusiastic people in burnt-out robes - we’ll find out when we start using them.

We will present it in a way that everyone can understand. One of the relevant and useful questions concerns methyl alcohol.

This substance is almost impossible to distinguish from ethyl alcohol, but the effects of the former are very harmful to human health and its use can be fatal.

A very small dose of methanol can deprive a person of his vision, and drinking more than 30 ml of alcohol leads to death.

Now it becomes clear why people get poisoned when they drink low-quality alcohol. And the most amazing thing is that there is an antidote and it is ethyl alcohol.

Let's start with historical information. We are used to thinking that Mendeleev dreamed about the table of chemical elements, but one day he was asked this question, to which he clearly answered: “I’ve been thinking about it for maybe twenty years, but you think: I sat there and suddenly... it’s done.”

At what temperature do you think water freezes? At 0°C? But no. Water can turn into ice even at +20°C if it contains an admixture of methane. That is, water forms a gas hydrate with methane. Water molecules are pushed apart under the pressure of methane molecules. As a result, the internal water pressure decreases and the freezing point increases.

As a rule, they are most often obtained by accident. Charles Goodyear from America, through his carelessness, created a recipe for durable rubber. It does not crack at sub-zero temperatures and does not soften in extreme heat. His mistake was to leave a heated mixture of sulfur and rubber on the stove, a process now called vulcanization.

The Lego children's construction set is made of plastic containing barium sulfate.

This salt is absolutely harmless to the body and does not dissolve in water. Moreover, it is well determined by X-rays, so the part swallowed by the baby can be easily found by taking a picture.

Do not miss! Interesting facts about Moscow

There are interesting facts about chemistry related to the plant world. As you know, plants are protected from strong exposure to ultraviolet rays and heavy rainfall, but this is not their only natural feature. They are able to protect themselves from animals and insects with the help of specific odors and enzymes that they secrete when they see danger. In this way, plants can even kill the animal that eats them.

It’s unlikely that everything can be covered in a short article, so we will briefly look at its most important elements.

• It is difficult to imagine that the human brain carries out 100,000 chemical reactions per second;
• Residents of the United States are adding a chemical element to the gas pipeline with a distinct smell of rotten meat. This is necessary in order to quickly detect a leak, since vultures flock to this smell;
• About 90% of all atoms in the Universe are occupied by Hydrogen;
• Gold is not such a rare metal as we think; there is enough of this metal in the earth’s crust to cover the entire surface of the planet;
• Technetium (Tc) is used to detect bone cancer using x-rays;
• Triiodine nitride NI3 is a very dangerous explosive. Its temperature may rise even if a fly lands on it, resulting in an explosion.
• Many elements and substances of chemistry were discovered by accident, and antibiotics are no exception. Alexander Fleming accidentally left a test tube containing staphylococcus bacteria unattended. This led to the rapid proliferation of mold fungi, which began to destroy the bacteria. After this, Fleming received penicillin.

Don’t leave science unattended, because we contain the entire periodic table; learning interesting facts about chemistry means learning something new about yourself.

The closest subject of chemistry is the study of homogeneous substances, from the composition of which all the bodies of the world are made, their transformations into each other and the phenomena accompanying such transformations.

— DI. Mendeleev

For all chemistry lovers, site editors Self Hacker, I have prepared a small selection of interesting facts about chemistry.

Let's start with one of the pressing issues that concerns chemistry as a science.

In what case can ethyl alcohol serve as an antidote?

Methyl alcohol is indistinguishable from ethyl alcohol in taste and smell, but its effect on the body is much more threatening to our health. Even a small amount of methanol can lead to blindness, and a dose of 30 ml can lead to death.

This explains the frequent cases of methyl alcohol poisoning, either due to ignorance or in the case of drinking counterfeit alcohol. It is interesting that in the case of such poisoning, the antidote is ordinary, that is, ethyl alcohol. This is due to the fact that the processes of binding both alcohols in the body occur with the participation of one enzyme - alcohol dehydrogenase, but since the reaction with ethanol occurs faster, the result is much less harmful products of the breakdown of methanol in the blood.

We invite you to watch a video of how polystyrene foam is produced - it’s interesting and informative.

Hydrogel for healing fractures, a well-deserved invention in the chemical industry.

Bioengineers at Rice University have created a hydrogel that instantly changes from a liquid to a semi-solid state at temperatures close to human body temperature, and then breaks down at a suitable rate. The gel can be used as support for broken bones or other tissues in the patient's body. At room temperature, the hydrogel remains liquid, but when it enters the patient’s body, it hardens and fills the empty space, which will later be replaced by natural tissue.

The hydrogel can also be used to deliver stem cells to skeletal defects, which should cause accelerated bone tissue regeneration. After performing its functions, the gel decomposes and is excreted from the body. The authors of the discovery expect that the gel can be tuned so that its rate of degradation corresponds to different rates of bone growth.

And now Interesting Facts in chemistry that you definitely didn’t know:

• For example, when we cut an onion and “cry”, the merit of these fictitious emotions belongs to the sulfur that is absorbed into the soil where the onion grows.
• In the province of Indonesia there is a volcano completely filled with sulfur, which is called Kawa Ijen. It settles on the pipes, after which workers knock it down with fittings and carry it for weighing. This is how they earn their living there.
• Hygienic “products” based on sulfur created specifically for cleansing problematic skin from acne and rashes.
• Earwax, which we have been taught to remove since childhood with cotton swabs, “poisons” life with noble intentions. It contains special lysozyme enzymes; They are the ones who “keep out” all bacteria from entering our body.

• In 1985, a group of American and English researchers discovered molecular compounds made of carbon that strongly resemble a soccer ball in shape. They wanted to name the discovery in honor of him, but scientists did not agree on which term to use - football or soccer (the term for football in the USA). As a result, the compound was named fullerenes in honor of the architect Fuller, who came up with a geodesic dome composed of tetrahedra.
• The French chemist, pharmacist and physician Nicolas Lemery (1645-1715) at one time observed something similar to a volcano when he mixed 2 g of iron filings and 2 g of powdered sulfur in an iron cup and touched it with a hot glass rod. After some time, black particles began to fly out of the prepared mixture, and the mixture itself, having greatly increased in volume, became so hot that it began to glow.
• The separation of fluorine gas from fluorinated substances turned out to be one of the most difficult experimental problems. Fluorine has exceptional reactivity; and often its interaction with other substances occurs with ignition and explosion.
• Iodine was discovered in 1811 by the French chemist B. Courtois. There is such a version of the discovery of iodine. According to it, the culprit of Courtois's discovery was his beloved cat: he lay on the chemist's shoulder while he was working in the laboratory. Wanting to have fun, the cat jumped onto the table and pushed the vessels that were standing nearby onto the floor. One of them contained an alcohol solution of seaweed ash, and the other contained sulfuric acid. After mixing the liquids, a cloud of blue-violet vapor appeared, which was nothing more than iodine.
• 100,000 chemical reactions occur in the human brain in one second
• In 1903, in the American state of Kansas, a gas fountain suddenly erupted from an oil well. To the great surprise of the oil workers, the gas turned out to be non-flammable. A new meeting with him took place during the First World War. A German airship dropping bombs on London is hit by an incendiary shell, but the airship does not burst into flames. Slowly leaking gas, he flew away. The secret services of England were alarmed: before this, German airships exploded when hit by shells, as they were filled with hydrogen. Chemical experts recalled that long before the war, German ships for some reason carried monazite sand from India and Brazil as ballast. This gas was helium. Monazite sand, which has long been the main helium-bearing raw material, contains the radioactive element thorium, the decay of which produces helium, which in density is second only to hydrogen, but has an advantage over hydrogen: it is non-flammable and chemically inert.

This concludes our interesting facts about such science as. If you know interesting facts from the field of chemistry, then write them to us in the comments and we will definitely add them to our list.

“The Vanishing Spoon” is a classic, no longer so often found under piles of all kinds of non-fiction science fiction. This book could have been a classic "Entertaining Chemistry" in the Soviet years. It contains two layers skillfully mixed. The first is a fascinating, enthusiastically written and scientifically based collection of chemical facts for curious high school students who want to go beyond the textbook, but equally interesting for adults who have forgotten the school curriculum, including humanities students who are wary of numbers and formulas. The second is a history of science written casually. Various scientists and Nobel Prize laureates appear on the pages every now and then - there was a place here for almost all the great chemists (and many physicists), and disparate stories add up to the overall picture.

20 Amazing Facts About Chemical Elements

Helium (He, No. 2) as an eternal battery

If mercury is cooled in liquid helium to –268 degrees, then this system becomes an ideal conductor. This means that if it were possible to maintain such a temperature of helium in gadget microcircuits, then their batteries would completely stop discharging. And if you lower the temperature by another 2 degrees, helium acquires the property of superfluidity and gets rid of gravity - it can flow upward and flow through walls.

Antimony (Sb, No. 51) as a laxative

Ancient Egyptians used antimony as a facial cosmetic. And in the Middle Ages, toxic antimony pills were swallowed as a laxative. They were considered so precious that they were sometimes removed from their own excrement to be reused. In some families, reused antimony tablets were passed down through generations. Currently, antimony is used to make strong acids that can burn through glass.

Gallium (Ga, No. 31) as a soluble spoon

Gallium is two rows below aluminum and in its normal state is similar to the most abundant metal on earth. However, the peculiarity of gallium is that it melts at only 28 degrees. A popular joke among chemists is connected with this: guests are sometimes served gallium spoons with tea, and then watch their amazement when an ordinary-looking spoon dissolves in a cup of freshly brewed tea.

Iridium (Ir, No. 77) as a key to dinosaurs

Iridium is an element that helped scientists solve the mystery of the death of dinosaurs. It all started with the accidental discovery of this fact: in a narrow layer of limestone formed 65 million years ago, the iridium content is 600 times higher than its normal level. Iridium usually comes to the surface of the Earth only during volcanic eruptions, but in addition, it is contained in large quantities in meteorites arriving on Earth. Since the discovered pattern can be traced throughout the Earth, scientists have suggested that 65 million years ago the planet was covered by a cloud of iridium dust for some reason. The most likely reason for this is a collision with a huge meteorite, which was confirmed by the subsequent discovery of a huge crater in Yucatan.

Molybdenum (Mo, No. 42) as a weapon

The least known battles of the First World War are associated with molybdenum. The barrel of the famous German “Big Bertha” cannon, which fired for many kilometers, was strengthened with molybdenum so that it would not bend from overheating after salvos. Molybdenum was scarce and most of it was mined from a remote mine in the US state of Colorado. Having learned about this, representatives of the American office of the German concern Krupp literally seized the mine in battle, to which few people paid attention: times in the Wild West were still harsh - and such behavior was considered the norm. The Allies came to their senses only at the end of the war, when they realized why the Germans needed Colorado molybdenum so much.

Tantalum (Ta, No. 73) as the cause of the civil war

Tantalus became an indirect culprit of chaos and anarchy in the whole country. The fact is that until the 90s of the 20th century, the demand for tantalum on the world market was minimal, but in just a few years it became gigantic - tantalum is used in every mobile phone. It so happens that this metal is distributed extremely unevenly across the Earth, practically its only source is the territory of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, but there is so much tantalum ore there that any peasant can dig up an amount of it in a day on the river that he would not earn in a year by growing bread. As a result, a real tantalum fever began in the Congo, the inhabitants of the country abandoned their farms and rushed for tantalum - after this, famine began in the country, and power passed to rival criminal authorities, who took control of tantalum mining. The tantalum anarchy in the Congo has killed millions of people since the mid-1990s.

Cobalt (Co, No. 27) as a brake on the arms race

The cobalt isotope cobalt-60, produced in a nuclear reaction, is one of the longest-lasting elements on earth in terms of radiation exposure. During the arms race, this stopped technologists from creating a cobalt bomb, since in the territory that would be hit by this bomb, not only all living things would die, but also any forms of life would disappear for decades. Chemist Leo Szilard calculated that it would be enough to spray a gram of cobalt-60 onto every square kilometer of the earth's surface for all of humanity to be destroyed.

Technetium (Tc, No. 43) as an elusive element

The forty-third element has become the most elusive element in the periodic table. When the table first appeared, some cells in it remained blank - it was clear that there should be a certain element there, but it was not possible to find it. Claims for the presence of the forty-third element appeared more often than any other, and all of them turned out to be false: each time it was a mixture of other elements. It was truly discovered only by Italian chemists in the 30s, using new technology: not sifting ore to the smallest particles, but nuclear fusion. This new approach explains its name.

Cadmium (Cd, No. 48) as a Japanese phobia

Cadmium is responsible for the terrible diseases of people living in the area of ​​the Japanese Kamioka mine. Precious metals have been mined in this place since ancient times, and cadmium began to be produced at the end of the 19th century. The element was poorly known to scientists, and the waste was simply thrown away, after which it penetrated into groundwater. After some time, surrounding residents began to complain of terrible pain. The cadmium that entered the body literally crushed their bones into powder. Japan developed such a strong fear of cadmium that even decades after the poisoning outbreak, the script for the film Godzilla stipulated that the monster was killed using cadmium rockets.

Bismuth (Bi, No. 83) like a rainbow crystal

Bismuth is a whitish-pinkish metal that burns with a blue flame and emits yellow smoke. It is one of the few substances that expands when frozen. Water has the same property, but among the elements this is the rarest case. If there is a bismuth sea on some planet, then bismuth ice floes can float (and not sink) on it. It should look luxurious: frozen bismuth forms extraordinary rainbow funnel-shaped crystals, a favorite decoration of geologists.

Copper (Cu, No. 29) as an enemy of bacteria

Copper, which is safe for humans, is toxic and harmful to bacteria. If they encounter copper, they absorb copper atoms, which disrupt the metabolism of these organisms and ultimately kill them. That's why copper water pipes became the simplest method of disinfection and dramatically improved public health in the cities where they were introduced, and why door handles are often made of brass, which remains clean of bacteria no matter how many unwashed hands touch it.

Nitrogen (N, No. 7) as an invisible killer

The air we breathe is 4/5 nitrogen, and this gas can be more insidious than any toxic poison. The fact is that the human body, when exposed to pure nitrogen (such reservoirs, for example, are found in mining mines), does not understand that something is wrong. Nitrogen is colorless and odorless; it seems to a person that he continues to breathe - until he falls dead from suffocation due to the lack of oxygen.

Tellurium (Te, No. 52) as a deodorant

Tellurium smells like garlic. More precisely, of course, the opposite. Moreover, with such force that if you pour a small pinch onto the skin, you will not be able to get rid of the smell in any way for several weeks. Hello to Vladimir Sorokin.

Yod (I, no. 53) as the savior of newborns

Iodine is very toxic, but in small quantities a person needs it for normal development. That is why, along with fluoridation of tap water (after which people began to live to old age with healthy teeth), one of the largest and simplest health measures taken by humanity was salt iodization. After this, birth defects and mental retardation began to appear in a much smaller number of newborns.

Polonius (Po, no. 84) as a metaphor for the history of Poland

Radioactive polonium was discovered by Marie Skłodowska-Curie and named it after her native Poland, which was then divided between three empires. She hoped that this would inspire her compatriots to fight for independence. However, this option turned out to be very unsuccessful. Curie also discovered radium, which became a widely used element and vital to industry. Polonium turned out to be almost useless, and it decays so quickly that Curie's caustic colleagues saw in this a connection with the country for which it was named: Poland, which was constantly divided among its neighbors, seemed as unstable as polonium. Thus, Curie's patriotic message was turned on its head.

Europium (Eu, No. 63) as a protection for banknotes

Europium, on the contrary, is extremely aptly named: it is what is used in euro banknotes to protect against counterfeiters. It is very difficult to obtain europium, which is why the euro is considered the best protected currency - a counterfeit banknote will be instantly identified by a special device in any bank by the lack of glow that europium atoms emit.

Tin (Sn, No. 50) as powder

Tin has a rare property: at low temperatures, its crystalline structure changes and the solid metal turns into powder. This unaccounted for property ruined the expedition of Robert Scott, who lost the race to the South Pole to Roald Amundsen in 1912. The canisters of kerosene they left in the middle of the road were sealed with tin solder. The expedition hoped to use this fuel on the way back. However, on the spot, Scott's men discovered that the cans were empty: the solder had crumbled into powder and the precious fuel had leaked. All members of the expedition died from frostbite before reaching the British base.

Lithium (Li, No. 3) as a cure for mental disorders

One of the first elements on the table is an incredibly reactive metal. There have been cases where people's pockets caught fire when a short circuit occurred between the lithium batteries they contained and other metal objects, such as keys. But even more interesting is the effect of lithium on humans. Without playing any role in the body itself, lithium can act very effectively in the brain, “resetting” the biological clock. This property of lithium is effective in the treatment of manic-depressive psychosis and other mental illnesses - a person seems to leave the past behind and is ready to start over with a clean slate, getting rid of the phantoms of his own psyche.

Cesium (Cs, No. 55) as a universal clock

Thanks to cesium, terrestrial scientists were able to create a universal system for measuring time, reasonably reasoning that tying the definition of a second to the time of revolution of a tiny planet around a tiny star on a galactic scale is not very correct. Therefore, periods were taken that were universal for any point in the galaxy, namely events at the level of microparticles. Astronomical clocks were replaced by much more accurate atomic clocks. In this logic, a new definition of a second was found - this is not 1/86,400 of the time the Earth rotates around its axis, but the time during which an electron in the outer orbital of a cesium atom makes 9,192,631,770 vibrations. And no more hesitation.

Feynmanium (#137) as the very last element

This element does not exist either in nature or in chemical laboratories. Scientists have not yet even reached the 120th element, and synthesizing the 137th is not even a matter of the next decades. However, this hypothetical element appears in theoretical chemistry already now, because the periodic table should end with it. Feynmanium will be the last - an element with a larger nucleus simply cannot exist, since in this case the electrons around it must rotate faster than the speed of light, and this is impossible. At least that's what modern science thinks. The name of the hypothetical Feynmanium was given in honor of the physicist Richard Feynman, who first pointed out this possible limit.

• Publishing house "Eksmo", Moscow, 2015