Introduction Chemical Life: Chemical Elements and Compounds in Biology

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Chemical Elements and Compounds in Biology
There is chemistry in biology and one that goes back to the basic building blocks of the elements that are found in nature, that form what I referred to as matter (Ravagnan, Magdalena). Every other organism in nature is composed of matter. By definition matter is anything that takes up space and has mass (Chemical Compositions of Life). At the very basic level, matter is made up of elements. These are substances, which cannot be broken down to other substances, through any chemical reaction (Chemical Compositions of Life). When these elements are combined through chemical reactions, they form compounds. The two or more elements that combine to form a compound do not transfer their properties and as such, compounds in most of the cases will have different properties that those of their elements. It is important to note that chemicals are different from mixtures as the latter are not formed from chemical reactions. In an example, when sodium combines with chlorine, they form sodium chloride (Chemical Compositions of Life). The latter is a chemically formed compound between the element sodium and chlorine.
Essential Elements of Life
There are a number of elements that are considered essential for life continuance. Out of the 92 elements, there are 25 of them that are considered to be essential. More than 96% of the living matter is made up four main elements, namely; oxygen, carbon, hydrogen and nitrogen. Much of what remains is made up of calcium, potassium, sulfur and phosphorus. These make up an estimated 4% (Chemical Compositions of Life). There quite a number of elements which occur naturally in the human body these include; magnesium, chlorine, sodium, sulfur, potassium, phosphorus, calcium, nitrogen, hydrogen, carbon and oxygen. These are listed in the order of increasing mass quantity in the body, with magnesium being the least and oxygen being the highest. There are elements that the body requires in small or rather minute quantities, these are referred to as the trace elements (Chemical Compositions of Life). The amount of trace elements found in the body are less than 0.01% and they include; boron, chromium, cobalt, copper, fluorine, iodine, iron, manganese, molybdenum, selenium, silicon, tin, vanadium and zinc.
Atoms
The basic building block of an element is the atom as mentioned earlier. These are very small and are made up of three subatomic particles. The subatomic particles include protons, neutrons and electrons. Both protons and neutrons have the same mass, however protons are positively charged while neutrons have no charge. Protons give the atom their identity, while neutrons give atoms their mass. There are very strong forces that exist between protons and neutrons, which leads to the formation of a nucleus. On the other hand, are electrons which carry a negative charge. Relative to their mass, this are much less and are only 1/1840 in mass compared to a proton. In their lightness, electrons are always in motion, within the space surrounding the nucleus (Chemical Compositions of Life). Relative to the level of activity, they determine the reactivity of the atom relative to other atoms. When an atom has equal number of prot...