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A large fraction of the chemical elements that occur naturally on the Earth's surface are essential to the structure and metabolism of living things. Four of these elements (hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen) are essential to every living thing and collectively make up 99% of the mass of protoplasm. [1]
"Imperial Porphyry" from the Red Sea Mountains of Egypt A waterworn cobble of porphyry Rhyolite porphyry from Colorado; scale bar in lower left is 1 cm (0.39 in). Porphyry (/ ˈ p ɔːr f ə r i / POR-fə-ree) is any of various granites or igneous rocks with coarse-grained crystals such as feldspar or quartz dispersed in a fine-grained silicate-rich, generally aphanitic matrix or groundmass.
Porphyry (geology), an igneous rock with large crystals in a fine-grained matrix, often purple, and prestigious Roman sculpture material; Shoksha porphyry, quartzite of purple color resembling true porphyry mined near the village of Shoksha, Karelia, Russia; Porphyritic, the general igneous texture of a rock with two distinct crystal ...
The important sulfur cycle is a biogeochemical cycle in which the sulfur moves between rocks, waterways and living systems. It is important in geology as it affects many minerals and in life because sulfur is an essential element (), being a constituent of many proteins and cofactors, and sulfur compounds can be used as oxidants or reductants in microbial respiration. [1]
Purple was the color of royalty, and the "imperial porphyry" was a deep purple igneous rock with large crystals of plagioclase, prized for monuments and building projects due to its hardness. Subsequently, the name was adapted to describe any igneous rocks with a similar texture. [4]
Biological fractionation is a form of kinetic fractionation since reactions tend to be in one direction. Biological organisms prefer lighter isotopes because there is a lower energy cost in breaking energy bonds. In addition to the previously mentioned factors, the environment and species of the organism can have a large effect on the ...
This makes us embarrassingly smell-deficient amateurs, but this is exactly why we rely so heavily on dogs to detect drugs, explosives, and even illnesses like cancer, diabetes, or infectious diseases.
Current organisms require redox reactions to induce metabolism and other life processes. Metals have a tendency to lose electrons and are important for redox reactions. Metals have become so central to cellular function that the collection of metal-binding proteins (referred to as the metallomes ) accounts for over 30% of all proteins in the cell.