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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]
Carbon is the 15th most abundant element in the Earth's crust, and the fourth most abundant element in the universe by mass, after hydrogen, helium, and oxygen. Carbon's widespread abundance, its ability to form stable bonds with numerous other elements, and its unusual ability to form polymers at the temperatures commonly encountered on Earth ...
Carbon (from Latin carbo 'coal') is a chemical element; it has symbol C and atomic number 6. It is nonmetallic and tetravalent—meaning that its atoms are able to form up to four covalent bonds due to its valence shell exhibiting 4 electrons. It belongs to group 14 of the periodic table. [13] Carbon makes up about 0.025 percent of Earth's ...
The most known chemical elements whose covalent combinations make up most biological molecules on Earth. [2] All of these elements are nonmetals.. In animals in general, the four elements—C, H, N, and O—compose about 96% of the weight, and major minerals (macrominerals) and minor minerals (also called trace elements) compose the remainder.
The main elements that comprise the human body (including water) can be summarized as CHNOPS. Element Symbol percent mass percent atoms Oxygen O 65.0 24.0 Carbon C 18.5 12.0 Hydrogen H 9.5 62.0 Nitrogen N 2.6 1.1 Calcium Ca 1.3 0.22 Phosphorus P 0.6 0.22 Sulfur S 0.3 0.038 Potassium K 0.2 0.03 Sodium Na 0.2 0.037 Chlorine Cl 0.2 0.024 Magnesium Mg
Element Per. Gr. Role(s) in nature (non-living and living) Role(s) in technology (old and new) 1: H: Hydrogen 1 1: Astronomy: source of power by nuclear fusion (proton–proton chain reaction and CNO cycle) Biology: One of the most common elements in living organisms: Petrochemical industry: hydrodealkylation, hydrodesulfurization
This glossary of biology terms is a list of definitions of fundamental terms and concepts used in biology, the study of life and of living organisms.It is intended as introductory material for novices; for more specific and technical definitions from sub-disciplines and related fields, see Glossary of cell biology, Glossary of genetics, Glossary of evolutionary biology, Glossary of ecology ...
Biological carbon fixation, or сarbon assimilation, is the process by which living organisms convert inorganic carbon (particularly carbon dioxide, CO 2) to organic compounds. These organic compounds are then used to store energy and as structures for other biomolecules .