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All change is explained by the arrangement and rearrangement of these four elements. The various forms of life are caused by an appropriate mixture of elements. [46] Democritus (460 BC) was an atomist; he thought that the essential characteristic of life was having a soul (psyche), and that the soul, like everything else, was composed of fiery ...
Selenium, which is an essential element for animals and prokaryotes and is a beneficial element for many plants, is the least-common of all the elements essential to life. [ 3 ] [ 63 ] Selenium acts as the catalytic center of several antioxidant enzymes, such as glutathione peroxidase , [ 11 ] and plays a wide variety of other biological roles .
The ancient Greek concept of four basic elements, these being earth (γῆ gê), water (ὕδωρ hýdōr), air (ἀήρ aḗr), and fire (πῦρ pŷr), dates from pre-Socratic times and persisted throughout the Middle Ages and into the Early modern period, deeply influencing European thought and culture.
All 11 are necessary for life. The remaining elements are trace elements, of which more than a dozen are thought on the basis of good evidence to be necessary for life. [1] All of the mass of the trace elements put together (less than 10 grams for a human body) do not add up to the body mass of magnesium, the least common of the 11 non-trace ...
Pancha Bhuta (/pəɲt͡ʃəbʱuːt̪ᵊ/ ,Sanskrit: पञ्चभूत; pañca bhūta), five elements, is a group of five basic elements, which, in Hinduism, is the basis of all cosmic creation. [1]
Different elements can combine to form compounds such as water, which is fundamental to life. [32] Biochemistry is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms . Molecular biology is the branch of biology that seeks to understand the molecular basis of biological activity in and between cells, including molecular ...
"The brines provide an environment in which elements and simple organics could have combined to form more complex prebiotic organics on the pathway to life," said geologist Tim McCoy, curator of ...
The cell is the basic structural and functional unit of all forms of life. Every cell consists of cytoplasm enclosed within a membrane; many cells contain organelles, each with a specific function. The term comes from the Latin word cellula meaning 'small room'. Most cells are only visible under a microscope.