Química

For millions of years, nature has basically been getting by with just a few elements from the periodic table. Carbon, calcium, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, phosphorus, silicon, sulphur, magnesium and potassium are the building blocks of almost all life on our planet (tree trunks, leaves, hairs, teeth, etc.). However, to build the world of humans — cities, healthcare products, railways, aeroplanes and their engines, computers, smartphones — we need many more chemical elements.

The combination of chemical elements of each species is called elementome and, like the genome, varies from one species to another according to evolutionary proximity and environmental conditions. Studying the elemental composition of living beings is a tangible, simple and universal method that allows us to relate each species with its position and function in nature.