Wonderful Life with the Elements

Aluminum

064

THE GOD ELEMENT

THAT MAKES UP THE

UNIVERSE

DISCOVERY YEAR : 1766

A special element that

doesn't fit into any

category

Suuuper

light

Multipurpose

Gaseous

It's actually

really dangerous.

Heh

The sun is

hydrogen

heaven!

Into the

light...

Hydrogen was by far the most common

element in the first few minutes after

the Big Bang, along with small amounts

of deuterium and helium. These gases

eventually formed the first stars. In a

sense, hydrogen is the element that

gave birth to all life. One of the most

basic building blocks of all life on Earth,

water, is made up of oxygen and hydro-

gen. Our bodies are also made of over

MELTING POINT

BOILING POINT

DENSITY

(GAS FORM, 0ºC)

It's also used as

rocket fuel.

Margarine is

hardened using

hydrogen.

60% water, and the double helix in our

DNA is strung together with hydrogen

bonds. So if you’re a believer, you might

want to begin praying to hydrogen. One

of the more recent application areas is

clean energy, where it might replace fos-

sil fuels. But even though it has helped

us in so many ways, try to not get on its

nerves. Hydrogen explodes if it comes in

contact with fire!

066

Children know it from funny voices and bal-

loons. This ancient element could be found

along with hydrogen minutes after the Big

Bang. And without these two, no other ele-

ments could have been formed. They are the

only two elements that are lighter than air,

so maybe they’re kind of like the leaders,

looking down on all the others? But helium,

unlike hydrogen, is one cool cookie and

doesn’t explode easily at all.

THE LIGHTHEARTED GAS

THAT RAISES OUR SPIRITS

AND OUR VOICES

DISCOVERY YEAR : 1868

MELTING POINT

BOILING POINT

DENSITY

(PRESSURIZED)

(GAS FORM, 0°C)

It becomes a

wall-climbing

liquid at -271

˚

c.

Very fluid

What? Whoa,

it slid out.

Noble gas

Gaseous

Found in zeppelins

Sound

waves

Raises the

pitch of

your voice