Table of Contents

What Is Elementology?

Elementology is the study of chemical elements — the fundamental substances that cannot be broken down into simpler substances by ordinary chemical means. There are 118 confirmed elements, from hydrogen (atomic number 1) to oganesson (atomic number 118), and every material object in the universe is made from combinations of these elements. Your body is roughly 65% oxygen, 18% carbon, 10% hydrogen, and 3% nitrogen by mass — just four of the 118, with trace amounts of about 20 others keeping everything running.

What Elements Actually Are

An element is defined by the number of protons in its atomic nucleus. Hydrogen has 1 proton. Carbon has 6. Gold has 79. Uranium has 92. Change the number of protons, and you change the element entirely — you’d need to add or remove protons through nuclear reactions, not ordinary chemistry.

Each element has characteristic properties — melting point, density, reactivity, color, conductivity — determined by its atomic structure. Carbon can form diamond (the hardest natural material) or graphite (soft enough to write with), depending on how atoms bond. Iron rusts in moist air. Gold doesn’t. Neon glows orange-red when electrified. These properties aren’t random; they follow from quantum mechanics and electron configuration.

The Periodic Table

Dmitri Mendeleev, a Russian chemist, published the first widely recognized periodic table in 1869. His genius wasn’t just organizing known elements — it was leaving gaps for elements that hadn’t been discovered yet and predicting their properties. When gallium (1875), scandium (1879), and germanium (1886) were discovered and matched his predictions precisely, the periodic table was established as one of science’s great achievements.

The modern table arranges elements by atomic number (left to right, top to bottom) with columns (groups) containing elements with similar chemical behavior.

Group 1 (alkali metals) — lithium, sodium, potassium — are soft, reactive metals that explode on contact with water. Their reactivity increases down the column (lithium fizzes; cesium detonates).

Group 17 (halogens) — fluorine, chlorine, bromine, iodine — are highly reactive non-metals. Fluorine is the most reactive element in the entire table — it reacts with virtually everything, including some materials that resist all other chemicals.

Group 18 (noble gases) — helium, neon, argon, krypton, xenon — are almost completely unreactive because their electron shells are full. They were called “noble” because they don’t mix with common elements (like nobility not mixing with commoners — chemistry has a sense of humor).

Transition metals — the wide middle block — include iron, copper, gold, silver, platinum, and other metals essential to industry and civilization. They’re generally hard, dense, and good conductors of heat and electricity.

Where Elements Come From

The origin story of elements is one of the most remarkable discoveries in science.

Hydrogen and helium formed in the first few minutes after the Big Bang — roughly 13.8 billion years ago. For millions of years, these were the only elements in the universe.

Elements up to iron (atomic number 26) are forged inside stars through nuclear fusion. Stars are essentially element factories — their cores crush lighter elements together under enormous pressure and temperature, producing progressively heavier elements. Our sun is currently fusing hydrogen into helium. Larger stars continue the process, producing carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and heavier elements in successively shorter-lived fusion stages.

Elements heavier than iron require even more extreme conditions — supernova explosions (the death of massive stars) and neutron star mergers. The gold in your jewelry was created in a neutron star collision billions of years ago, flung into space, incorporated into the molecular cloud that formed our solar system, and eventually mined from the Earth’s crust. Every atom of gold on Earth was forged in cosmic violence.

Synthetic elements (atomic numbers 95-118) don’t exist in nature in any meaningful quantity. They’re created in particle accelerators by smashing lighter nuclei together — sometimes producing just a few atoms that exist for fractions of a second before decaying. Oganesson (element 118), first synthesized in 2002, had a total production of about five atoms.

Elements That Built Civilization

Some elements matter more than others — not chemically, but historically.

Carbon is the basis of all known life. Its ability to form four bonds and create long, stable chains makes it uniquely suited for complex molecules. Organic chemistry — the chemistry of carbon compounds — is essentially the chemistry of life.

Iron transformed human civilization. The Iron Age (beginning roughly 1200 BC) replaced bronze with a harder, more abundant metal. Iron smelting created tools, weapons, and eventually the steel that built modern infrastructure. Global steel production exceeds 1.9 billion tons annually.

Silicon — the second most abundant element in Earth’s crust — became the foundation of the information age. Silicon’s semiconductor properties make it the material of computer chips. Silicon Valley isn’t named after a brand; it’s named after an element.

Copper has been used for 10,000 years. It conducts electricity excellently (second only to silver) and is the metal inside virtually every electrical wire in every building on Earth. Modern civilization runs on copper conductors.

Lithium — the lightest metal — has become critical for the energy transition. Lithium-ion batteries power smartphones, laptops, and electric vehicles. Demand is surging, and lithium mining has become geopolitically significant.

The Hunt Continues

Physicists theorize that superheavy elements beyond 118 might exist in an “island of stability” — a region where nuclear configurations could produce elements with half-lives of minutes, hours, or even years rather than milliseconds. Reaching this island requires technology and techniques not yet available, but the search continues at facilities including RIKEN in Japan, GSI in Germany, and the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Russia.

Meanwhile, the periodic table’s 118 entries tell a complete story — from the simplest atom (hydrogen, one proton, one electron) to the most complex confirmed structure (oganesson, 118 protons, 118 electrons). Every element has its place. Every element tells part of the universe’s story. And together, they make up everything you can touch, see, breathe, and build.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many elements are there?

As of 2024, 118 elements have been confirmed, filling seven complete rows of the periodic table. Elements 1-94 occur naturally (though some only in trace amounts). Elements 95-118 are synthetic — created in laboratories through nuclear reactions. The most recently confirmed elements (113, 115, 117, 118) were named in 2016: nihonium, moscovium, tennessine, and oganesson. Physicists continue searching for theoretical 'island of stability' elements beyond 118 that might have longer half-lives.

What is the most abundant element in the universe?

Hydrogen constitutes approximately 75% of all normal (baryonic) matter in the universe by mass and about 90% by number of atoms. Helium makes up most of the remaining 25%. All other elements combined account for less than 2% of the universe's mass. These heavier elements were produced inside stars through nuclear fusion and distributed through supernova explosions — as Carl Sagan famously said, 'We are made of star stuff.'

Why is the periodic table arranged the way it is?

The periodic table organizes elements by increasing atomic number (number of protons) in rows (periods) and groups elements with similar chemical properties in columns (groups). This arrangement reflects the underlying electron configuration — elements in the same column have similar outer electron arrangements, which determines chemical behavior. Dmitri Mendeleev first published this arrangement in 1869, predicting the properties of undiscovered elements. His predictions proved remarkably accurate.

Further Reading

• IUPAC - International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry
• Los Alamos National Laboratory - Periodic Table
• Royal Society of Chemistry - Elements