Elements are our best friends

摘要

The Periodic Table of the Elements (PTE), which was discovered by a Russian chemist Dimitri Mendeleev in 1869, is the most important and the most fundamental table in not only science but our daily life. In modern PTE, 114 sorts of the elements, given the characteristic name and the symbol of each element, are arranged, among them 90 sorts of the elements are found to occur in nature. We know that approximately 21 sorts of the elements including trace elements are essential in our daily life and health or in treatment of some disorders. The names of these essential elements have been well known, however, understanding of the significance of occurrence in living systems of these elements are limited in many people. In this article, a possible significance of the essential elements including essential trace elements is discussed on the perspective for the histories of appearance of the earth, evolution of life, and discovery of elements in human and animal bodies and fluids, as well as the deficiency of some metal elements in our daily life. On the basis of the short discussion, “elements are our best friends” is proposed in our life and health.