Nitrogen enters the body when humans consume it in their food. Even though nitrogen is not included in essential molecules such as water and glucose, it is included in the nucleic acids that make up DNA as well as in the amino acids that make up proteins. Nitrogen is only responsible for 3 percent of the human body, but that is twice as much as the next most abundant element. Carbon produces the energy humans rely on to live. It is carbon, however, that helps the molecules grow in the body. Carbon, oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen are present in all molecules. It exists in three different statesSolid, Liquid and Gas. Matter is defined as anything which occupies space. It is, therefore, necessary to be acquainted with the fundamentals of the two sister sciences. Carbon is so essential to life on Earth that living things are appropriately described sometimes as carbon-based life forms. Meaning of Living Matter: Biology seeks to explain the structure and properties of living matter in terms of physics and chemistry. In the human body, as in nature, hydrogen combines with oxygen to become water, which is essential to all life on Earth.Ĭarbon makes up 18 percent of the human body. As the very first element on the periodic table, hydrogen is assigned the number one to represent the single proton in its nucleus. Hydrogen makes up 10 percent of the human body. Hydrogen is the chemical partner that joins oxygen to create water. Water comprises approximately 60 percent of the body’s weight. You can find oxygen throughout the body in water. It aids the body in countless ways, from taking in the very breath of life to helping blood travel through the body to assist in regenerating cells. Oxygen is the only element inside the human body in its pure form. Oxygen makes up 65 percent of the human body. While 21 are considered either trace elements or major elements and are important for health, just four elements make up 96 percent of a body’s mass.
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Only 25 of these elements are considered essential to a normal human body. The human body consists of as many as 60 chemical elements.