Periodic Table Provides Interesting, Though Grim Reminders

It’s the birthday of the man who created the Periodic Table of Elements – Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev.  A couple of things bear mentioning here.

• There is nothing in the visible universe that isn’t some combination of items on that chart that we all remember from our high school chemistry classes (though it’s been expanded since those days).

• Carbon, because of its unique structure, is capable of making more different kinds of molecules than all the others combined (thus its importance as the building block of life).

• As recently as 50 years ago, scientists had no idea that all these different elements and compounds we have in and on our Earth came to be here 4.5 billion years ago as a result of the Big Bang 9.2 billion years earlier. Originally, all matter was hydrogen, and, over time, much of it came together to form heavier atoms.

It’s all a reminder that we don’t have to concern ourselves with the health of the Earth per se; our planet will go on, happily doing its thing, regardless of how selfish and irresponsible we are.  It’s we humans who are endangered, pushing ourselves blithely along on the path to extinction.