The big bang resulted in the Universe and created the simplest elements. But
heavier elements making up most of the Earth – and us – were created through
the birth and death of generations of stars
EVERYTHING that we see around us is made up of about 90 chemical elements.
Their discovery and identification was one of the great achievements of
chemistry in the 18th and 19th centuries. In the early part of this century,
there came a better understanding of the atoms characteristic of each element.
Negatively charged electrons appeared to “orbit” a positive nucleus, rather as
the planets go round…
