What caught my eye was the oscillation in the abundancy graph, there is a tendency for even atomic number elements to be more abundant than odd atomic number elements. Looking at the original Wikipedia article leads to the Oddo-Harkins rule <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oddo%E2%80%93Harkins_rule" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oddo%E2%80%93Harkins_rule</a>. There is more discussion on the stability of even vs odd atomic number elements here: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Even_and_odd_atomic_nuclei" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Even_and_odd_atomic_nuclei</a>. From the latter link, roughly 60% of stable nuclei have an even number of protons and an even number of neutrons. Only 2% have an odd number of protons and an odd number of neutrons.<p>It would be nice if someone could explain any of the exceptions to the Oddo-Harkins rule, such as the dip at atomic number 44, Ruthenium.
What are the six most common elements in the universe?<p>H, He, C, N, O, Ne<p>What are the four most common elements in living cells?<p>H, C, N, O<p>(We invited the noble gasses to play, too, but they said something along the lines of, "Go away you peasants you'll mess up our perfect orbitals.")
As for lithium (the third-most abundant element after the Big Bang, at 0.00000001% of nuclei), it so happens I was just reading the James S. A. Corey novel <i>Cibola Burn</i> where it plays a role:<p>"People used to think gold was worth fightin' over, and that shit gets made by every supernova, which means pretty much every planet around a G2 star will have some. Stars burn through lithium as fast as they make it. All the available ore got made at the big bang, and we're not doin' another one of those. Now <i>that's</i> scarcity, friend."
Nice read, and pretty neat periodic table.<p>PS: People might also like "Atomic Physics and Human Knowledge"[0] by Niels Bohr. It's a quick read (less than 60 pages).<p>[0]: <a href="https://archive.org/details/AtomicPhysicsHumanKnowledge" rel="nofollow">https://archive.org/details/AtomicPhysicsHumanKnowledge</a>
I've always wondered how elements produced in past stars end up in our solar system. I wouldn't think the whole universe is getting remixed all the time. It seems like areas stay pretty isolated.
(Maybe it was XKCD that gave me the idea?) But I remember thinking it interesting that humans are the chemical/physical process that creates those highest elements.