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What naturally-occurring elements are the most worthless or not helpful for the creation and sustainence of life? (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

20 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Also: are the most conducive

oxygen
hydrogen
nitrogen
carbon

all 21 comments

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I mean, you could start almost at the very top.

Skip hydrogen which is an obvious need and we're right at something that's not particularly helpful with either the creation or the sustenance of life. Helium has advanced use in MRI machines, and is fun in party balloons and squeaky voice tricks, but we got by for millennia without any of that. Relatively harmless otherwise, but not necessary.

Lithium? It does find itself in biological places often in place of more important things like sodium or potassium, but it's neither necessary nor completely worthless, I guess.

My vote, though, for the worst of the top of the periodic table: Beryllium. Toxic. No biological function except to cause problems. Helps make pretty crystals, but the same is true of lots of less harmful elements. In that sense then, completely worthless.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

Seems like we use berlyium in a lot of things.

What is beryllium?

Beryllium is a metal that’s used in the manufacturing of dozens of products, including cars, computers, golf clubs and electrical equipment. Beryllium is light, non-magnetic, and a good conductor of heat and electricity, which is why it’s so common.

https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/13807-beryllium-disease

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Polonium is definitely near the top of the list.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Neon

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago

All the noble gases imo.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Most of the heavy metals (yes, that includes the radioactive ones)

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago (3 children)

All the radioactive ones maybe?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

I forgot almost immediately that I asked for worthless lol

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago

My question is genuine though, I'm not biophysics expert, I know there are radioactive elements in our body, but are they worthless? Probably the least meaningful to sustaining life would be least reactive elements if that makes sence, but life is more about energy of chemical reactions between molecules, not individual elements

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

That's more a question of semantics (and dosage I suppose). Radioactive elements can be therapeutic if used properly in a hospital (X-ray scan, radiation treatment for cancers, etc...).

More to the point, radiation spurs mutation. Mutation 99.9% of the times is bad, but that 0.1% chance of a beneficial mutation is a major driver of evolution. So in a way radioactive elements help create new 'forms' of life via speciation.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Lead's gotta be up there in terms of net negative impact on us as a whole.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

Definitely in the lead [whacky races cat wheezing laugh]

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

Lead is still used in god damn everything. Its unfortunate but it's so cheap, and so useful, how could industry resist?. The res a good chance the pipes you have in your house and used by your city are lead, you shower pan likely had a lead sheet backing, lead is also use for tons of electrical connections. Even copper pipes are likely to be soldered together with lead. Lead is also used to heat treat steel parts, which is used in everything.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Gold? I don't think any life uses it for sustenance outside of technological and sociological applications.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago

As an counter example as something that you may not think of as therapeutically relevant, there are a whole class of Platinum based anti-cancer drugs.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Arsenic.

Source: I watched Evolution.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Arsenic helped a lot of people before divorce was common

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Wait, how?

Did people give each other arsenic offerings as an expression of wanting to divorce like marriage bread is to marriage?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago

No I was making a lighthearted quip about poisoning one's abusive husband

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

Rubidium.