The elements in biology

Life is sometimes thought of like a 'carbon chemistry', but approximately 25 elements are necessary for life. It is general to divide these into main elements and trace elements as per their concentration (greater or less than one part in 10⁴ through mass). Table 1 depicts elements classified in this way and as per their diverse roles. Almost all known elements can be detected in the human body through modern analytical techniques, but most of them are supposed to be there adventitiously without playing an necessary role. To establish whether an element is necessary is therefore hard, particularly as some necessary elements (example Co, for which the biochemistry is well studied) are exist in much lower concentrations than a lot of adventitious ones like Rb or Sr. The active research field of bioinorganic chemistry intended to understand the role of elements, particularly metallic ones fulfilling specialized functions.