Greece, elements

The concept that all matter, however complicated it may be, is made up of some combination of only a few basic substances began in ancient Greece. The Greek philosophers believed there were four such elements fire, water, earth, and air. They thought that all substances were combinations of these four basic things. 

Zafiropoulos, D. and A.P. Grimanis. 1977. Trace elements in Acartia clausi from Elefsis Bay of the upper Saronikos Gulf, Greece. Mar Pollut. Bull. 8 79-81. 

Hein, A., Mommsen, H., and Maran, J. (1999). Element concentration distributions and most discriminating elements for provenancing by neutron activation analyses of ceramics from Bronze Age sites in Greece. Journal of Archaeological Science 26 1053-1058. 

Cadmium - the atomic number is 48 and the ehemical symbol is Cd. The name derives from the Greek kadmeia for calamine (zinc carbonate) with which it was found as an impurity in nature. Kadmeia was also the name of the fortress of Thebes, a city in the Boeottia region of central Greece. The fortress was named after its founder, Cadmus, who was the son of the Phoenician king, Agenor, and brother of Europ and would be a possible source for the name of the ore. The element was discovered and first isolated by the German physician Friedrich Stromeyer in 1817. 

The later chemistry, however, was the product of the influences of these practical chemical arts, combined with the mysticism of Asiatic or Egyptian origin, and the philosophy of the East and of Greece, respecting the nature of matter and the elements which impart to it its varying forms and properties. 

Around 400 B. C., in Greece, a thinker by the name of Empedocles came up with an idea that seemed to make sense. He explained that everything in the world was made from just four things which he called "elements" fire, water, air. and earth. Think of that burning stick mentioned above. It gave off fire — so, obviously, the stick had to contain fire. It sizzled — which meant there was water in it. It smoked — and smoke would be some kind of air. It left ashes—and ashes are earth, as certainly everyone should know. 

Argyropoulos G, Manoli E, Kouras A, Samara C (2012) Concentrations and source apportionment of PM10 and associated major and trace elements in the Rhodes Island, Greece. Sci Total Environ 432 12-22... 

Pentari, D., Foscolos, A.E. and Perdikatsis, V. (2004) Trace element contents in the Domeniko lignite deposit, Elassona Basin, central Greece. International Journal of Coal Geology, 58(4), 261-68. 

The anthropogenic radionuclides of most concern are those produced as fission products from nuclear weapons and nuclear reactors. The most devastating release from the latter source to date resulted from the April 26, 1986, explosion, partial meltdown of the reactor core, and breach of confinement structures by a power reactor at Chernobyl in the Ukraine. This disaster released 5 x 107 Ci of radionuclides from the site, which contaminated large areas of Soviet Ukraine and Byelorussia, as well as areas of Scandinavia, Italy, France, Poland, Turkey, and Greece. Radioactive fission products that are the same or similar to elements involved in life processes can be particularly hazardous. One of these is radioactive iodine, which tends to accumulate in the thyroid gland, which may develop cancer or otherwise be damaged as a result. Radioactive cesium exists as the Cs+ ion and is similar to sodium and potassium in its physiological behavior. Radioactive strontium forms the Sr2+ ion and substitutes for Ca2+, especially in bone. 

Cohen, A. J. Janezic, G. G. (1983) The crystal field spectra of the 3d3 ions, Cr3+ and Mn4 in green spodumene. In The Significance of Trace Elements in Solving Petrogenetic Problems and Controversies. (S. S. Augustithis, ed. Theophrastus Publ., Athens, Greece), pp. 899-904. 

Ancient philosophers in Greece, India, China, and Japan speculated that all matter was composed of four or five elements. The Greeks thought that these were fire, air, earth, and water. Indian philosophers and the Greek Aristotle also thought a fifth element—"aether" or "quintessence"—filled all of empty space. 

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