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preface

Are artists necessary or good-for-nothings? of the elements which arranges them according to their
by Hans-Joachim Horstmann properties. I am no theoretical chemist, but biologist (and
biochemist), so please excuse if I attribute human response

The German philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716) to these elements. So, I imagine that elements put an effort
asked, “Why is something and not nothing?” Like everybody into having or attaining completely occupied electron shells,

else, I suppose, there is something and not nothing. But I do which are initially present in the inert gases (helium, neon)
not ask Why?, since I cannot answer this question. I cannot and explain their disinclination to react. For me, as an artist,
KNOW. Other people can’t either. They can only claim or this is an immanent harmony which is inherent in this matter.
believe to know. On the left in the periodic table, there are what is called the
alkali metals (lithium, sodium, potassium) which only have one

Since obviously there IS something, is it the Greek CHAOS electron in the next outer shell. They “like” to lose it so as to
of Hesiod (ca. 700 B.C.), the gaping void? No, because this dissolve in the form of positive ions in aqueous solutions. On
findable something is structured. Is it evil? No, as I see the right in the periodic table, there is the group of halogens

harmonies from the beginning. They, so I think, cannot be (fluoride, chloride) whose electron shells are almost complete:
“evil”. Maybe there was something like a terrible mess of the they greedily absorb the free electrons contained in solutions
first “particles” after the big bang and prior to further cooling, of alkali metals, thus having craftily attained the harmony of a
but then hydrogen atoms formed. Apparently, they were the complete shell. But what of the element groups in the middle
most stable structures compared to other more instable ones of the periodic table? There is carbon (C), nitrogen (N) and

(which fell prey to the first Darwinian selection). But if this oxygen (O). Their “trick” is, they form a bond together with a
something was not “evil”, then it was neutral or even good, partner – each providing an electron which belongs to both of
meaning – to me – productive to develop more complex them – the “covalent” bond; a nice deal, since both partners

forms of matter. thus manage to achieve a shell of 8 electrons.

Please allow me to make a brief digression into chemistry: Let us now turn to carbon (C). Why? C is the core element for
The first atoms (hydrogen [H], helium [He]), together with any type of life wherever it will be possible in the universe,
other elements, bred later in suns, fit into a periodic table with its billions of suns orbited by planets. Some of them are