Our bodies are made up of chemical elements - this is obvious, but we rarely think about how important and irreplaceable each element is: for example, phosphorus holds our DNA together, potassium nourishes our optic nerves, and thanks to iron, oxygen reaches the lungs. We are made of the same material as the world around us, and we can exist only as long as we receive all the substances necessary for life in the form of food, water and air. Other important elements keep our technology and our entire society running. The history of human civilization is in many ways the story of how we learned to extract the substances we need from the bowels of the earth and process them, but how long can this success story continue, do we not risk “using up” the Earth? Physicist Anja Røine takes us on an amazing journey through the most unexpected places on the planet and across several sciences—chemistry, physics, geology—to introduce us to the building blocks that make up our bodies and everything else in the world, and tell us where they come from. Now we can see the little-known and unsung heroes of the periodic table in a completely new light and feel the respect they deserve. The publishing design has been preserved in PDF A4 format.