The Building Blocks of Creation

LOOK around you on this earth. What can you see? No one can fail to be moved by the sublime beauty of the hills and mountains, by the fascinating colors and shapes of the plants and trees and by the delightful abilities of the animals, birds and insects. The very complexity of creation just staggers the imagination.

Do you ever wonder from what all this profusion of beautiful and awe-inspiring things comes? What are the building blocks of creation? How are these building blocks assembled to produce the innumerable material things all around us? When we look at the multitude of marvelous creations, we see a seemingly solid world. Would it surprise you to know that all this is constructed from basic building blocks that are themselves 99.9 percent nothingness or emptiness?

For thousands of years man has tried to unravel the secret of what exactly it is that constitutes matter. The dictionary defines matter as “that out of which anything is made.” But from what is it made? It has only been in this century, indeed only in the last thirty or forty years, that scientists have really begun to understand the fundamental nature of material things. Now researchers tell us that all material things, whether they be the rocks, plants, animals, rivers or anything else that we can become acquainted with by using our bodily senses, are built up from building blocks that are themselves made from three basic particles.

These three basic particles, depending on the number of each present in the building block, determine the nature and properties of each block or “atom” that they form.a

First, though, let us get our definitions straight. By “atom” we mean “the smallest particle of an element,” and an “element” has been defined as “a substance that cannot be resolved by chemical means into simpler substances.” For instance, if we could take a sample of the element we know as gold and keep on dividing it into smaller and smaller pieces, it would eventually be impossible to divide it further without its losing its original chemical identity. This smallest portion is the atom. Any further division would be a splitting of the atom into the aforementioned parts, called protons, neutrons and electrons.

The protons and the neutrons are about equal in weight, the difference in these being that, whereas the proton carries a positive charge of electricity, the neutron has no charge, hence is neutral. Relatively speaking, the protons and neutrons are huge compared to the electrons, having a mass about 2,000 times as great. The tiny electrons carry a negative charge of electricity, and since they always equal in number the protons, then the atom is a neutral body.

These three fundamental particles are built up in increasing numbers to form the atoms of the different elements, or the building blocks of creation. How many are there? For a long time it was thought that there were merely four elements; namely, air, fire, earth and water, but as knowledge increased, different elements were gradually identified. Now lists of the elements show over one hundred, some of them being man-made, artificial and unstable.

What, though, about this 99.9 percent nothingness? If we could see a single atom of any of the marvelous things around us, what would it look like? What kind of structure would it be?

Atomic Structure

All atoms have a central nucleus composed of a combination of protons and neutrons, surrounded by orbiting electrons. The only exception to this is the atom of the simplest element, hydrogen, which has only a single proton as its nucleus with one single electron in orbit around it.

Thus we get a mental picture of a sort of miniature solar system, with the electrons in comparatively large orbits around the small, compact nucleus, much as the planets move in orbit around the sun. This microscopic planetary system is different for each of the elements and is reproduced in each of the atoms of that element. What power and precision produced all that? Take, for example, an atom of the element carbon, as portrayed in the following schematic diagram:

Of course, we cannot see a single atom because an atom is so infinitesimally small. Each of these minute ‘planetary systems’ would measure a mere one hundred millionth of an inch in diameter! And the central nucleus or ‘sun’ would be only about one hundred thousandth the size of the entire atom in diameter!

Since the number of electrons in the atom can vary from one to over a hundred, depending on which element is under consideration, it is awesome, is it not, to consider the wonderfully intricate arrangement within the incredibly small space of each atom?

It is fascinating to realize that all the material things, all the seemingly solid things, from the green grass to the cow’s tail to the mountains, are made up of millions upon millions of these tiny atoms, each of which is itself predominantly emptiness and space between the central nucleus and the orbiting electrons. Yes, an atom is mostly empty space. Thus the Life Science Library volume Matter says: “If each atom were collapsed into a sphere no bigger than its own core, or nucleus, then all the bulk of the Washington Monument [555 feet high] could be crammed into a space smaller than the eraser on a pencil.”

The electrons in each atom orbit in what are referred to as “electron shells,” each “shell” being a set distance from the nucleus. As the atoms get progressively more complex by the addition of more of the basic particles, the additional electrons orbit in these “shells.”

For instance, the illustration of the carbon atom depicts it with two electrons in its inner shell and four in its next shell. An aluminum atom would have two electrons in its first shell, eight in its next shell and three in its outermost shell. In other words there is not an unruly mass of electrons without any fixed pattern but rather a very orderly arrangement in all this.

Since we are interested in how these building blocks are assembled to produce all the wonderful things that delight us so much, then we are particularly interested in these minute particles, the electrons. How so? Because it is the arrangement of these electrons in their orbits that determines the combining abilities of each atom. This combining ability is called “valence” or “valency.”

Combining by Borrowing Electrons

As research into the atom progressed, it was found that any element with a complete number of electrons (usually eight) in its valence ring (borrowing-and-lending shell) was extremely stable; that is, it did not readily combine with other atoms. These stable or inert elements are known as the rare gases​—helium, neon, argon, krypton, xenon and radon.

Gradually a picture of the electron shells of all the elements was built up. It was found that atoms tended to try to make up a stable outer electron shell. The valence theory explains this by showing how the atoms do this either by borrowing and lending electrons, or by sharing electrons with other atoms. An element that has seven electrons in its outer shell, such as chlorine, will borrow an electron from an element that has one electron in its outer shell, like sodium, for instance. Look at the following diagram to see how this would happen:

Sodium, a soft, silver-white metal, which was discovered in 1807, is a very active element that reacts violently with water. It has a total of eleven electrons, the shells having two, eight and one electrons respectively. Chlorine, discovered in 1774, is a greenish-yellow gas. It has been used as a bleach, a disinfectant and also as a poison gas. The chlorine atom has seventeen electrons, its shells containing two, eight and seven respectively. Showing only the outermost electron shell, the diagram depicts how these building blocks combine and what results from this combination.

The chlorine atom borrows an electron from the sodium atom, becoming negatively charged in the process by the addition of this extra electron, while, vice versa, the sodium atom becomes positively charged. These charged atoms, now called “ions,” are attracted to each other because of their opposite charges, and they cling together to form the compound known as sodium chloride, or common salt.

From two seemingly unlikely building blocks with their own distinctive properties we get the common salt so vital for life. This rearrangement with regard to only one electron builds a completely new substance! A combination like this is called an electrovalent bond.

Combining by Sharing Electrons

Another kind of combination is called a covalent bond. In this kind of bond the various atoms share electrons to form the required stable outer electron shells. An example of this is when two carbon atoms, six hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom combine to form a molecule of ethyl alcohol, the intoxicating ingredient of many beverages. The covalent bonds of each pair of shared electrons are shown in the structural formula by a dash in the following diagram:

By thus sharing pairs of electrons the carbon atoms and the oxygen atom acquire a stable outer shell of eight electrons, while the hydrogen atoms acquire outer electron shells with two electrons.

More Complex Interaction

Of course, the interaction and attraction between the different atoms become very much more complicated as the far more complex molecules that go to make up the organic compounds, those having carbon in their molecules, are formed. An example of one of these organic substances serves to illustrate this. Here is a diagram showing the structural formula of a molecule of that amazing substance called chlorophyll:

Just think of it: Here are 72 atoms of hydrogen, 55 atoms of carbon, 5 atoms of oxygen, 4 atoms of nitrogen and 1 atom of magnesium, some of them already combined into prefabricated units, as it were, built up into one molecule of chlorophyll, one of the most important pigments in vegetation. This is the substance that accounts for the greenness in the countryside and that gives the plants the wonderful ability to convert the radiant energy of the sun into chemical energy for the plants to use.

Can you imagine the incredible interaction among the electrons as they whirl in their orbits to link the various atoms so as to make up even one molecule of chlorophyll? When one considers that it would take millions upon millions of such molecules to cover the period at the end of this sentence, one’s admiration for the Designer of such an arrangement can only grow and deepen.

Scientists have only begun to unravel the facts with regard to how and why the different building blocks combine, but they do know that there are fixed and orderly laws that govern these combinations. They stand in awe at the inconceivably intricate way in which the tremendously complex living cells of all forms of life build up these already complicated substances into the abundance of living things on the earth.

This buildup from imperceptibly small atoms to all the magnificent handiwork of creation is set out in the following diagram:

Look around you, and reflect on the wisdom and intelligence that has masterminded the production of all the material things we know, from the tiniest seed to the limitless universe​—and all from building blocks that are themselves 99.9 percent nothing.

[Footnotes]

[Diagram on page 13]

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Carbon atom has a nucleus with 6 protons and 6 neutrons, and has 6 electrons, two in the inner shell and four in the outer

[Diagram on page 14]

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Combining of Sodium and Chlorine Atoms

Sodium Chlorine + −

Atoms (showing only Ions​—forming

outer electron shells) sodium chloride

[Diagram on page 14]

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Molecule of Ethyl Alcohol

C: carbon atom

H: hydrogen atom

O: oxygen atom

[Diagram on page 15]

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Molecule of Chlorophyll” “a.”

H: hydrogen atom (72)

C: carbon atom (55)

O: oxygen atom (5)

N: nitrogen atom (4)

Mg: magnesium atom (1)

[Diagram on page 15]

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Three Basic Particles

protons

neutrons

electrons

Atoms Compounds All Matter

over 100 elements inorganic and organic living and nonliving