Also: are the most conducive
- oxygen
- hydrogen
- nitrogen
- carbon
I mean, you could start almost at the very top.
Skip hydrogen which is an obvious need and we’re right at something that’s not particularly helpful with either the creation or the sustenance of life. Helium has advanced use in MRI machines, and is fun in party balloons and squeaky voice tricks, but we got by for millennia without any of that. Relatively harmless otherwise, but not necessary.
Lithium? It does find itself in biological places often in place of more important things like sodium or potassium, but it’s neither necessary nor completely worthless, I guess.
My vote, though, for the worst of the top of the periodic table: Beryllium. Toxic. No biological function except to cause problems. Helps make pretty crystals, but the same is true of lots of less harmful elements. In that sense then, completely worthless.
Seems like we use berlyium in a lot of things.
What is beryllium?
Beryllium is a metal that’s used in the manufacturing of dozens of products, including cars, computers, golf clubs and electrical equipment. Beryllium is light, non-magnetic, and a good conductor of heat and electricity, which is why it’s so common.
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/13807-beryllium-disease
Neon
Lead’s gotta be up there in terms of net negative impact on us as a whole.
Lead is still used in god damn everything. Its unfortunate but it’s so cheap, and so useful, how could industry resist?. The res a good chance the pipes you have in your house and used by your city are lead, you shower pan likely had a lead sheet backing, lead is also use for tons of electrical connections. Even copper pipes are likely to be soldered together with lead. Lead is also used to heat treat steel parts, which is used in everything.
Polonium is definitely near the top of the list.
Most of the heavy metals (yes, that includes the radioactive ones)
