Whether it's animal, vegetable, or mineral, the odds are good that it contains magnesium—and, if it's a living thing, that magnesium is key to its functioning. A single magnesium ion sits at the center of each chlorophyll molecule, making it a linchpin for photosynthesis, and our cells require magnesium for hundreds of enzymes and metabolic processes. Spawned from supernovae and scattered through interstellar dust, this life-giving alkaline earth metal readily reacts and is abundant in seawater, the Earth's crust, and the universe itself.

In the spirit of amplifying the Black Lives Matter movement and to avoid any appearance of having appropriated that title, our series of talks formerly called Everything Matters: Tales from the Periodic Table will now be called, simply, Tales from the Periodic Table. Please excuse the former title on videos made in the past.