Element of the Year 2011!!!

All throughout 2011, a parade of earnest, hopeful elements did their best to dazzle you with their essential natures, all of them dreaming of joining 2010's Oxygen to become our Second Element of the Year.  And now, with the voting over, with Terbium and Thallium bravely trying to smile while they are cry their hearts out inside, the moment has come!

And we begin with the Second Runner-Up!

Potassium

Even if you shy away from the volatile reactivity of the K-Element, Potassium, you can't walk away from it altogether.  After all, a quarter of a percent of you is it, and if it you somehow lost it your neurons would stop firing, your cells would stop metabolizing, and your number would basically be up!  No wonder the Readers picked Potassium as one of the darlings of the 2011 Elemental lineup!


The First Runner-Up!

Boron

Our Readers found nothing Boring about Boron, one of the most elusive of the single-digit Elements.  Number Five on the Periodic Table, it was Number Two in our hearts for 2011!!!


And now, it's:

The Element of the Year 2011!!!

Nitrogen

It's as dear to us as the air we breathe!  Sure, we're all hooked on 2010 Element of the Year Oxygen -- but frisky, reckless Oxygen wouldn't do us much good if it wasn't in such graceful partnership with mellow, relaxed Nitrogen!  It's three percent of your body, seventy-eight percent of your atmosphere, and one hundred percent

Element of the Year 2011!!!

Element #7 is also the seventh most common element in the universe, as far as we can tell.  It makes the plants grow!  You have been continuously pumping it in and out of your body for the whole time you've been reading this little article.  Gentle Readers: please welcome Nitrogen -- our Element of the Year!