It's all about the elements of life

All living things are made of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorous, and sulphur atoms arranged in a multitude of brilliant structures. How did scientists figure this out? Neda Shakibaee, a chemist at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), works with environmental samples, like algae, to figure out their composition and structures. In order to do this, she frequently employs chromatography, which can separate the components of a sample based on a vast array of properties, such as size, weight, and solubility. Once the sample components are separated, it is possible to detect what exactly makes up this sample using electromagnetic radiation.