Huh, molybdenum is essential for life? Who would’ve thunk it?

Yes, indeed. This tongue-twister of a named element plays a minor but key role in metabolizing certain toxins. Although it’s nearly impossible to deprive your body of molybdenum in rare instances where this has occurred death is the result as a consequence of a fatal buildup of those toxins. That’s why it gets the “essential” apellation.

The fascinating part about molybdenum playing a role in cellular life is that it’s so remote on the periodic table. Carbon, oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen are the four key elements from which any of the tens of thousands present in your body can be made and which accounts for over 99% of the atoms that make you you. Rounding out that last fraction of a percent we add calcium and phosphorus, the inorganic components instrumental for making bones, the electrolytes (sodium, potassium and again calcium), iron’s crucial role in respiration and then a list of a dozen or so mineral “micronutrients”. Molybdenum is the heaviest metal used in this way and at the same time one of the least in terms of mass. Add up all the molybdenum used in those enzymes and you’d get a whopping 0.05 milligrams. That’s equivalent to a grain of salt.

Viewed in this way, an ampule containing 10 grams such as the one pictured here would suffice to keep a city of half a million alive :-)