Magnesium

Magnesium is the fourth most abundant mineral in the human body

and is essential to good health. Magnesium is needed for more than 300
biochemical reactions in the body. It facilitates maintain normal muscle and
nerve function, keeps heart rhythm stead, supports a healthy immune
system, and keeps bones strong. The element magnesium is located among
the alkaline earth metals on the periodic table. It belongs to the group 2 and
period 3 of the periodic table and has the atomic number 12. The average
atomic mass of the element magnesium is 24.305.
There are a couple people that should be credited for finding
magnesium. A Scottish physician, physicist, and chemist by the name of
Joseph Black first recognized that magnesia was its own compound in the
year of 1775. He found out that it was altogether separate from calcium
carbonate. Another person would be Sir Humphry Davy who was a British
chemist widely known as the person who discovered magnesium in 1808. A
pioneer in electrolysis, Davy used the then-new method to isolate
magnesium into is own element. The last person to be credited is Antoine
A.B Bussy. He was a French chemist who was the first to discover a way to
isolate magnesium in large quantities.