This apparent alchemy illustrates that even with a very restricted set of atomic ingredients you can create materials with wildly different material properties. Our bodies are very good examples of this: we are mostly made of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen, and yet through subtle rearrangements of the molecular structure of these ingredients, and the sprinkling of a few minerals such as calcium and potassium, an immense diversity of biomaterials results, from hair, to bone, to skin.
