HydrogenThe Essential Element

The heroine of this book is nature’s simplest atom, the hydrogen atom. With one exception—the helium atom—hydrogen is the mother of all atoms and molecules. The hydrogen atom consists of a single electron and a single proton; the proton is the nucleus of the hydrogen atom and serves as the electron’s anchor. The universe is teeming with hydrogen: every cubic centimeter of dark interstellar space, essentially void of any other known matter,1 contains a few atoms of hydrogen