NITROGEN

(N), nonmetallic element of Group Va of the periodic table. It is a colourless, odourless, tasteless gas that is the most plentiful element in the Earth's atmosphere, and a constituent of all living matter. A treatment of nitrogen follows. For additional treatment, see Chemical Elements: Nitrogen group elements. Daniel Rutherford, a medical student in Edinburgh, is usually credited with the discovery of nitrogen (1772) because he was first to publish his findings; but in England the chemists Joseph Priestley and Henry Cavendish and in Sweden the chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele also discovered it about the same time. The French chemist Antoine Lavoisier first recognized the gas as an element and named it azote because of its inability to support life (Greek zoe, life). The present name (from nitre plus the suffix -gen, thus nitre-forming) was coined in 1790 to indicate the presence of the element in nitre (ordinary saltpetre, or potassium nitrate, KNO3).