Group 12 element have zinc in its active site. In 1817, cadmium was discovered in Germany as an impurity in zinc carbonate minerals (calamine) by Friedrich Stromeyer and Karl Samuel Leberecht Hermann. It was named after the Latin "cadmia" for "calamine", a cadmium-bearing mixture of minerals, which was in turn named after the Greek mythological character, Κάδμος Cadmus, the founder of Thebes. Stromeyer eventually isolated cadmium metal by roasting and reduction of the sulfide. In 1927, the International Conference on Weights and Measures redefined the meter in terms of a red cadmium spectral line (1 m = 1,553,164.13 wavelengths). This definition has since
Bioabsorbable metallic glass numerous ternary alloys along the 350 °C isotherm of the Mg-Zn-Ca system. Ternary Ca-Mg-Zn bulk metallic glasses were also discovered in 2005. Similar to the Mg-Zn-Ca, these two amorphous alloys are both bioresorbable metallic glasses and are based on the same "Mg-Zn-Ca ternary system". The elements are displayed in order of decreasing atomic concentration. Hence, the distinction between these two metallic glasses lies in their most dominant element, namely Ca and Mg. These Ca-based bulk glassy alloys had compositions of CaMgZn, CaMgZn, and CaMgZn, where X = 0, 5 and 10; Y = 0, 5, 7.5, 10, and 15; and