Well, That's New.

Today, in class, we received a claim stating that there is nothing new that is ever created, everything in an imitation of something else. It was stated that Edgar Allen Poe's, The Raven, is purely mimetic. He took many ideas (raven, depressed man, and so on) and combined them into one unoriginal work. Another classmate of mine, in response, brought up the list of elements and stated that we have created new elements. I desire to elaborate on those elements and try to show how taking two things and smashing them together can make something new.

For example, by smashing together many ions of calcium, a non-metal element, and many ions of californium, an actinide - radioactive metallic element, we have created ununoctium, a noble gas, the likes of which have never seen before we created it. The point is, though it was made from two naturally occurring elements, it is something completely unlike either of them.
Even if we didn't create new a new element, a compound can be radically different as well. I invite anyone to intake pure sodium, by itself, and then to follow that up with intaking pure chlorine. In reality, I don't recommend that any person consume either one of those by itself, since it will have fairly detrimental effects on one's health. If, however, you were to ionize the two, they become the compound Sodium Chloride (NaCl), or table salt. Something unlike either of it's pure elements.