Almost forgot this blog, hooray for random memories!
Chapter ten talks about medicine and it's connection to the periodic table. Silver was used to keep milk fresh and sterilize plates. Copper is used in things like doorknobs and railings because it has antiseptic properties. When bacteria touches the copper molecules it goes into to a self cleaning mode basically and eventually ends up killing the virus or bacteria. The element Gadolinium has been used to help kill tumors in processes such as radiation. Scientists have discovered that the best and most effective sperimicide is Vanadium.Granted some of these procedures have harmful side effects but nowadays what medicine doesn't? Kean then goes and talks about handedness or the qualities of proteins. The proteins in humans say that most people should be left handed. This obviously isn't true but it's kind of interesting how body compostition can be wrong. The handedness theory was brought to the table by Louis Pasteur when he was looking into lightbending properties. The next interesting scientist was Gerhard Domagk, who performed experiments on his own daughter! (What?! Why would you put your children in immediate danger?) She had a nasty infection from a needle puncture wound. I guess he was given a hard decision, using his drug and possibly killing her, or not using it and the girl losing her arm and or life. he took this chance and it ended up saving her life! After this miracle the drug prontosil went under inspection. Wat happened was a derivative of it, called sulfonamide. This produces folic acid and is more or less bacterial birth control.
Titianium is the only element that can be used safely and effectively in the body. It fuses to the bone and acts as a bridge between bones if need be. It's commonly used for things like hip replacements in the body. Continuing with the human body trend, iodine is used to fight birth defects. After this discovery the West tried to make it mandatory to put iodine in all salt, but India was not happy. Mahatma Gandhi led a march against iodizing salt but sadly for him it was unsuccessful.Today many Indian people still don' use iodized salt because it's too expensive or they are simply not exposed to it.
Then the topic moved from medicine to politics. Marie Curie was unable to get a proper science education because she was a girl so her dad homeschooled her. I guess the boys academy missed out because she went on to win a Nobel Prize with her husband and another on her own after that. Their studies focused on radioactivity as did their daughter Irene's. Sadly, she died at a relatively young age due to all of her exposure to radiation.
Great job Tory!
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