Chapter 11

Chapter 11

      Kean starts off the chapter by reiterating the wonderful surprise that rhodium could create something as potent at L-dopa. However, he writes that not all surprises are good, reasoning that many elements, under the right circumstances, can result in very malevolent surprises. His first example is the story of five technicians working on NASA's Columbia shuttle. They had finished a 30 hour work day and were going to do a routine systems check, so they crawled into a cramped compartment above the engine. Once in there, they all peacefully slumped over. When they were take out, three were dead, one was able to be revived, and the other was in a coma (but would die on April Fools' Day). The last time lives were lost under NASA's supervision was when three astronauts were burned to death in 1967 during training for Apollo I. This occurred because of a spark that went off and took advantage of the high concentration of oxygen, allowing it to set the area ablaze and kill the three astronauts. By the time of the Columbia mission, any chamber that was known to spark was pumped with inert nitrogen because it can smother sparks to help avoid any fires. The five technicians entered the chamber before breathable oxygen was pumped in and the nitrogen killed them passively. Nitrogen is easy to breathe in and out, and as long as carbon dioxide is being exhaled, the body is not alarmed. Nitrogen's ability to bypass the body's security system makes it a silent killer. Still, nitrogen is important to living things because it is a crucial part of amino acids, which form a body's proteins.
      Kean then goes on to talk about how titanium has oddly proven to be an exceptional material for prosthetics. It attaches to the bone without causing infections and even tricks the body into thinking it is a bone. This caused a much needed change from from other materials, such as wood, that were often rejected by the body. Kean begins to explain how the taste buds work, changing the subject. He mentions that potassium and sodium use ions to cause the taste buds to detect saltiness, and so they taste salty. Beryllium is sweet like sugar, but can be toxic to humans.
      Speaking of salt, India has had a history of tension surrounding the salt industry. This stems from Gandhi's Salt March to Dandi to protest the British salt tax. Gandhi encouraged the Indian people to make illegal salt, known as common salt. However, common salt is iodine-deficient. Iodine is extremely crucial to one's health and helps to prevent birth defects and mental illnesses. Even after being banned, it is still a big problem in India. An English philospher named Bertrand Russel would use iodine to tie chemistry to mental ability, and possibly even to the essence of the human spirit.
     I liked that Kean explained thoroughly just how deceitful elements can be, especially those that are hazardous to our health. I especially liked that Kean injected a personal story into this chapter, it really helped provide a tangible display of this chapter's message at work. I liked the NASA technician story because it proved just how experimental chemistry is and how vital it is to so many other branches of science. I learned that not all things that are sweet are sugar and not all things that are salty are salt. I would tell my bae to watch out and never eat it drink anything I give them while I'm angry at them.