29 November: Iodine

On this date in 1813, the discovery of Iodine was announced to the public. 10 things you didn’t know about iodine:

1. Iodine is a chemical element with the symbol I and atomic number 53. It is a blue black solid that looks metallic even though it’s not a metal. It melts at 114 degrees Celsius, and boils at 184 degrees Celsius. The liquid and gas forms are Purple, which is how the element gets its name, from the Greek word for violet coloured.
2. It was discovered by accident in 1811 by French chemist Bernard Courtois. Courtois discovered it while making Sodium carbonate for saltpetre, a substance used in the Napoleonic wars. To do this, he burned seaweed and washed the ash with Water, then added sulphuric acid to remove contaminants. If he added too much sulphuric acid he got a cloud of purple vapour. He guessed what he had there was a new element, but didn’t have the funding to research it. He gave a sample of it to fellow chemists Charles Bernard Desormes and Nicolas Clement, who did some work on it and confirmed what Courtois had thought.
3. In early periodic tables, iodine was often given the symbol J, for Jod, its name in German.
4. It’s an essential substance for human life, a key constituent of the thyroid hormones crucial to growth and metabolism. Iodine deficiency causes the thyroid gland to stop functioning properly and to swell – this condition is called a goitre. Iodine deficiency can also cause learning deficiencies in children. Historically, the word “cretin” was the term for congenital thyroid hormone deficiency.
5. Most of our iodine requirement in the UK comes from Milk – about 50% of it. Milk is rich in iodine because it’s in the grass which Cows eat. Fish and Eggs are also good sources. All is not lost if you happen to be vegan, though – seaweed is also rich in the stuff.
6. It can both cause and cure cancer. After the nuclear accident at Chernobyl, children developed thyroid cancer from consuming locally produced milk. However, get the dosage exactly right and it targets and kills the cancer cells. Potassium iodide is used in radiation pills.
7. Potassium iodide can also be used to test for starch. Exposure to starch turns potassium iodide Blue. As well as being a fun experiment to do in a school chemistry lab, the process is sometimes used to detect counterfeit banknotes. The paper Money is usually printed on doesn’t contain starch, but a forgery will.
8. Iodine was used to create the very first photographs, when in 1839, the French painter Louis Daguerre placed liquid iodine on a silvered Copper plate, and exposed the plate to light. The photograph was called a 'daguerreotype' and was the most commonly used means of recording images for nearly twenty years.
9. The top Iodine producing countries are Chile and Japan. In Chile they mine it; in Japan it’s produced by extracting it from brine.
10. It has antimicrobial properties at low concentrations and is often used in operating theatres to disinfect skin before surgery. Iodine has also been used to purify water, either in tablet or liquid form.

Killing Me Softly

Sebastian Garrett is an assassin. It wasn’t his first choice of vocation, but nonetheless, he’s good at it, and can be relied upon to get the job done. He’s on top of his game.

Until he is contracted to kill Princess Helena of Galorvia. She is not just any princess. Sebastian doesn’t bargain on his intended victim being a super-heroine who gives as good as she gets. Only his own genetic variant power saves him from becoming the victim, instead of Helena. 

Fate has another surprise in store. Sebastian was not expecting to fall in love with her.

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