Life and Energy: An Exploration of the Physical and Chemical Basis of Modern Biology by Isaac Asimov

Author:Isaac Asimov [Asimov, Isaac]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780380009428
Google: cPsdmwEACAAJ
Amazon: 0380009420
Goodreads: 381107
Published: 2007-10-21T00:46:03+00:00

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LIFE AND ENERGY

land than on the east coast, which was subjected to the iodine-containing ocean spray. If thyroid required iodine for Figure 21. The Thyroid Gland

proper functioning, perhaps it grew overlarge in compensation for iodine lack yet still slowed down in activity. Or, if it gained necessary iodine while overlarge, its activity might rise too high.

Marine found that by feeding animals on an iodine-free diet he could induce goiter, which he could then relieve by adding iodine to the diet.

He began to campaign for the addition of iodine-containing compounds to the city’s drinking water, and after a long period of resistance (very similar to the resistance now of�

fered against the similar proposal to add fluorine-containing compounds to drinking water) succeeded. In this way, and by the later use of salt to which small quantities of iodinecontaining compounds have been added (“iodized salt”), the dangers and discomforts of goiter have greatly diminished in advanced areas of the world. Those dangers are not yet entirely gone, however. It has been estimated that even now, a half century after the discovery of iodine therapy for goiter, there are 200,000,000 people in the world who suffer from that condition. Of these, 30,000,000 are in Latin America and there is even a notable incidence in certain parts of the United States, particularly in the states of Washington and Oregon.

Meanwhile, just as the chemical attack was revealing the

THE IDLING SPEED

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