The Disappearing Spoon Chapter 10

Chapter 10: Take Two Elements, Call Me in the Morning
Summary:
Chapter 10 is mostly centered around the topic of how elements are used to help people medicine-wise. He first talks about the element silver. Tycho Brahe was a man who lost part of his nose in a fight and he was able to use silver, as in a silver prosthetic, to fix his nose. Not only this, but Kean also tells us about the pioneers and how they were able to use silver to their advantage. Pioneers used silver in order to keep their milk from going bad because silver has antibacterial properties. Then the author moves onto talking about how copper was very useful in plumbing and other everyday uses. Kean then goes on to introduce gadolinium and it's great uses in medicine. Gadolinium is used in MRI machines, for this element has high magnetic properties. By using gadolinium in MRI machines, doctors are able to detect tumors in a person's body.
Furthermore, the author then discusses Louis Pasteur. Pasteur was a scientist who realize that team everything is basically left-handed or well has a “handedness” to it. He was able to discover chirality as well. Later in his life, Pasteur went off to create pasteurization, a process used to kill pathogenic bacteria, which proved to be very useful. In fact, Pasteur was able to create a vaccine that saved a boy's life from rabies. Kean then shifts his focus onto Gerhard Domagk. Domani had been testing prontosil, a red industrial dye made of sulfur, that proved to be useful later on when his daughter Hildegard fell down the stairs and got stabbed in the hand with the needle she was holding. Due to this incident, after having the needle removed, Hildegard developed a streptococcal infection on her arm. Domagk gave his daughter the prontosil and saved her life, but not in the way everyone thought. Prontosil didn't kill the bacteria; however, it did stop the bacterial from reproducing.

Reflection:
Overall,the chapter was much more brighter than the one before because it gave many ways in which the elements proved to be beneficial. I really enjoyed reading the stories that talked about the way elements were able to help save the lives of people, such as, the story of Brahe who lost part of his nose and was able to fix it with silver. Before reading the chapter, I didn't know that silver can turn you pale blue if you took too much of it. I also wasn't aware that gadolinium was used in MRIs to help identified tumors really fast. I found interesting how vanadium raises the blood pressure and lowers it mysteriously.

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