Chapter 10 DS Summary

Just as often as elements are toxic they can also be life-giving. Copper, for instance, has proved to be the simplest, cheapest way to improve infrastructure by killing fungi, bacteria, and other microbes in water and air systems. Another element that kills "small, wriggling cells" is vanadium which is an incredibly effective spermicide although it is not prescribed for human use because it is difficult for the body to metabolize and seriously raises and lowers glucose levels. Gadolinium has the maximum number of unpaired electrons and is therefore incredibly useful by being easily magnetized and used in MRI scans. Silver is another element that many use for its supposed medicinal properties. It is fabled to be an antibiotic and several people have developed a condition called "agyria" which turns the skin a silver-blue after ingesting large quantities of it to cure ailments. But the most effective medical cures are not single elements but complex compounds. Louis Pasteur discovered a property about biomolecules called handedness or chirality. Every molecules in every living organism is left-handed.