Recent comments in /f/askscience

Recipe-Jaded t1_j93fb67 wrote

Reply to comment by lemlurker in Was reading something related to Rock Salt mining. In places like the Himalayas where rock salt mining is done in cold temperatures, a lot of miners report burns. Why is it so that salt burns in a colder surroundings? Would it be the same reason why the salt ice challenge was so dangerous? by vvdmoneymuttornot

thank you. In highschool, I asked my physics teacher this question and she said, "because the salt lowers the freezing temperature of the ice". She left it at that, but you filled in the remainder.

26

comparmentaliser t1_j93ejgh wrote

Reply to comment by Bbrhuft in Why does the thyroid use iodine ? by geistererscheinung

Does all life get iodine through other iodine containing organisms? Or do some get it through natural sources, like iodised salt (assuming that it occurs naturally).

It would he interesting it f it’s something that just got perpetually recycled since the dawn of life.

2

ramriot t1_j93eitm wrote

Reply to Was reading something related to Rock Salt mining. In places like the Himalayas where rock salt mining is done in cold temperatures, a lot of miners report burns. Why is it so that salt burns in a colder surroundings? Would it be the same reason why the salt ice challenge was so dangerous? by vvdmoneymuttornot

So, outside of some small scale salt mining in the himalayan range it turns out that Himalayan salt is mostly not mined from the Himalayan mountain range but from the Pothohar Plateau in Pakistan where the climate appears to be continental and arid, changing from tropic to subtropic.

With only a short polar cold period in winter.

15

xiaorobear t1_j93dex7 wrote

Reply to comment by cherrypez123 in Why does the thyroid use iodine ? by geistererscheinung

Other animals are a good source!

Meat, eggs, and dairy all are good sources of iodine- and some organs especially liver. Apparently 1300 years ago someone in China had already figured out you could treat goiter by giving the patient ground up animal thyroid gland. Pretty cool.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goitre#History

Also apparently in more iodine-rich soil, plants uptake enough to also be a good source, probably where the animals at lower trophic levels are getting it.

7

BrightCharlie t1_j93b1jl wrote

Reply to comment by Nyrin in Was reading something related to Rock Salt mining. In places like the Himalayas where rock salt mining is done in cold temperatures, a lot of miners report burns. Why is it so that salt burns in a colder surroundings? Would it be the same reason why the salt ice challenge was so dangerous? by vvdmoneymuttornot

And in case you're wondering where the water comes from in rock salt, remember that sodium chloride is a powerful desiccant, it'll literally remove water from the air and turn it into salt water -- which is also why it's used as a food preservative, because it very thoroughly dries it (and any bacteria it might have, too)

164

DrRob t1_j93ac79 wrote

Reply to comment by geistererscheinung in Why does the thyroid use iodine ? by geistererscheinung

Just about all hormones are made and stored in their own glands and released carefully in response to circulating chemical signals. One really unpleasant symptom cluster from cancers of hormone producing glands is indiscriminate outpouring of hormones by the now unregulated cancerous cells which are still well organized enough to produce hormones unchecked. This can happen with the thyroid, adrenals, pituitary, etc.

3