It was discovered by Barnard Courtois in 1811. He burned seaweed to get sodium carbonate and reacted the residue with sulfuric acid. One time, he poured too much sulfuric acid on the seaweed and purple vapor came out which made dark blue-black crystals on a cold surface. He did not have enough money to see whether it was a new element or not. He gave samples to several chemists, who identified it as an element in 1813.
Iodine is too reactive to be in nature as an element. Iodine compounds are not common in the ground. There is a mineral called caliche that is found in dry deserts. It has iodate in it. Iodide is found in seawater. Kelp has quite large amounts of iodine in it. Iodine is one of the heaviest elements needed by living things. If people do not get enough of it, they get a disease known as goitre. Most salt has iodine in it, in the form of iodide or iodate. People can also take iodine pills to make sure we get enough.
Kelp was burned and the iodine extracted from the ashes in the 18th and 19th century, but now it is not good enough for common use. Most iodine now is extracted from seawater. Chlorine is reacted with seawater to change the iodide to iodine. Air is blown over the water to evaporate the iodine. Then the iodine is reduced with sulfur dioxide to hydriodic acid. Then the hydriodic acid is oxidized with chlorine again to make iodine. This process is repeated until the iodine is pure.
A very pure form of iodine is made by reacting copper sulfate and potassium iodide. This makes copper(II) iodide which is not stable. It breaks down into copper(I) iodide and iodine, which is pure.
Iodine is used as a catalyst for making acetic acid. Animal feed also has iodine in it for nutrition. Iodine is used for a disinfectant. Tincture of iodine is a common iodine disinfectant. Iodine can be used to prevent thyroid cancer after a nuclear explosion. After a nuclear explosion, radioactive iodine fills the air. The radioactive iodine easily goes into the thyroid and causes cancer. When people take iodine tablets, it fills up the thyroid with non-radioactive iodine which prevents any radioactive iodine from coming in.
Iodine compounds can be used in X-rays because X-rays cannot go through them easily. Some metals are purified using their iodides. Silver iodide is used in photographic film and cloud seeding. Erythrosine is a food coloring that has iodine in it. Iodine can be used to make illegal drugs so it is restricted in some areas. Iodine can be used as a test for reducing agents. Iodine turns colorless when mixed with a reducing agent. Iodine also turns black when mixed with starch. Iodides become colored when mixed with oxidizing agents.
Iodine can irritate skin. Its vapors are irritating to the lungs. It is less toxic than the other halogens, though. 2-3 grams of iodine can kill. Iodides are only toxic in large amounts.
Astatine
Astatine is a chemical element. Its atomic number (which is the number of protons in it) is 85, and its atomic weight (which is approximately the number of protons plus the number of neutrons in it) is 210. It is part of the Group 7 (halogens) on the periodic table of elements. Some of its isotopes may be in nature. But because it is extremely unstable (roughly speaking, the atoms fall apart), only about an ounce exists in the Earth's crust at one point in time. It is radioactive. The longest-living isotope At has a half-life of a bit over eight hours.It is used in the form of an astatine isotope.It is used for cancer treatment and in Radioactive tracers.
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is a part of the United States (U. S.) Congress. Congress is the legislature of the U. S. government and makes federal laws. The other part of Congress is the U. S. Senate. There are maximum 435 members in the United States House of Representatives. These members are called U. S. Representatives or just representatives.
The number of representatives from each state depends on the number of people in that state, the population, but there is at least one U. S. representative from each of the 50 states. Every 10 years, the United States Census Bureau counts the population of the United States. States gain or lose Representatives based on the count. The House of Representatives is in one of the two wings in the U.S. Capitol building. The other wing is for the Senate. Sometimes the House of Representatives is informally called the House. The chairman/chairperson in the U.S. House of Representatives is called the Speaker of the House. The current Speaker is Nancy Pelosi.
According to the U.S. Constitution, all bills about raising revenue, which includes taxes, must start in the House of Representatives. Also, the House of Representatives has the sole power to impeach certain officials, such as the president or federal judges. According to the U.S. Constitution, the House of Representatives can expel, or impeach, one of its representatives by a vote of at least two-thirds of its members.
Lourdes Flores Nano
Dr.Lourdes Celmira Flores Nano (born October 7 1959) is a Peruvian lawyer and politician. She is the leader of the Christian People's Party. She tried to become the mayor of Lima in 2010.
Flores Nano was born in Lima in 1959. She studied law at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru. She studied for a Phd in Law from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, one of the world's oldest universities in Madrid, Spain. She was a member of the Lima Municipal Council and then a member of the National Congress of Peru. In 2001 and 2006 she was a candidate in election for the President of Peru.
Novel
Novels are books which have one long story written in them. They are works of prose fiction. They are longer than short stories and novellas. There are many kinds. For example, some are adventure stories, like "Treasure Island" by Robert Louis Stevenson. There are horror (scary) stories like Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein". There are also science fiction novels like "Dune" by Frank Herbert, and humorous novels like "Tom Sawyer" by Mark Twain. Novels in English are usually at least 60,000 words long. Some are much bigger, 150,000 words or more. Novels usually have 100 pages or more.
The first novels were written more than three hundred years ago. Some people say that "Don Quixote" by Miguel de Cervantes is the first novel. It was first published in 1605.
There are many different genres, or categories, of novels. Some of these are:
Fiction
Fiction is any story made up by an author. It is a creation of the author's imagination. It is not based strictly on history or facts.
The opposite of fiction is non-fiction, writing that deals with facts and true events. Often in a library, part of the library is for fiction books and another part of the library is for non-fiction.
The word "fiction" comes from the Latin word "fictum", which means "created". This is a good way to remember what fiction is: if it has been created or made up by somebody, it is fiction. Fiction can be written or told, or acted on stage, in a movie, on television or radio. Usually the purpose of fiction is to entertain.
However, the dividing line is not always so clear. Fiction with real people or events in it is called "historical fiction", because it is based on things that happened in history. This type of fiction is written so that we can imagine and understand what it was like when those people were alive. Reality can be presented through creative writing, and imagination can open the reader's mind to significant thoughts about the real world.
In fiction, there are always characters. There is usually a protagonist, or hero. Sometimes this is a group of people, not one person. You usually support the hero (or heroes.) The protagonist has to face some kind of enemy, usually another character called the "antagonist". The fight between the protagonist and their enemy is called the "conflict".