It’s probably sitting in your kitchen cabinet right now: a container of salt, maybe the familiar blue Morton Salt canister with the little girl carrying an umbrella, with the word “iodized” somewhere on the label. The curious fact that most table salt contains iodine — a trace mineral — is the result of a long chain of historical discoveries. The story begins with seaweed ash and gunpowder, runs through a scientific priority battle, and ends with one of the most effective nutritional interventions ever devised. Adding iodine to salt helped vanquish a problem that had ...Read More