Review: Salt (NaCl)
Category: Compounds
Author: Physics and God (Collaboration)
Rating: 75%
Sodium Chloride is a chemical compound commonly known as salt. Salt does, in fact, contain traces of other chemicals- but since the vast majority is sodium chloride, the two are largely indistinct. Salt is a white, crystalline substance which is soluble. Because of its solubility, it is often found in bodies of water- especially on planets complete with a hydro-cycle. Salt is essential to all known and some unknown life, although in large quantities it is usually lethal. It can and has been used as a currency, and due to its distinctive flavour (salty) it is often used as a seasoning by species which have developed structures of culinary preparation.
Salt is quite a good compound. It’s crystalline, which makes it strong, and that also means it’s quite nice to look at. The fact that it’s soluble, not to mention edible, leads to problems however. Keeping salt crystals and maintaining them in any place where there is life or an atmosphere which could potentially support life is difficult, and since these are the only places you would be anyway, the only real possibility of cultivating salt crystals is if you are dead, or were never alive in the first place, in which case it’s difficult to see what use you would derive from them.
That said, salt is generally very useful- as has been mentioned, it tastes quite nice in small quantities, so a little bit goes a long way. It is also very valuable in some cultures, so you can’t complain there either. It’s relatively easy to transport, it stacks well, and you can just pull it out of the ground- the benefits go on and on.
Salt can also be used to inflict pain on any lifeform with a well-developed nervous system, and render land unusable for the cultivation of plants. The more you think about it, the more it’s the Swiss-army-knife of the chemical world. If you were picking one compound to have an infinite supply of, you could do a lot worse than salt. Without salt, after all, there would be no life in the universe. This would probably be a good thing, on the whole, as the emanations of sentient species only ever disrupt the cosmic harmony- but if you were in control of humble sodium chloride, you would have the universe right where you wanted it. In abject fear.
I take a slight issue with the colour; salt is usually white, and almost always very pale in any case. It could be nicer to look at, and it’s all sandy and horrid when it’s ground up fine. If I was in charge of the design, I would have made it soft and brightly-coloured, so that everyone would know instantly how great it was. If the universe had used colours to signal the relative quality of different substances, I wouldn’t have to write these reviews the whole time- and you wouldn’t have to read them. Thanks a lot, universe.
On the whole, then, I think salt is pretty great. It means we have to put up with life in the universe, but overall it’s a pretty great chemical. It has all kinds of uses, and its physical qualities are relatively pleasing. It also inflicts pain, rather than blowing stuff up or catching fire- an undervalued fact, I often think. I highly recommend sodium chloride, one of the few compounds that’s really worth its salt.
Category: Compounds
Author: Physics and God (Collaboration)
Rating: 75%
Sodium Chloride is a chemical compound commonly known as salt. Salt does, in fact, contain traces of other chemicals- but since the vast majority is sodium chloride, the two are largely indistinct. Salt is a white, crystalline substance which is soluble. Because of its solubility, it is often found in bodies of water- especially on planets complete with a hydro-cycle. Salt is essential to all known and some unknown life, although in large quantities it is usually lethal. It can and has been used as a currency, and due to its distinctive flavour (salty) it is often used as a seasoning by species which have developed structures of culinary preparation.
Salt is quite a good compound. It’s crystalline, which makes it strong, and that also means it’s quite nice to look at. The fact that it’s soluble, not to mention edible, leads to problems however. Keeping salt crystals and maintaining them in any place where there is life or an atmosphere which could potentially support life is difficult, and since these are the only places you would be anyway, the only real possibility of cultivating salt crystals is if you are dead, or were never alive in the first place, in which case it’s difficult to see what use you would derive from them.
That said, salt is generally very useful- as has been mentioned, it tastes quite nice in small quantities, so a little bit goes a long way. It is also very valuable in some cultures, so you can’t complain there either. It’s relatively easy to transport, it stacks well, and you can just pull it out of the ground- the benefits go on and on.
Salt can also be used to inflict pain on any lifeform with a well-developed nervous system, and render land unusable for the cultivation of plants. The more you think about it, the more it’s the Swiss-army-knife of the chemical world. If you were picking one compound to have an infinite supply of, you could do a lot worse than salt. Without salt, after all, there would be no life in the universe. This would probably be a good thing, on the whole, as the emanations of sentient species only ever disrupt the cosmic harmony- but if you were in control of humble sodium chloride, you would have the universe right where you wanted it. In abject fear.
I take a slight issue with the colour; salt is usually white, and almost always very pale in any case. It could be nicer to look at, and it’s all sandy and horrid when it’s ground up fine. If I was in charge of the design, I would have made it soft and brightly-coloured, so that everyone would know instantly how great it was. If the universe had used colours to signal the relative quality of different substances, I wouldn’t have to write these reviews the whole time- and you wouldn’t have to read them. Thanks a lot, universe.
On the whole, then, I think salt is pretty great. It means we have to put up with life in the universe, but overall it’s a pretty great chemical. It has all kinds of uses, and its physical qualities are relatively pleasing. It also inflicts pain, rather than blowing stuff up or catching fire- an undervalued fact, I often think. I highly recommend sodium chloride, one of the few compounds that’s really worth its salt.
