Imagine You Are An Aluminum Atom

Discussions With Mr. Aluminum

Christopher Exley

• Publisher: Skyhorse
• Year: 2020
• eBook ISBN:
  9781510762541
• Topic: Medicine
• Subtopic: Diseases & Allergies

Join "Mr. Aluminum," a scientist who has made the study of aluminum his life's work, on a journey of discovery, reflection, and the science of aluminum.

Professor Christopher Exley is a firm believer that science is only useful when it is properly communicated. Scientific papers are difficult vehicles for the wider communication of science and thus he has always endeavored to tell the story of his scientific research as widely as possible through myriad blogs, presentations, and interviews. Through a series of easy-reading entries written for non-scientists, Exley will educate readers about his lifelong scientific passion: aluminum. In scientific circles, aluminum—in relation to human health specifically—has gone the way of the dinosaurs (though, unlike dinosaurs, there has not yet been a popular revival!). Yet aluminum is also the greatest untold story of science.

But why do we all need to know a little bit more about aluminum? Do we need a self-help guide for living in what Exley has coined "The Aluminum Age"? What is it about aluminum that makes it different? What about iron, copper, or any of the so-called "heavy metals," like mercury, cadmium, or lead? Why must we pay particular attention to aluminum? Because its bio-geochemistry, its natural history, raises two red flags immediately and simultaneously.

These two danger signals are easily missed by all of us and easily dismissed by those whose interests are conflicted by aluminum’s omnipresence in human life and consequently, are purposely blind to its danger signals. First, aluminum, in all of its myriad forms, is super abundant; it is the third most abundant element (after oxygen and silicon) of the Earth’s crust. Second, aluminum is super reactive; it is both chemically and biologically reactive. However, these two red flags identify a paradox, as the abundant and biologically reactive aluminum has no biological function either in any organism today nor in any extinct biota from the evolutionary past. This means in practical terms that when we encounter aluminum in our everyday lives, our bodies only see aluminum as an impostor, something foreign, and something for which we have not been prepared through biochemical evolution. This in turn means that all of our encounters with aluminium are adventitious, random, and chaotic. And potentially dangerous.

Imagine You Are An Aluminum Atom: Discussions With "Mr. Aluminum" examines the science of aluminum and human health and makes them understandable to all. Within the science you will find personal recollections of events, as well as opinions and reflections upon how the politics of aluminum have influenced and interfered with doing and reporting the science. It is at once both a personal recollection of Exley's life in aluminum research and a guide on the dangers of the constant exposure to aluminum we as humans face during this "Aluminum Age." It will inform, it will provide the means to question the science, and it will, if the reader is prepared to participate, answer those frequently asked questions on aluminum and human health.

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Half-Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Chapter 1: Why Have I Written a Book on Aluminum?
• Chapter 2: Why Am I Worried about Aluminum?
• Chapter 3: Some Simple Aluminum Biochemistry
• Chapter 4: Where Is Aluminum in the Body?
• Chapter 5: Measuring the Body Burden of Aluminum
• Chapter 6: Aluminum In Doesn’t Equal Aluminum Out
• Chapter 7: I Am the Aluminum I Eat (or Am I?)
• Chapter 8: Live Safely and Effectively in the Aluminum Age
• Chapter 9: A Silicon-Rich Mineral Water a Day Keeps . . . Aluminum at Bay
• Chapter 10: Pregnancy and Why Infant Exposure to Aluminum Is a Special Case
• Chapter 11: Tell Me Again Why There Is Aluminum in Vaccines
• Chapter 12: Aluminum Is a Cause of and Contributor to Human Disease
• Chapter 13: What We Need to Know about Aluminum in Human Brain Tissue
• Chapter 14: Alzheimer’s Disease and the Aluminum Elephant in the Room
• Chapter 15: Building a Case for Aluminum and Breast Cancer
• Chapter 16: Aluminum Is a Genuine Contender as a Cause of Multiple Sclerosis
• Chapter 17: A Top Trumps Mechanism of Aluminum Toxicity
• Chapter 18: Camelford—Anatomy of a Government Cover-up
• Chapter 19: Politics
• Chapter 20: Imagine You Are an Aluminum Atom
• Acknowledgments
• Plates