Re: Science is a cult?

"For example, fluorine can displace chlorine, bromine and Iodine because fluorine has a lower atomic weight than the other three. Similarly, chlorine can displace bromine and Iodine because they both have a higher atomic weight. Likewise, bromine can displace Iodine from the body because iodine has a higher atomic weight. But a reverse order is not possible."

I and many others would disagree with Jarvis on that one. The differences in ionic radii and reactivity of the halogens mean that it is not all about atomic weight. Fluoride is a small, hard cation that is unique among all elemets in that it is capable of hydrogen bonding, whereas Iodide is a very large polarizable anion. Jarvis, like most, is not correct on everything and probably borrowed the notion of displacement from that occurring in nuclelphyllic substitution reactions described by organic chemists of the time, and by extension he applied it to the human body. But it's not that simple. Jarvis isn't mentioned or referenced in modern texts nor by the Iodine project for good reason. Much of what he wrote was baseless conjecture. Some of it turned out to be true. Take a dartboard and put twenty stock symbols on it and throw ten darts, write them down, and see how you do after 20 years.
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