"Two poisonous elements: an explosive solid and a toxic gas, when combined, make one of the most useful and ubiquitous substances we know: sodium chloride, or salt.
Just add salt: Researcher discovers a safe, simple way to make disinfectants work better (University of Alberta, 23 Oct 2023). This team found that disinfectants are more effective with salt.
Adding salt to the mix in quantities above 2.5 per cent weight per
volume can make a huge difference. But it has nothing to do with the chemical properties of the salt itself, says Choi. Rather, as the alcohol and water in the disinfectant evaporate, the salt recrystallizes and grows, physically destroying the cell walls of pathogens. By adding salt, we can add another mechanism — physical destruction — to the chemical destruction, and we can cause the rapid inactivation of pathogens faster and more efficiently, without any concern about mutations or structural difference.
The Solar System’s biggest moon is spattered with salt (Nature, 30 Oct 2023). Salts and Organics Observed on Ganymede’s Surface by NASA’s Juno (NASA, 31 Oct 2023).
The Juno spacecraft is discovering amazing things about Jupiter’s moons. Ganymede, Jupiter’s largest which beats Titan for size by a bit, is now found to have salt on its surface. Don’t be confused by
NASA’s term “organics” — it just means molecules containing carbon, not substances associated with life.
The JIRAM data of Ganymede obtained during the flyby achieved an unprecedented spatial resolution for infrared spectroscopy – better than 0.62 miles per pixel. With it, Juno scientists were able to detect and analyze the unique spectral features of non-water-ice materials, including hydrated sodium chloride, ammonium chloride, sodium bicarbonate, and possibly aliphatic aldehydes." CEH
