Tuesday, 23 September 2014

JUAN DE MAIRENA (ANTONIO MACHADO) AND THE COMPOSITION OF THE SEA WATER

The poetic, in the poet himself, is not the salt, but the gold which, according to what is said, the sea water also contains.

What Juan de Mairena says about gold, not very confidently to be honest, is true: There is some gold in the sea water, but there are also many different elements in amounts that scientists call traces. These amounts are roughly worth the value of the clembuterol found in Alberto Contador´s steak.
Everyone knows that the sea water contains NaCl, which is responsible for its taste. Many Chemistry teachers like to delight their students by telling them that we can find all the elements of the periodic table in the sea. And they do that while pointing at the periodic table hanging on the wall, as if they were the weather forecaster when he is marking the tempest that will affect the whole east of the peninsula.



I think salt is the only substance, or one of the few, whose extraction from the sea water is economically profitable. For example, the salt mine of San Fernando mentioned in Camarón´s song. If you ever happen to buy some salt in these salt mines, the smallest parcel you can take weighs 30 kg at least, which is enough to cook some gilt-head breams on a salt bed.

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