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Boron
A mineral that helped preserve Egyptian mummies also sits at the heart of a modern cancer drug—and may nudge your bones, vitamin D, and inflammation in subtle...
Calcium
In 1808, a young Humphry Davy hooked his new battery to a paste of "lime," boiled off the mercury, and—against all expectations—pulled a silvery metal from...
Magnesium
On a summer day in 1618, a farmer in Epsom, England led his cows to a spring. They refused to drink—too bitter. But when he splashed the water on a rash, it...
Selenium
A trace element named for the moon once helped halt a fatal heart disease in rural China—then, two centuries after its discovery, a misformulated U.S....
Fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum)
One autumn night in New York City, a sweet pancake smell rolled over Manhattan. For four years, it returned like a ghost. The culprit wasn't a bakery at all—it...