ENST: What Zinc Does for You
Zinc about zis: How does
element #30 get from earth’s
mantle to plant to you?
Zinc and the Miracle of Man
by David Coppedge
Evolution News & Science Today, June 14, 2022
A street interviewer asking strangers, “What do you know about zinc?” is likely to get puzzled looks and few quick answers. One respondent might recall hearing that zinc lozenges help reduce the severity of colds. One might say it’s an element, or a metal. Another might have seen zinc supplements in nutrition stores. Well, here is a new paper describing a previously unknown zinc transporter, offering a prompt and an opportunity to learn more. Also, I’m thoroughly enjoying biologist Michael Denton’s latest book, The Miracle of Man. And as it happens, zinc gives a perfect example of several themes he discusses in the book.
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Zinc is element 30 in the periodic table, and the most abundant metal in the body after iron. Even so, we only carry about three grams of zinc by weight. That trace amount should not be disparaged: it is vital for 10 percent of the proteins and enzymes in our cells. In his earlier book The Miracle of the Cell (2020), Denton devoted two pages to zinc, listing the varieties of some 300 enzymes that rely on its unique properties. Last year, in an article about metals in proteins, Casey Luskin mentioned several important functions that zinc enzymes perform.
One important zinc enzyme Denton focuses on is carbonic anhydrase. It converts CO2 in our cells to bicarbonate, and then reverses the reaction in the lungs….
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As a bonus, read about this fascinating role played by zinc!