Salt may be the key to life on Mars. Thanks to Mars missions, scientists have confirmed two things about the Red Planet: there's plenty of ice and plenty of salt. Of course, life as we know it requires water. And while temperatures on Mars are either too high or too low for fresh water, the presence of salt makes it possible that there is life-sustaining salt water below the planet's surface.
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The United States is the world leader in salt production. In 2002, the US produced 43.9million metric tons of salt, according to the Salt Institute. China was second, with 35 million metric tons. Among other nations producing significant amounts of salt were Germany, with 15.7 million metric tons; India, with 14.8 million metric tons; and Canada, with 13 million metric tons.
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Salt was surely the first food seasoning. Prehistoric people got all the meat that made up a large portion of their diet. When humans began turning to agriculture as a more reliable food source, they discovered that salt - most probably from the sea - gave vegetables that salty taste they craved. As the millennia passed, salt gradually made life more comfortable as people learned to use it to preserve food, cure hides and heal wounds.
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The concentration of salt in your body is nearly one-third of the concentration found in sea-water. This is why blood, sweat and tears are so salty. Many scientists believe that humans, as well as animals, need salt because all life evolved from the oceans. When the first land dwellers crawled out of the sea, they carried the need for salt - and a bit of the supply - with them and passed it on to their descendants.
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One of the several words salt has added to our language is salary. It comes from the Latin word salarium, which means salt money and refers to that part of a Roman soldier's pay that was made in salt or used to buy salt - a life-preserving commodity. This is also the origin of the phrase "worth one's salt".
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