Prix Média 2023 for the history of iodine in table salt
The Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences are honoring Jonah Goodman with the 2023 Prix Média for his article «How Three Country Doctors Freed Switzerland from Goiter.» The feature, which appeared in the magazine, tells the story of how iodine came to be added to salt.
In an exciting story, Goodman showed that not only scientific knowledge is needed, but also people who make this knowledge marketable, the academies said on Friday.
In the article is about three country doctors who wanted to mix iodine into salt in the fight against goitre in the early 1920s and had to contend with a great deal of skepticism and prejudice. The article was originally written in English, for the first publication in the Magazine it was translated into German.
The contribution is very topical, the academies said, because parallels with the handling of the coronavirus pandemic are recognizable.
The Prix Média, endowed with CHF 10,000, is awarded annually for contributions to science journalism. (SDA)
