Iron deficiency in children leads to, among other problems, an impaired ability to learn.

Iron is essential for human brain development.

Circulation of liquid iron deep in the earth is believed to create the electric currents that create our planetвЂ™s magnetic field.

Earth has enough iron to make three new planets, each with the same mass as Mars.

One third of EarthвЂ™s mass is believed to be iron, most of which lies deep within the planet, in the core.

The word iron itself comes from вЂirenвЂ™ in Anglo-Saxon.

The origin of the chemical symbol Fe is from the Latin word вЂferrumвЂ™ meaning iron. In the first century Pliny the Elder said, вЂњIt is by the aid of iron that we construct houses, cleave rocks, and perform so many other useful offices in life.вЂќ (6) Until this happened there were few technological reasons for the bronze age to give way to the iron age the techniques of improving iron by adding carbon (to make steel) and coldworking were needed before iron would be wholly preferred to bronze. The iron age began about 1300-1200 BC when iron became cheap enough to replace bronze.ДЄdding carbon to iron to make steel was probably accidental at first вЂ“ a coming together of molten iron and charcoal from the smelting fire. Assyrian writings tell us that iron was eight times more valuable than gold. In those times, iron was a ceremonial metal it was too expensive to be used in everyday life. In Mesopotamia (Iraq) there is evidence people were smelting iron around 5000 BC.ДЄrtifacts made of smelted iron have been found dating from about 3000 BC in Egypt and Mesopotamia. This makes it harder to trace the history of iron than the less reactive metals.ДЄrtifacts made from meteorite iron have been found dating from about 5000 BC (and so are about 7000 years old) вЂ“ for example iron beads in graves in Egypt. Iron corrodes easily, so iron artifacts from ancient times are much rarer that objects made of silver or gold. Most objects that fall to earth from space are stony, but a small proportion, such as the one pictured, are вЂiron meteoritesвЂ™ with iron contents of over 90 percent.

The first iron used by humans is likely to have come from meteorites. FeO, Fe 2O 3 (hematite), Fe 3O 4 (magnetite)

Iron atomic radius