Bromine found to be essential to animal life

Fruit flies deprived of the element die as larvae

FULL OF HOLES  Basement membranes help maintain tissues (fruit fly gut, left) in animals. Fruit flies raised without bromine (middle) develop holes (red arrows) in the basement membrane that can be repaired by adding bromine to the diet (right). Scale bar represents 20 micrometers.

A.S. McCall et al/Cell 2014

Bromine is a secret ingredient in the recipe for animal life.