Ice Spike
An ice spike is an upward-facing icicle that forms as a body of water freezes. Ice spikes can form in natural environments or can be made artificially by freezing distilled water in plastic ice cube trays.
Water expands when it freezes. If there already is a thin sheet of surface ice over the body of water, further freezing can force water out and upwards through a crack or weak point in the sheet. This can produce a tube-like structure where water emerges at the tip, progressively lengthening the tube. Tube formation stops when the tip freezes and seals.
Ice spikes rarely form when freezing “normal” non-distilled water because impurities in the water act as an ice nucleus so the water freezes before an ice spike can form.
The formation of ice spikes is related to the shape of the water body, the concentration of dissolved impurities, air temperature and air circulation above the water.
Tryptophan, Bringer of Sleep
Now that you’ve consumed your immense thanksgiving dinner, sit back and have a nap, thanks to your friendly amino acid Tryptophan:
Tryptophan (abbreviated as Trp or W) is one of the 20 standard amino acids, as well as an essential amino acid in the human diet. It is encoded in genetic code as the codon UGG. Only the L-stereoisomer of tryptophan is used in structural or enzyme proteins, but the D-stereoisomer is occasionally found in naturally produced peptides (for example, the marine venom peptide contryphan). The distinguishing structural characteristic of tryptophan is that it contains an indole functional group.
One widely-held belief is that heavy consumption of turkey meat (as for example in a Thanksgiving or Christmas feast) results in drowsiness, which has been attributed to high levels of tryptophan contained in turkey. While turkey does contain high levels of tryptophan, the amount is comparable to that contained in most other meats. Furthermore, postprandial Thanksgiving sedation may have more to do with what is consumed along with the turkey, in particular carbohydrates and alcohol, rather than the turkey itself. This is demonstrated in a popular episode of the sitcom “Seinfeld” when characters of the show drug a woman using turkey and alcohol in order to play with her toy collection.
It has been demonstrated in both animal models and in humans that ingestion of a meal rich in carbohydrates triggers release of insulin. Insulin in turn stimulates the uptake of large neutral branched-chain amino acids (LNAA) but not tryptophan (trp) into muscle, increasing the ratio of trp to LNAA in the blood stream. The resulting increased ratio of tryptophan to large neutral amino acids in the blood reduces competition at the large neutral amino acid transporter resulting in the uptake of tryptophan across the blood-brain barrier into the central nervous system (CNS). Once inside the CNS, tryptophan is converted into serotonin in the raphe nuclei by the normal enzymatic pathway. The resultant serotonin is further metabolised into melatonin by the pineal gland. Hence, these data suggest that “feast-induced drowsiness,” and in particular, the common post-Christmas and American post-Thanksgiving dinner drowsiness, may be the result of a heavy meal rich in carbohydrates which, via an indirect mechanism, increases the production of sleep-promoting melatonin in the brain.
Cyanide fishing
Cyanide fishing is an illegal form of fishing commonly known as poaching common in South East Asia, which usually uses the chemical compound sodium cyanide. Since 2000, increasing restrictions on illegal dynamite fishing have led to an increasing growth in this indiscriminate method – particularly as it can be used without generating noise. The use of cyanide as a fishing technique was first documented in the Philippines in 1962. More than 150,000 kg of cyanide is believed to be used in the Philippines annually by the aquarium trade and more than a million kg have been used since the 1960’s.
In seawater sodium cyanide breaks down into sodium and cyanide ions. In humans, the latter blocks the oxygen-transporting protein haemoglobin; the haemoglobin in fish is closely related to that of humans, and can combine with oxygen even faster. Through the irreversible combining of cyanide ions onto the active structural domain, oxygen is prevented from reaching the cells, and an effect similar to carbon monoxide poisoning results. Coral polyps, young fish and spawn are most vulnerable; adult fish can take somewhat higher doses. The use of cyanide is known to cause mortality on laboratory corals in measured doses, however this data is very difficult to quantify in regard to wild populations. In humans ingestion or breathing in of cyanide leads to unconsciousness within a minute; asphyxiation follows. Lower doses lead to temporary or permanent disability and/or sensory failure. This is a constant danger for the fishermen; there are many local accounts of such “occupational accidents”, but such incidents are not recorded in official statistics or statements.
The fishermen dive into the sea usually without artificial breathing aids, although some use illegal and highly-dangerous apparatus whereby compressed air is sent down thin breathing tubes. When they reach the coral reefs, they spray the poison between the individual layers, after which the yield is collected. Edible fish, of which a number are sold for general consumption, are first placed for ten to fourteen days in fresh water for “rinsing”. Recent studies have shown that the combination of cyanide use and stress of post capture handling results in mortality of up to 75% of the organisms within less than 48 hours of capture. With such high mortality numbers, a greater number of fish must be caught in order to supplement post catch death.
Lycopodium – Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaBordeaux mixture
Bordeaux mixture is a combination of copper sulfate and hydrated lime, invented in the vineyards of the Bordeaux region of France and known locally as Bouillie Bordelaise. It used mainly to control garden, vineyard, nursery and farm infestations of fungus, most notably vine fungus. This fungicide has been used for over a century and is still used, although the copper can leach out and pollute streams.
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Agracetus Campus
The Agracetus Campus of Monsanto is the largest soybean transformation laboratory in the world. The first successful genetically engineered crop ever produced for the commercial market was the Roundup Ready soybean , produced at Agracetus in 1991, and was one of fourteen successful transformation events. Scientists there used gold bead gene transfer technology coupled with the β-Glucuronidase reporter gene to produce the plant. The actual gun that shot the gold beads and produced the genetic modifications is now owned by the Smithsonian museum in Washington, DC.
Every Roundup Ready soybean in the world has a relative which was genetically transformed at Agracetus. 80% of the world’s soybeans are Roundup Ready.
Agracetus was founded in 1981 as Cetus company. Acquired by Monsanto in 1996, the research and development facility is located 8 miles (13 km) west of Madison in the city of Middleton, Wisconsin on 4.5 acres (18,000 m²). The site has 100,000 square feet (10,000 m²) of research space, 35,000 square feet (3,300 m²) of greenhouse space, about 75 employees, and ten laboratories. Output of genetically modified soy plants is many thousands of transformation events per year.
Glyphosate
Glyphosate is a non-selective systemic herbicide, absorbed through the leaves, injected into the bole, or applied to the stump of a tree, used to kill weeds, especially perennials and broadcast or used in the cut-stump treatment as a forestry herbicide. Some crops have been genetically engineered to be resistant to it. Glyphosate was first sold by Monsanto under the tradename Roundup, but is no longer under patent.
Some micro-organisms have a version of 5-enolpyruvoyl-shikimate-3-phosphate synthetase (EPSPS) that is resistant to glyphosate inhibition. The version used in genetically modified crops was isolated from Agrobacterium strain CP4 (CP4 EPSPS) that was resistant to glyphosate. This CP4 EPSPS gene was cloned and transfected into soybeans, and in 1996, genetically modified soybeans were made commercially available. This greatly improved the ability to control weeds in soybean fields since glyphosate could be sprayed on fields without hurting the crop. As of 2005, 87% of U.S. soybean fields were planted with glyphosate resistant varieties. The use of such Roundup Ready crops has changed the herbicide use profile away from atrazine, metribuzin and alachlor. This has the benefit of reducing the dangers of herbicide run off into drinking water.
Boliviana negra
Also known as supercoca or la millionaria, Boliviana Negra is a relatively new form of coca that is resistant to herbicide Roundup, or the isopropylamine salt of glyphosate. The coca plant is the precursor to the addictive stimulant cocaine, one of the most widely consumed illegal drugs in the world and the source of large amounts of money to various criminal organizations. Since Roundup is a key ingredient in the multibillion-dollar aerial coca eradication campaign undertaken by the government of Colombia with US financial and military backing known as Plan Colombia, increasing popularity of Boliviana negra amongst growers could have serious repercussions for the War on Drugs.
The herbicide resistance of this strain has at least two possible explanations: that a “peer-to-peer” network of coca farmers used selective breeding to enhance this trait through tireless effort, or the plant was genetically modified in a laboratory. In 1996, a patented Roundup Ready or glyphosate-resistant soybean was marketed by Monsanto, suggesting that it would be possible to genetically modify coca in an analogous manner. Spraying Boliviana negra with glyphosate would serve to strengthen its growth by eliminating the non-resistant weeds surrounding it. Joshua Davis, in the Wired article cited below, found no evidence of CP4, a protein produced by the Roundup Ready soybean, suggesting Bolivana negra was not created in a laboratory but by selective breeding in the fields.
Aqua regia
Aqua regia (Latin for royal water) is a highly corrosive, fuming yellow or red solution. The mixture is formed by freshly mixing concentrated nitric acid and concentrated hydrochloric acid, usually in a volumetric ratio of 1:3 respectively. It is one of the few reagents that dissolves gold and platinum. It was so named because it can dissolve the so-called royal, or noble metals, although tantalum, iridium, and a few other metals are able to withstand it.
When Germany invaded Denmark in World War II, the Hungarian chemist George de Hevesy dissolved the gold Nobel Prizes of Max von Laue and James Franck into aqua regia to prevent the Nazis from stealing them. He placed the resulting solution on a shelf in his laboratory at the Niels Bohr Institute. It was subsequently ignored by the Nazis who thought the jar—one of perhaps hundreds on the shelving—contained common chemicals. After the war, de Hevesy returned to find the solution undisturbed and precipitated the gold out of the acid. The gold was returned to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and the Nobel Foundation who recast and presented the medals to Laue and Franck.
Emulsion & Emulsifier
An emulsion is a mixture of two immiscible (unblendable) substances. One substance (the dispersed phase) is dispersed in the other (the continuous phase). Examples of emulsions include butter and margarine, espresso, mayonnaise, the photo-sensitive side of photographic film, and cutting fluid for metal working. In butter and margarine, a continuous liquid phase surrounds droplets of water (water-in-oil emulsion). Emulsification is the process by which emulsions are prepared.
An emulsifier (also known as an emulgent) is a substance which stabilizes an emulsion, frequently a surfactant. Examples of food emulsifiers are egg yolk (where the main emulsifying chemical is the phospholipid lecithin), and mustard, where a variety of chemicals in the mucilage surrounding the seed hull act as emulsifiers; proteins and low-molecular weight emulsifiers are common as well. In some cases, particles can stabilize emulsions as well through a mechanism called Pickering stabilization. Both mayonnaise and hollandaise sauce are oil-in-water emulsions that are stabilized with egg yolk lecithin. Detergents are another class of surfactant, and will chemically interact with both oil and water, thus stabilising the interface between oil or water droplets in suspension. This principle is exploited in soap to remove grease for the purpose of cleaning. A wide variety of emulsifiers are used in pharmacy to prepare emulsions such as creams and lotions.