A staple of chemistry classroom demonstrations may offer a solution for cleaning up decades’ worth of toxic solvents polluting the environment, new research suggests.
Potassium permanganate is a disinfectant used by water treatment plants, and is sometimes also used to treat pollution stemming from industrial-grade solvents that were buried 30 to 40 years ago.
“But most people who use potassium permanganate to treat pollution pump it into a well in liquid form every day for a cou
Scientists at the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have developed a novel material that can remove mercury and other toxic substances from coal-burning power-plant waste water.
Mercury pollution is widely recognized as a growing risk to both the environment and public health. It is estimated that coal-burning power plants contribute about 48 tons of mercury to the United States environment each year. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate th
The United States Department of Energy (DOE) Joint Genome Institute (JGI) and Stanford University report today the completion of the sequencing of human chromosome 19, the most gene-rich of all the human chromosomes. This achievement is described in the April 1, 2004 edition of the journal Nature.
“Culminating 18 years of research, this partnership exemplifies DOE’s commitment to advancing our understanding of the complex interplay between our human health and the environment,” said Energy S
Adding a small molecule, dubbed a “molecular midwife,” researchers increased the rate of DNA formation in a chemical reaction 1,000 fold over a similar reaction lacking a midwife. The discovery is an important step in the effort to trace the evolution of life back to the earliest self-replicating molecules. The results are reported in the April 2 edition of the German chemistry journal Angewandte Chemie.
“We are working to uncover how molecules similar to RNA and DNA first appeared on Earth
Penn State researchers have proposed a new marking process for Internet messages to make it easier to trace the originators of spam, illegal copyrighted material or a virus attack.
The new marking scheme produced less than one percent false positives per 1000 attacking addresses in simulated distributed denial of service attacks and even fewer false positives and zero missed detections tracing addresses transferring copyrighted material in another simulation.
Marking messages via
A team of geologists can tell you more about earthquakes in “Middle Earth” than can the whole trilogy of “The Lord of the Rings.”
Specifically, how do earthquakes happen in Earth’s tightly squeezed middle layers where pressure is far too great to allow any shifting of the rock? According to a paper published in the April 1 issue of the journal Nature, breakdown of the mineral serpentine provides enough wiggle room to trigger an earthquake. The report suggests a new mechanism to explain
Research in mice examines how embryo protects itself from oxidative stress
Mouse embryos missing a gene that aids in the repair of DNA damage are at greater risk of developing birth defects, say U of T scientists. The finding has implications for research into the cause of birth defects in humans.
The gene, also found in humans, produces an important protein called ATM which senses DNA damage caused by reactive oxygen species and directs other proteins to repair it. Reactive
Chewing gum may just be the latest in a growing list of functional foods
Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago have found that Big Red — the popular cinnamon-flavored chewing gum made by Wrigley’s — reduced bacteria in the mouth that cause bad breath.
The finding was presented at the recent annual meeting of the International Association for Dental Research.
Given that the gum contains cinnamic aldehyde, a plant essential oil used for flavorin
A first-of-its-kind x-ray microscope being built for the Advanced Light Source (ALS) of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) holds forth the promise of “cat scans” for biological cells, and other unprecedented capabilities for cell and molecular biology studies. The new microscopy resource also promises a better understanding of human diseases at the molecular level and possibly new discoveries for treating those diseases. Now, researchers with Berkeley Lab and the University of
If Washington state issues additional permits for water to be diverted from the Columbia River for farm irrigation, it should do so only under the condition that withdrawals can be stopped if river flows become critically low for endangered and threatened salmon, says a new report from the National Academies’ National Research Council. Salmon are at increased risk during periods of low flows and high water temperatures, conditions that are most likely to occur during the summer months when deman
Imagine you are a thousand miles from home, and your mother cooks your favourite meal for you. Then she takes a photo of it and sends it to you by email. And then, when you open the photo, a wave of aroma–your Mom’s cooking–fills the air.
Two researchers at the University of Alberta have been working to make this type of scenario a reality. Their latest success, the development of an electronic nose for multimedia use, has been reported recently in IEEE Transactions on Consumer Elect
The use of photographs by psychotherapists as memory cues for the “recovery” of patients’ possible childhood sexual abuse has been called into question by a Canadian study. It found that a “staggering” two-out-of-three participants accepted a concocted false grade-school event as having really happened to them when suggestions regarding the event were supplemented with a class photo.
“I was flabbergasted to have attained such an exceptionally high rate of quite elaborate false memory r
The role between plant genotypes and beavers in building ecosystems
The beaver (Castor canadensis), well known for altering ecosystems, may be more influential than originally suspected. Living along streams and rivers across the United States, many beavers encounter different varieties of cottonwoods. In a study published in the March issue of Ecology, “Beavers as molecular geneticists: a genetic basis to the foraging of an ecosystem engineer,” researchers from Northern Arizona Unive
A Purdue University researcher is working to restore the American chestnut, an important wildlife tree and timber resource that dominated the landscape from Maine to Mississippi before it was driven to near-extinction by a fungal disease introduced about 100 years ago.
Doug Jacobs, assistant professor of forestry in the Hardwood Tree Improvement and Regeneration Center at Purdue and director of the Indiana chapter of the American Chestnut Foundation, studies how well American chestnut trees
Mayo Clinic researchers have discovered that a component in green tea helps kill cells of the most common leukemia in the United States.
The research using laboratory cell cultures shows that a component of green tea known as epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) [epi-gallo-cat-ekin-3-gal-ate] helps kill leukemia cells by interrupting the communication signals they need to survive. The findings are reported in an early electronic article in the journal Blood (http://www.bloodjournal.org/
During World War II, soldiers from the Fifth U.S. Army set up camp at an exclusive hunting estate in Italy, regrouping between military drives north against German troops and fascist leader Benito Mussolini. Sixty years later, forest pathologists are pointing to huge gaps of dead trees in the estate as the visible reminders of that brief stay.
In a new study published in the April issue of Mycological Research, researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, and in Italy, have unlock
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