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Category: chemistry

Title: A data analysis of the first hermetic seal of SAM–a hi-fidelity, hybrid physicochemical and bioregenerative human habitat analog at the Biosphere 2

Track Code: AM-8

Abstract:
SAM is a Space Analog for the Moon and Mars. This hi-fidelity, hermetically sealed habitat analog and research center is composed of a living quarters for four crew, workshop, dual airlocks, and greenhouse with temperature, humidity, and carbon dioxide level controls. SAM incorporates a half acre indoor/outdoor Mars yard with scaled crater, synthetic lava tube, and gravity offset rig for use in sealed pressure suits. SAM leverages the world class expertise and facilities at the University of Arizona’s Biosphere 2 and the Controlled Environment Agriculture Center (CEAC). As with other analogs, SAM welcomes research teams from around the world in an effort to inform near-future, long-duration human habitation of the Moon and Mars. With the close of June 2,021 a six months refurbishing of the 1987 prototype for the Biosphere 2 Test Module was completed. A crew of five were sealed inside for four hours. This was the first hermetic seal of this iconic vessel in three decades. The paper summarizes the data and findings pertaining to this closure, with review of the internal atmospheric pressure, CO2, O2, humidity and temperature data, including the effect of activation of a CO2 scrubber built by Paragon SDC for NASA.

From the 24th Annual International Mars Society Convention, held as a Virtual Convention worldwide on the Internet from October 14–17, 2021. The four-day International Mars Society Convention, held every year since 1,998 brings together leading scientists, engineers, aerospace industry representatives, government policymakers and journalists to talk about the latest scientific discoveries, technological advances and political-economic developments that could help pave the way for a human mission to the planet Mars.

Conference Papers and some presentations will be available on www.MarsPapers.org.

For more information on the Mars Society, visit our website at www.MarsSociety.org.

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Circa 2016 Basically means we can see contaminated water easier.

Detection and quantification of contaminants or pollutants in surface waters is of great importance to ensure safety of drinking water and for the aquatic environment1,2,3,4,5,6. Metaldehyde (CH3CHO)4 is a cyclic tetramer of acetaldehyde and is used extensively around the world as a molluscicide in agriculture for the control of slugs to protect crops. Large amounts of metaldehyde residues (from ‘slug pellets’) become mobilized, especially during periods of rainfall, seeping into reservoirs, rivers and groundwater, from which drinking water is sourced. Although metaldehyde has low toxicity, cases of metaldehyde poisoning and death in both humans and animals have been reported6,7,8. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) re-registered metaldehyde as a ‘restricted use pesticide’ and required risk-reduction measures to be adopted due to the potential short-term and long-term effects on wildelife9,10. The World Health Organization (WHO) classifies metaldehyde as a “moderately hazardous” pesticide (class II)11. In Europe, the European Commission has adopted a directive that restricts pesticides levels to 0.1 μg/L in drinking water12,13. Water companies and environmental agencies are under increasing pressure to routinely monitor levels of metaldehyde residues in water courses as part of their legal obligation14. As such there is an increasing need to develop effective analytical methods for detecting and quantifying metaldehyde in water samples at the source. In particular in-situ monitoring is required to ensure water management practices are based on empirical, up-to-date information which provides a better understanding of competing factors, risk and requirement.

Rapid analytical methods for in-situ analysis of metaldehyde in water, if available, would provide critical information on water quality for water companies and regulation bodies to manage exposures. Quantitative analysis of metaldehyde has been reported using various ex-situ methods based on solid-phase extraction8,15 followed by gas chromatography (GC) or high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with mass spectrometry (MS)7,14,15,16,17,18. However, each of these analytical methods involves extensive sample preparation including extraction, separation, and derivatization, resulting in increased cost and time of analysis. As will be demonstrated in this study, ambient ionization (AI) combined with tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) can overcome such limitations19,20,21,22.

AI is a form of ionization that is performed on unmodified samples in open air and the method is capable of providing almost instantaneous data while minimizing sample preparation22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29. Some of the most popular AI techniques include desorption electrospray ionization (DESI)30, extractive electrospray ionization (EESI)31,32,33,34,35,36, desorption atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (DAPCI)37,38,39, and direct analysis in real time (DART)40,41. AI-MS shows promise as an analytical tool for in-situ applications and has been demonstrated in a variety of fields where timely intervention is highly desirable such as: homeland security23, food safety42, pharmaceutical drug development43, and environmental monitoring44. There are several advantages to using in-situ AI methods capable of onsite analysis.

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Sri Lanka has become the latest victim of China’s toxic counterfeit culture. After receiving the first consignment of organic fertilizers from China, the Sri Lankan agriculture ministry has found that 20,000 metric tons of fertilizers are toxic.

#Srilanka #China #Fertilizers.

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The team used a high-resolution atomic force microscope (AFM) operating in a controlled environment at Princeton’s Imaging and Analysis Center. The AFM probe, whose tip ends in a single copper atom, was moved gradually closer to the iron-carbon bond until it was ruptured. The researchers measured the mechanical forces applied at the moment of breakage, which was visible in an image captured by the microscope. A team from Princeton University, the University of Texas-Austin and ExxonMobil reported the results in a paper published Sept. 24 in Nature Communications.

“It’s an incredible image—being able to actually see a single small molecule on a surface with another one bonded to it is amazing,” said coauthor Craig Arnold, the Susan Dod Brown Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and director of the Princeton Institute for the Science and Technology of Materials (PRISM).

“The fact that we could characterize that particular , both by pulling on it and pushing on it, allows us to understand a lot more about the nature of these kinds of bonds—their strength, how they interact—and this has all sorts of implications, particularly for catalysis, where you have a molecule on a surface and then something interacts with it and causes it to break apart,” said Arnold.

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Conventional lung cancer treatments include surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy; however, these treatments are often poorly tolerated by patients. Cannabinoids have been studied for use as a primary cancer treatment. Cannabinoids, which are chemically similar to our own body’s endocannabinoids, can interact with signalling pathways to control the fate of cells, including cancer cells. We present a patient who declined conventional lung cancer treatment. Without the knowledge of her clinicians, she chose to self-administer ‘cannabidiol (CBD) oil’ orally 2–3 times daily. Serial imaging shows that her cancer reduced in size progressively from 41 mm to 10 mm over a period of 2.5 years. Previous studies have failed to agree on the usefulness of cannabinoids as a cancer treatment. This case appears to demonstrate a possible benefit of ‘CBD oil’ intake that may have resulted in the observed tumour regression. The use of cannabinoids as a potential cancer treatment justifies further research.

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By contrast, Lewis’s studies suggest it is extremely difficult for B. burgdorferi to evolve resistance to hygromycin. The chemical resembles essential nutrients that spirochaetes cannot make themselves and take up using a specific transporter, so mutations that block the take-up of hygromycin would also deprive spirochaetes of these nutrients.

Lewis says his team isn’t the first to discover the value of hygromycin. It was studied as a potential treatment for a pig disease in the 1980s but abandoned.

Vaccines against Lyme disease are also being developed, but eradicating the disease would be an even better option.

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International diplomacy has traditionally relied on bargaining power, covert channels of communication, and personal chemistry between leaders. But a new era is upon us in which the dispassionate insights of AI algorithms and mathematical techniques such as game theory will play a growing role in deals struck between nations, according to the co-founder of the world’s first center for science in diplomacy.

Michael Ambühl, a professor of negotiation and conflict management and former chief Swiss-EU negotiator, said recent advances in AI and machine learning mean that these technologies now have a meaningful part to play in international diplomacy, including at the Cop26 summit starting later this month and in post-Brexit deals on trade and immigration.

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Mitochondrial disorders, nano-medicine drug delivery, and innovative therapeutic interventions — dr. volkmar weissig scd, phd — president, world mitochondria society — professor, midwestern university.

Dr. Volkmar Weissig, Sc. D., Ph.D. is a Tenured Full Professor of Pharmacology, Chair of the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, and Co-Director of the Nanomedicine Center of Excellence in Translational Cancer Research, at Midwestern University, Glendale, AZ, USA.

Dr. Weissig received his B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Chemistry, and his postdoctoral Sc. D. degree in Biochemistry and Pharmaceutical Biotechnology from the Martin-Luther University in Halle (Germany).

Dr. Weissig completed several years of postdoctoral fellowships at the Cardiology Research Center in Moscow (Russia), at the Academic Department of Medicine at the Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine in London (UK), at the Institute of Organic Chemistry at the Czechoslovakian Academy of Science in Prague (CSFR), at the College of Pharmacy and the College of Medicine at the University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, and at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, MA.

Before joining the faculty at Midwestern University, Dr. Weissig was an Assistant Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Northeastern University in Boston, MA.

Dr. Weissig holds 16 patents and he has published over 100 research papers, review articles and book chapters, mostly in the area of nano drug delivery systems. He also edited and published 8 books. He serves as the Associate Editor of the Journal of Liposome Research and he is member of several other Editorial Boards. In July 2009 he was inducted into the World Technology Network as a Fellow. In October 2014 Dr. Weissig was elected Inaugural President of the World Mitochondria Society.

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The world’s electric grids are creaking under the pressure of volatile fossil-fuel prices and the imperative of weaning the world off polluting energy sources. A solution may be at hand, thanks to an innovative battery that’s a cheaper alternative to lithium-ion technology.

SB Energy Corp., a U.S. renewable-energy firm that’s an arm of Japan’s SoftBank Group, is making a record purchase of the batteries manufactured by Energy Storage Systems. The Oregon company says it has new technology that can store renewable energy for longer and help overcome some of the reliability problems that have caused blackouts in California and record-high energy prices in Europe.

The units, which rely on something called “iron-flow chemistry,” will be used in utility-scale solar projects dotted across the U.S., allowing those power plants to provide electricity for hours after the sun sets. SB Energy will buy enough batteries over the next five years to power 50,000 American homes for a day.

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Toxic chemicals known as PFAS exist in almost 42,000 sites around the U.S., according to research released on Tuesday by the Environmental Working Group.

The research published in the American Water Works Association’s journal Water Science found tens of thousands of potential point sources for per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances contamination around the country. Researchers analyzed data collected between August 2016 and March 2021. They found numerous previously unknown PFAS sites in samples of water downstream from manufacturing facilities.

“We don’t as of yet have great information on how frequently these different sources are contributing to the PFAS contamination we’re finding in surface water and drinking water,” lead study author David Andrews told The Hill.

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