August 2007 – Page 3 – David Bradley

Chemical Summer

It’s a bumper summer special issue over on Reactive Reports, with an interview with Chemistry Central OA advocate Bryan Vickery and a stash of breaking chemistry stories

Reactive Profile–Bryan Vickery, Chemistry Central
Bryan Vickery did his BSc and PhD in electrochemistry at Liverpool University, England, but eschewed damaged jeans and fume cupboards for the world of electronic publishing.

Attractive Changing Colors Yadong Yin and colleagues at the University of California, Riverside, have discovered that a simple magnet can be used to change the color of nanoparticles of iron oxide in aqueous suspension.

Fairytale Insulin Substitute People with type I diabetes could one day be prescribed an extract from pumpkins that will drastically cut their reliance on daily insulin injections.

Multichannel Microchemical Factory
In the mid-nineties, microchemistry was set to revolutionize the chemical industry.

No Munchies with Cannabinoid Antagonist The pharmaceutical rimonabant latches on to the cannabinoid 1 (CB1) receptors in the brain and blocks their activity.

Contaminated Seabirds A new approach to monitoring seabirds for contamination with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and other persistent organic pollutants (POPs) has been developed by scientists in Japan.

Camera Courses

photo coupons lily For those of you who are interested in knowing a bit about my personal life, I’ve spent daytimes this week on a digital photography course (evenings and early mornings have been blogging and work as usual, which makes for a rather tiring week).

I’ve been taking photos for almost two decades and have acted as picture editor and image source for dozens of articles over the years, but I hoped to gain a few new insights into the process of photo composition from international press photographer Malcolm Clarke, who was running the course at my local community education centre.

It was the first time the centre had run the week long course as part of its internationally famous summer school. We had a great group of enthusiastic photographers and rattled through several hundred snaps each over the course of the week. The range of skills among the students was initially very diverse and the biggest improvements were seen among those fresher to photography than any of those who might have already had some claim to being old hands. Even those students with the simplest of compact digital cameras were producing quite excellent shots and certainly demonstrated that having an eye for a shot is far more important than having the right kit.

That said, some of the most detailed macro close-ups of insects and flowers on the final day, taken at Cambridge’s stunning Botanical Gardens, were mindblowing, especially one students shot of a common darter (a type of dragonfly, that is not a ruddy darter) and another’s image of a honeybee coming into land. Brilliant stuff.

As it’s Saturday, I’m pointing you to the imaging and photography links page. Anyone on the course who wants to see some of my pre-course snaps from the recent Fen Edge Family Festival held in Cottenham in June they can check out my Imaging Storm website).

We are all made of stars

Stellar molecules A cocktail of chemicals is venting in enormous jets from the oxygen-rich surroundings of a supergiant star 5000 light years from earth, according to Arizona radio astronomers. Using the the Arizona Radio Observatory’s 10m Submillimeter Telescope (SMT) on Mount Graham, which is so sensitive it could detect emissions from deep space that are weaker than a typical light bulb, the team has picked up the chemical signatures for a range of small molecules and ions.

Among the score of small chemical species detected in the environment around the supergiant star VY Canis Majoris is common salt (NaCl), hydrogen isocyanide, phosphorus nitride, and protonated carbon monoxide ions. These materials contain several of the elements critical to the formation of life, explain the researchers, something that was not expected to be found in the atmosphere of a cool dying star.

“I don’t think anyone would have predicted that VY Canis Majoris is a molecular factory. It was really unexpected,” says Arizona chemist Lucy Ziurys, Director of ARO, “Everyone thought that the interesting chemistry in gas clouds around old stars was happening in envelopes around much closer, carbon-rich stars.

We are all made of stars, but whether or not this latest evidence points to a stellar origin for life on earth remains to be seen. Apparently, comets and meteorites dump about 40,000 tonnes of interstellar dust on our planet each year, presumably this figure was much higher when the earth was mere millions of years old and given that most of its original carbon evaporated away from its primordial methane atmosphere it is very possible that we do indeed owe our existence to a heavenly body.

You can read my full write-up on this over on SpectroscopyNOW.com

Viscosity Corn Syrup Science Trick

Reverse laminar flow

I’m on a photography course this week, hence the leaner, meaner Sciencebase posting regime. But, I did find time to chat with technology writer Wayne Smallman on Blah Blah Tech, who pointed out this neat video showing three distinct coloured fluids (dyed corn syrup) being poured into a vessel stirred slowly and then the flow reversed.

You might suspect it is a trick, but it is not. The three coloured liquids end up separated but are not quite as perfectly aligned as they were at the start. Why does this happen? It’s laminar (non-mixing) reverse flow, is tied to the viscous nature of the corn syrup, the smooth flow of the mix and the reverse unmix. I guess the only trick might be that the three fluids are within a thin layer inside the cylinder within which is a second concentric cylinder, the stirrer, oh that and the fact that the “experimenter” cannot actually count! But the essential thing is that corn syrup has a low Reynolds number (this approximates to high viscosity).

Such effects do occur in nature at tidal river confluences where water from different flows barely mix because of differing temperatures and salt concentration. The same phenomena could underlie the seemingly stable patterns we see on Jupiter (it’s lots of viscous layers not mixing).

Anyway, here’s the video

As to what Wayne had to say about it. “Wow, well effin’ weird, or what?!” were his first words. He figured my “science know-how” would do it more justice. Well, personally, I think it’s just effin’ weird too! Seriously, for a more detailed explanation check out this page on the Harvard website. The video has also been discussed on StumbleUpon here.

Intellectual genetics

Tug of war

Two worthy legal moratoria – the Agreement on the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS)
and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) – are potentially in direct conflict when it comes to plant genetic resources and intellectual property rights, at least that is the conclusion of legal expert Megan Bowman. However, potential conflicts could be reconciled in this context by applying the common sense notion of remaining true to the over-arching principle of global welfare-maximisation in TRIPS and by utilising patent exemptions in appropriate circumstances. This, Bowman claims, will allow TRIPS and CBD to operate in a way that achieves both their objectives equally well so that intellectual property rights can be appropriately recognised and biodiversity can be sustained.

Writing in the International Journal of Intellectual Property Management (2007, Vol. 1, pp 277-292), who is a trained barrister and a lecturer in the Law School and Centre of Strategic Economic Studies, at Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia, points out that international recognition of intellectual property rights has grown, particular in the biotech arena, as biodiversity levels have fallen across the globe. Bowman points out that these two trends have become related since the creation of TRIPS and CBD in 1993 whose spheres of operation overlap significantly, particularly in relation to plant genetic resources and intellectual property rights. Bowman states that this is because biological diversity, at both genetic and physical levels, is being exploited as the key ingredient for lucrative biotech and pharmaceutical industrial creation. Patent protection of that creation raises questions about biodiversity sustainability and also access to the resultant benefits and technologies derived from use of a raw product ‘owned’ by source countries or communities.

Currently we are experiencing global biodiversity degradation and decimation due to causes such as global warming that may result in the extinction of nearly half the current lifeforms by 2050. Bowman comments: ‘Apart from the intrinsic value of biological diversity, without healthy and diverse ecological systems on this planet there is no quality of life for humans — no fresh air or water, no arable land or edible food, and exposure to devastating storms, floods and droughts. But at the same time, humans are evolutionary creatures and we see that clearly with technological innovation. We are also wed to the dollar and we see that, in the context of this discussion, in the jealous guarding of rent for patents, specifically in the growing sector of biotechnology and pharmaceuticals based on plant genetic resources. So the question is how do we marry these components in a way that honours each of them? I look at this question from a purely legal standpoint. Undoubtedly any solution is complex, multi-faceted and multi-disciplined. Nonetheless, the legal principles embedded in the key international treaties on protection of biodiversity and protection of intellectual property rights in plant genetic resources share a commitment to global welfare enhancement. So it becomes clear that the legal foundations exist for cooperation between these two sectors. This knowledge paves the way for productive dialogue and action in boardrooms, patent offices and parliaments around the world.’

Related article from the Sciencebase archives on corporate academia: Will publicly funded research become mired in patent protection and intellectual property rights or remain purely altruistic?

(Updated: August 21, 2007)