May 2016 – Page 2 – David Bradley

Heavy, heavier hydrogen

If you learned any chemistry ever, you will most likely know that hydrogen atoms are the simplest atoms – a nucleus comprising a solitary proton with a single electron bound to it. You’ll also presumably know that hydrogen has heavier isotopes, same chemical element, but with at least one neutron to make deuterium, two to make theÂ heavier isotope, tritium. But, Nature Chemistry’s Stuart Cantrill tweeted recently about other isotopes of which there are at least four: hydrogen-4, hydrogen-5, hydrogen-6 and even hydrogen-7. Who knows what the limit might be on heavy, heavy hydrogen, but those later isotopes are very, very unstable.

Water boiling temperature

A perennial favourite of visitors to my website for the last two decades, and one I revisit occasionally with updates – what is the boiling temperature of water? Well, the brilliant Andy Brunning of Compound Interest has put together an excellent infographic to answer this question comprehensively.

You should check out Andy’s site for so many more chemistry topics from the chemistry of Camembert to what makes chemical reactions go quicker…the chemistry of hangovers to contact lenses.

Free photos for whatever

Phil Bradley [no relation] alerted me to a site called LibreStock whichÂ does a meta search of image sites and only returns those images that have a Creative Commons “zero” licence. A zero licence, as Phil points out with a quote from LibreStock site itself means “you can use these pictures freely for any legal purpose.Â This means that they are free to use, even commercially, you can modify, copy and distribute, and you don’t need to attribute.”

That’s useful to know. I often need to grab a quick image to illustrate a throwaway blog post, Facebook update or tweet, butÂ don’t always have a camera to hand nor the object I’d photographÂ with which to illustrate the update.

I gave it a quick try first search for apples and getting loads of computer and phone shots. A search for bananas was more on point

bananas

Another search for “Ford Mustang” brought up just 5 shots, a search for “guitars” brought up some nice photos although some of them were of saxophones. Ten snaps for a search on robots one of which was of the Mars Rover and another of R2D2. A search for “garbage” and then “rubbish” brought up some odd results, a perfectly good skateboard and some leaves for instance, although other pictures included a pile of broken phones, a plastic bag caught on a tree and some wheely bins.

It looks like a useful and potentially inspiring source and the problematic results it returns may be an artefact of incorrect tagging of the photos by the original sites.

Influential gadgets

Time magazine published a Top 50 of the most influential gadgets of all time. Of course, the Playstation and the Gameboy, the Palm Pilot and the iPad, the TiVo and the JVC camcorder, the Polaroid Instamatic camera and the Kodak Brownie, are on the list, as is the TomTom satnav/GPS, the Blackberry and the Sony Walkman.

It’s a veritable feast of electronics and pre-electronics spanning the twentieth century and into the 21st, although some of the gadgets have their roots in the electromagnetomechanical world of the 19th. The Apple Mac is at #3, the Sony Trinitron television at #2 and at #1, surprise, surprise, the iPhone.

But, what’s that at #10…? The Magic Wand? An electric “neck massager”, apparently…you may recall I sort of alluded to that kind of gadget and the world of cyber relationships in my Peter Gabriel pastiche, a song entitled “Push the Button“. Now available to stream or download for free from my BandCamp page…or on SoundCloud. Go on you know you want to…

Social media conspiracy theory

One very worrying side effect of the algorithms social media/networking sites, like Facebook are using to tune your newsfeeds and timelines for best impact of advertising is that they’re boulstering conspiracy theories…ironically enough. At least that’s according to a feature on Fastoexist.com. But, how would we know and how could we stop this happening…are they really manipulating us like this…pass my tinfoil hat would ya?

Heavy drinking and chain smoking

The rate at which nicotine is metabolised in heavy drinkers, or more precisely, people who are chronic alcohol abusers, who smoke tobacco, has been investigated to see if there was a change in rate of nicotine metabolism and smoking in alcohol-dependent smokers who stop drinking.

Noah Gubner of the UCSF Center for Tobacco Control Research & Education, Maciej Goniewicz of the Department of Health Behavior, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, New York, USA, and colleagues elsewhere in the USA and Poland, explain how the rate at which a smoker’s body metabolises the psychoactive compound in tobacco, nicotine, is an important factor in how much a person smokes, their degree of dependence, and the possibility of using nicotine replacement therapy.

Another factor that can influence smoking behaviour, however, is how much alcohol the smoker drinks. Theory suggests that chronic alcohol abuse can accelerate the rate of nicotine metabolism and so smokers who are heavy drinkers often find that they are heavy smokers, chainsmokers, too.

To test this hypothesis, the team recruited 22 Caucasian men randomly selected from a sample of 165 smokers who were enrolled on a seven-week alcohol dependence treatment program in Poland. They tested urine samples from the men, collecting data at three time points: baseline (week 1, after acute alcohol detoxification), week 4, and week 7. Volunteers were regularly and frequently breathalysed to ensure that none were drinking alcohol at any time during the study. The researchers determined the nicotine metabolite ratio, a biomarker for the rate of nicotine metabolism, and total nicotine equivalents, a biomarker for total daily nicotine exposure.

The results were quite self-explanatory at least for this small group of heavydrinking smokers. “We found a large reduction in rate of nicotine metabolism over the seven weeks but no change in smoking,” Gubner told Sciencebase. The data showed a significant decrease in nicotine metabolites in urine over the seven weeks of alcohol abstention. However, there was no change in urine total nicotine equivalents across the three sessions, which indicates that there was no change in daily nicotine intake. Chronic alcohol abuse may increase the rate of nicotine metabolism, which then decreases over time after the volunteers stopped drinking alcohol.

Future research is needed to determine the effects of alcohol abuse on rate of nicotine metabolism could be used to develop improved smoking cessation interventions,” Gubner says. “Research suggests that individuals who have a faster rate of nicotine metabolism have lower smoking cessation rates using nicotine replacement therapy such as the patch. We saw a decrease in rate of nicotine metabolism over 4-7 weeks after alcohol cessation, suggesting alcohol abuse resulted in an increase in the rate of nicotine metabolism. For example, in alcohol dependent individuals who stop drinking, our study suggests that altering either the timing of when to initiate smoking cessation or in the type of smoking cessation intervention could potentially improve outcomes, however, this needs to be tested,” Gubner adds.

I asked Gubner whether alcohol make smokers heavier smokers because they process nicotine faster than other people and so need a more frequent hit? Why didn’t total nicotine intake change if that’s the case?

“This is an interesting point,” he says. “One might expect to see a decrease in smoking and total nicotine intake if rate of nicotine metabolism was decreasing. We did not find this. However, all individuals had a long history of both alcohol and tobacco use, it is possible that changes in smoking and nicotine intake would be observed over a longer period of time,” he told Sciencebase. “The results support the idea that chronic alcohol abuse may increase the rate of nicotine metabolism (observed shortly after alcohol cessation), which then decreases over time after alcohol cessation.”

DOI: 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2016.04.006

What time is it?

A heavy metal clock that is accurate to one second in 20 billion years – longer than the age of the known universe – is being planned by German physicists.

They hope toÂ create a nuclear clock that works not by counting theÂ regular swings of a pendulum nor the tick-tocking of a springloaded ratchet and not even the energy changes taking place in an atom of caesiu, but ratherÂ byÂ observing the changingÂ properties of the tiny nucleus at the heart of an atom ofÂ thorium. Specifically, the short-lived state of that element known asÂ ^229mTh, technically known as theÂ isomeric first excited state.Â The team recently detected this stateÂ setting them on the road to building their nuclear clock. IÂ highlighted the press release about this research a couple of weeks ago.

But, of course, children playing in the garden have known for a long, long time how to tell the time most accurately, thanks to the delicate seed heads of Taraxacum officinale…

Lock up your tortoise!

Lock up your tortoise, there’s a Bearded Vulture in town, my lovelies. According to a piece in the Telegraph today a young Bearded Vulture (Gypaetus barbatus) that had been seen in Belgium a few days ago made it all the way to the Devon coast and then another 100 miles up on to Dartmoor. This species is well known for its appetite for bone marrow. It’s a bone-cruncher and will chew the brittle bones of dead animals to get to the nutritious marrow within, the digestive juices in its gizzard being plenty strong enough to dissolve bone. But, for tougher cookies, it will carry them aloft and drop them from hundreds of metres up to smash them open to make accessing that marrow easier.

So, the headline? Well, these birds can carry off animals that up to their own size and again drop them from on high to kill them and make eating their bones much easier. Alternatively, they will simply smash their way into a tortoise, like an enthusiastic child at Easter cracking open a chocolate egg.

G. barbatus is now known to be quite closely related to the Egyptian Vulture (Neophron percnopterus, which myself and Mrs Sciencebase saw many years ago on The Canary Island of Fuerteventura. That said, G. barbatus is the only member of the Gypaetus genus.

Turns out the one seen in May 2016 was most likely an escapee from a collection or aviary rather than a wild bird so was never added to the so-called British list.

Robin redbreast chick

UPDATE: The robin and the blue tit both feature in my free 10-bird ebook sampler “Chasing Wild Geese”. Send me an email [email protected] to get the link for the PDF.

Well, the blue tits didn’t settle in our birdbox, but a family of robins (Erithacus rubecula) set up home in some ivy on the fence at the rear of the garden. The chicks have been making their high-pitched “feed me now” tweets for a few days. Just now, noticed one on the lawn with two parents in frequent attendance. They’re fast moving and in the shade so quite hard to get a sharp photo, but here goes. One of the chick alone and another post-prandial with parent.

Robins used to be classed as part of the thrush family, Turdidae, but they have been reclassified as chats (old world flycatchers). The American robin is definitely still a thrush though Turdus migratorius and strikingly different to the European robin, but both have the famous “red” breast, which is, of course, orange, because there was no word for that colour until the 16th century (hence redhead, red shank, red admiral, all prominently orange!); we had the fruit by 1300 but didn’t call the colour orange until much later.

The mercurial story of a song

As you’ve probably noticed, I blog about my music and photography as well as whatever in science grabbed me by the short and curlies intellectually on any given week. Sometimes, there’s an alignment as it were. Last week was such a time. Mercury was in transit across the face of the Sun. There had been a big prelude about this relatively rare happening in the astro blogs for months, the general science blogs had been enthusing for weeks, and oh, on the day itself the mainstream press and TV finally caught up.

Mercury, of course, the planet closest to old Sol, is the smallest planet, orbiting in its Keplerean path in less than 90 days. At dawn or dusk, if you’re patient, keen eyed and have decent weather and a good vantage point you will often see it as a bright point of light close to the horizon just before sunrise or just after sunset. Mercury, the messenger to the Roman gods is often portrayed as having wings on his heels, the faster he can cross the heavens to deliver his portent of doom. And, with this imagery in mind I strummed a few chords on my acoustic guitar and began mumbling something about having “wings on your heels and solar wind in your hair” and “turning to face the Sun”.

The ideas and the chord progression gradually emerged over the course of a day or two. I was picturing Mercury in transit, a tiny black disc crossing the face of the Sun and somehow sending out a warning to humanity. We do seem to be making a total cockup of a lot of things these days, although all doomsayers have said that generation after generation and hooked their headlines on shooting stars, comets, supernovae, and, of course, planetary alignments. If it’s not climate change, pollution and the ever-elusive notion of sustainability, it’s racist nationalism and divisiveness, territorial and terrorist wars. There are the issues of bigotry and equality, the notion of everyone being part of this family we call humanity regardless of their genetics, their skin colour, their beliefs, their sexuality, their gender identity etc. As such, here are countless people suffering in attempting to make their own transition from somewhere terrifying and dangerous to what they hope will be an almost heavenly safe haven across the sea. Many do not make it.

The song evolved over a couple of days last week. I nailed down the chords, put together a percussion track from sample loops in my recording software, recorded a guide vocal with guitar and then overdubbed a proper vocal and separate acoustic and electric guitar tracks. Added some bass. Then mixed it down. Felt disappointed redid the vocal from scratch and added a couple of harmonies here and there and did a final mix…I’m still tweaking…

Mercury in transit, the messenger, watching us from afar, sending a sign, hoping that humanity too is in transition, from a bad place to a better place, but perhaps knowing disheartingly that we rarely learn. Mercury has made that journey countless times for the long millennia before humanity existed and whether or not we make the right transitions, Mercury, who was also the god of travellers and border crossings, will continue to fly with wings on his heels and the solar wind in his hair.

I just felt like I should explain something behind the inspiration for my latest song Mercury in Transit, which you may well have seen me mention on social media this last week or so. Have a listen, there’s a video montage, but you can stream the song on SoundCloud or Bandcamp (download available there too). I think it sounds best on headphones, I did some little stereo tricks that work best in headphones, but hopefully it’ll sound okay on your iPhone, docking station or radiogram…