what's the value of a penny?

Rare earth elements include Scandium, Yttrium, and the collection of elements with atomic numbers from 57-71: also known as the lanthanides. While their names are probably pretty unfamiliar to many--Prasiodymium, Promethium, Samarium, etc--their use has been increasing and their interesting magnetic and chemicals are increasingly exploited in high technology applications.

There has been some news recently about the global supply of these elements. While we have deposits of them in the U.S., recent supplies have been coming out of China. Until really recently, that is, since there have been issues with supply and allegations of price controlling.

Now the New York Times reports on another potential source of these elements. Manganese nodules on the surface of the ocean apparently contain not only valuable copper in significant amounts, but also rare earths. If the combined value of the materials in these rocks makes the economics work out, maybe people will start mining the sea floor for them.

Somewhere deep in the article the author mentions that the concentration of copper in the ore mined in the San Jose copper and gold mine in Chile (you know the one) is only half that of these nodules, which contain a paltry 1% copper.

That leaves me wondering why someone doesn't just collect all the pennies I have accumulated over the years and extract the copper from them. They're surely more than 1% Cu and it would be easy to get hold of them.

good news in the land of AIDS

Well, it's not news that I'm getting older, but at least I am doing so at the same rate as everyone else. I remember the world when telephones had cords, reheating food meant putting it on the stove, and nobody knew of AIDS. Around 1986 I was working at the University of Iowa Hospitals when I encountered my first AIDS patient. I was doing phlebotomy. He was a haemophiliac. He had contracted the disease from injections of Factor VIII, used to control his disease.

We had to monitor his level of Factor VIII and it was a huge deal to go into his room and get the blood. Lots of precautions. He was a very sick man, and died within weeks. I learned right away how horrifying the disease was.

Years later things are much different for AIDS patients. We have retrovirals that make their lives much better, and their lifetimes much longer. But it is still an awful thing, and it is still great to hear about advancements in AIDS research.

NPR tells of just such a story, which references some work published in Science. Yay.

I think I want some tonka beans

A great story about food, drugs, and chemistry is available online over at the Atlantic.

A quick look at the structures of coumarin and the drug known commercially as coumadin, both available from Wikipedia, will reveal their obvious similarities and differences. I remember reading about the history of the drug and the story of sweet clover disease in cows in my text books many years ago. Until I read the Atlantic story here, I didn't realize that coumarin itself has no anticoagulant activity.

So now, after reading the article, I would really love to try some tonka beans. Like many people I love vanilla, and I also love the smell of fresh mown hay.

a very local tie to the KBR/Chromium story

The Bend Bulletin had a front page article about a week ago about Oregon National Guard troops exposed to Chromium-6 during work in Iraq in 2003. The story has been in the news for quite a while (an Oregonian story from 2009 is still posted here), but I didn't realize we had a connection quite this local.

Turns out the story is an AP article and is available free from various sources on the web. Here is one.

Happy Earth Day

If you do not know who Rachel Carson was, you should. If you do know who she was, this is a lovely dramatization and interview.

Part I loads up automaticallly. Parts 2 can be loaded from a link directly above the main frame.

Behold the power of hormones

Just as we started a discussion of chemical messengers in class this week, npr provides us with a fascinating story about oxytocin. The trust hormone, eh? Seems like quite a stretch to link it to complex things like anti-government sentiment, but perhaps there is a kernel of truth in there somewhere. Much as I'd like to deny it, hormones are powerful things, and probably shouldn't be underestimated.

We really don't understand any of this stuff very well. We like to talk like we do, but come on. The cranium is one heck of a barrier: it's very tough to understand much of anything that goes on inside of there even with sophisticated imaging tools. We're still discovering hormones we never knew we had. We are kindergarteners when it comes to understanding how receptor systems work with these messenger molecules.

Our biochemistry is clearly affected by external stimuli of all sorts: bears jumping out at us behind corners, but also coming home to dog poo on the carpet or being surprised by a chance meeting with an old friend. Who is to say that little daily things like hugs, smiles, birdsongs, or the smell of rain do not cause biochemical changes that can change the way we function...just a little? While science requires evidence to back up any specific claims about this sort of thing, I like the idea.

Chasing Molecules

Elizabeth Grossman has provided us all with a book that features some of the brightest minds and best ideas in Green Chemistry. It is called Chasing Molecules, and includes both heebie-jeebie inducing stories about toxics in our most local environments and also stories of hope. Chemists play both the role of hero and of villain in the stories she tells. It's refreshing to get a balanced message such as this.

Many of the Green Chemists she talks about are among my favorite people in the field: John Warner, Amy Cannon, Paul Anastas, Jim Hutchison, Richard Wool, Terry Collins, and others. I have met these people! What a hoot!

I have to confess I knew about the book but hadn't read it until I attended a meeting where Ms. Grossman herself was in attendance. I should have had her sign my copy. I hesitated. And I missed her. But her message is not lost on me. And I hope the book allows her to bring her message to a broad audience who will listen.

Thanks to all authors who have the patience and talent to write books that popularize science!