The American Chemical Society (ACS) News Service Press Package is your access point for discoveries in fields ranging from astronomy to zoology, which are reported in the 35 journals of the American Chemical Society. With more than 158,000 members, ACS is the world's largest scientific society. Chemistry is the science that transforms lives, and these news alerts are from the leading edge of that science at ACS headquarters.
Contact: Michael Woods
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m_woods@acs.org
In This Edition:
- USDA reports decreased consumption of key nutrients
- The poisons within: a new focus for toxicology
- Electrifying sewage
- Cleaner gas flaring for the energy and petrochemical industries
- Summer's medical milestone: insulin without the injection
- Journalists' Helper of the Week
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ARTICLE #1
Dramatic Declines in consumption of healthful plant nutrients
Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
People in the United States consume dramatically smaller amounts of a class of healthful plant nutrients than previously believed, researchers report in a study scheduled for the May 31 issue of the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. The nutrients, anthocyanins (ACNs), are pigments responsible for the blue, purple and red colors of blueberries, plums, cherries and other fruits.
Previous estimates suggested that the average person consumed up to 185-215 milligrams (mg) of anthocyanins per day. Although cited extensively, those figures were complied in the 1970s when analytical techniques were not as advanced and dietary patterns were different from those of today. The latest findings, done by U.S. Department of Agriculture researchers, indicate the average person consumes just 12.5 mg of ACNs per day.
Ronald L. Prior and a group of colleagues with the USDA's Agricultural Research Service in Arkansas screened more than 100 common foods to get accurate information on ACN content. The foods included fruits, vegetables, nuts, spices, snack items and juices. The researchers used that data and current food consumption figures from the 2001-002 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey in developing the new estimate.
ARTICLE #1
"Concentrations of Anthocyanins in Common Foods in the United States and Estimation of Normal Consumption"
http://pubs.acs.org/cgi-bin/sample.cgi/jafcau/asap/pdf/jf060300l.pdf
http://pubs.acs.org/cgi-bin/sample.cgi/jafcau/asap/html/jf060300l.html
CONTACT:
Ronald L. Prior, Ph.D.
USDA, ARS
Arkansas Children's Research Center
Little Rock, Arkansas
Phone: 501-364-2747
Fax: 501-364-2818
Email: priorronaldl@uams.edu
ARTICLE #2
The poisons within: a new focus for toxicology
Chemical Research in Toxicology
Every Crime Scene Investigation (CSI) fan knows that toxicology is the science of poisons. Real sophisticates may even know one of toxicology's bedrock axioms: "It's the dose that makes the poison." Any substance -- even water -- can be a poison in high enough amounts.
Toxicology traditionally focuses mainly on potential poisons outside the body, such as environmental and workplace pollutants, drugs, personal care products, contaminants in food and natural substances in plants. In identifying those threats, toxicologists have saved countless lives.
A commentary scheduled for the May 15 issue of the ACS journal, Chemical Research in Toxicology, calls for a redefinition of the science and an updating of toxicology's mission in modern biomedical research. "The focus on substances outside the human body casts toxicology as an auxiliary discipline to the mainstream of biomedical research," said the author, Daniel C. Liebler, of Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.
Liebler suggests two toxicological tweaks. One involves expanding the scope of toxicology to explore the actions of toxic substances produced inside the body. In its other new role, toxicology would focus on how these inside-the-body poisons cause diseases not necessarily associated with chemical exposures. "The most important consequence of this redefinition is to bring the strengths of toxicology squarely to bear on some of the most important problems in human disease," Liebler added.
ARTICLE #2
"The Poisons Within: Application of Toxicity Mechanisms to Fundamental Disease Processes"
http://pubs.acs.org/cgi-bin/sample.cgi/crtoec/asap/pdf/tx0600292.pdf
http://pubs.acs.org/cgi-bin/sample.cgi/crtoec/asap/html/tx0600292.html
CONTACT:
Daniel C. Liebler, Ph.D.
Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
Phone: 615-322-3063
Fax: 615-343-8372
Email: daniel.liebler@vanderbilt.edu
ARTICLE #3
Electrifying sewage
Environmental Science & Technology
Wastewater from toilets could do more than go just down the drain. It could become a new renewable source of electricity. Bacteria like those in wastewater naturally produce electrons as they decompose organic material; and electricity is nothing more than flowing electrons. There already are microbial fuel cells (MFCs), which produce minute amounts of electric current by exploiting electron-producing chemical reactions inside bacteria.
The challenge is to make practical MFCs that produce enough electricity to power devices in the real world. A report scheduled for the May 15 issue of Environmental Science & Technology now provides researchers with reassurance that practical MFCs are possible. The study was done by Willy Verstraete and colleagues, of the Laboratory of Microbial Ecology and Technology at Ghent University in Belgium. Researchers had hoped to get higher voltage or more current by connecting multiple MFCs together, much like batteries stacked inside a flashlight. However, they faced uncertainties about how stacking MFCs might affect the electricity-producing microbial populations inside each fuel cell.
Verstraete's research focused on how stacking of MFCs and the evolution of the microbial communities inside the MFCs influenced the electric output. "This is the first report that relates the evolution of the electrochemical and microbial features of MFCs," he noted.
ARTICLE #3
"Continuous Electricity Generation at High Voltages and Currents Using Stacked Microbial Fuel Cells"
http://pubs.acs.org/cgi-bin/sample.cgi/esthag/asap/pdf/es0525511.pdf
http://pubs.acs.org/cgi-bin/sample.cgi/esthag/asap/html/es0525511.html
CONTACT:
Willy Verstraete
Ghent University
Phone: +32(0)9 264 59 76
Fax: +32(0)9 264 62 48
Email: willy.verstraete@UGent.be
ARTICLE #4
Cleaner gas flaring for the energy and petrochemical industries
Energy & Fuels
The energy and petrochemical industries eliminate unwanted combustible gases by flaring and burning in the atmosphere. Flaring actually consumes waste gases safely, reliably and efficiently -- avoiding the substantially higher hydrocarbon emissions that would result from simply venting the gases.
To the public, however, those flames often are a symbol of pollution. Environmental regulations also limit the length of time that a flare can smoke. Industry has responded by injecting steam and air into the flares to reduce or eliminate smoking. Too much steam or air can be counterproductive, resulting in large emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which are key ingredients in formation of smog and other air pollution problems.
Although steam injection has been used for years, there is uncertainty over the exact amounts of steam that strike the best balance between smoke suppression and VOC release. Thomas F. Edgar and David Castineria at the University of Texas at Austin are helping to fill that knowledge gap by reporting combustion efficiency figures for various steam/air/fuel combinations using a special model. Their report, scheduled for publication in the May 17 issue of Energy and Fuels, may help make smoke suppression in industrial flares more environmentally friendly.
ARTICLE #4
"CFD for Simulation of Steam-Assisted and Air-Assisted Flare Combustion Systems"
http://pubs.acs.org/cgi-bin/sample.cgi/enfuem/asap/pdf/ef050332v.pdf
http://pubs.acs.org/cgi-bin/sample.cgi/enfuem/asap/html/ef050332v.html
CONTACT:
Thomas F. Edgar, Ph.D.
University of Texas-Austin
Phone: 512-471-3080
Fax: 512-471-7060
Email: edgar@che.utexas.edu
ARTICLE #5
Insulin without the injection
Chemical & Engineering News
A milestone in medical history is approaching as "insulin-without-the-injection" hits pharmacy shelves around the country this summer. Approved by the U. S. Food and Drug Administration in January, Exubera® is the first form of insulin that can be inhaled. It's the answer to an 85-year-old quest for a more convenient way of administering the hormone, taken by millions of people with diabetes.
An article by Linda Wang in the May 8 issue of Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN) previews Exubera's debut and describes the daunting challenges that researchers overcame to bring the drug to market.
"It's an historic event," C&EN quotes Tarun K. Mandal, a professor of pharmaceutics at Xavier University of Louisiana in New Orleans. Mandal predicts that inhalation insulin will not only offer people with diabetes more options to control their disease, but also may pave the way for other inhalation drugs.
ARTICLE #5
"A sweet start for inhalable insulin: new approach to delivering insulin scores a first for both diabetes and pulmonary drug delivery"
http://pubs.acs.org/cen/science/84/8419sci3.html
CONTACT:
Michael Bernstein
Office of Communications
The American Chemical Society
Phone: 202-872-6042
Fax: 202-872-4370
Email: m_bernstein@acs.org
Journalists' Helper of the Week
Mark your calendars now for the 232nd National Meeting of the American Chemical Society, which will be held September 10-14 in San Francisco, Calif. With almost 12,000 presentations anticipated, "Chemistry 2006 - San Francisco" will be one of the year's largest and most influential scientific meetings. The ACS News Service is updating its national meeting press arrangements to assure that reporters can access this rich news event both from the meeting site in the beautiful Bay Area and remotely from their offices. Bookmark the meeting website for future reference:
http://www.chemistry.org/news_service/pressroom.html
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