Ingenious fluorescence microscopy experiments have revealed palladium atoms liberated behaviour, helping answer unresolved questions about an important process for forming bonds between carbon atoms. The SuzukiMiyaura cross-coupling won Akira Suzuki a Nobel prize in chemistry in 2010, but there has been debate about whether solid palladium catalysts are dissolving or not.

Tito Scaianos team at the University of Ottawa found that palladium atoms dissolve and leach away from other atoms in nanoparticles, but then land back on the surface of their supporting material. These redeposited palladium atoms are active sites for the carboncarbon bond formation process, explains Paolo Costa, first author on the new paper.

Industrially, the SuzukiMiyaura reaction is frequently used for the synthesis of essential drugs, says Costa. Industry finds it easier to isolate and reuse solid catalysts than work with soluble versions. But this raises the question of whether the carboncarbon bond formation reaction happens on the catalyst surface, or whether the catalyst dissolves and potentially leaches away. Finding the correct answer is important since leaching processes often result in unwanted traces of toxic metal in drugs, raising the operating costs for purification and catalyst recovery, Costa says.

At first Scaiano, Costa and their colleague Deborah Sandrin used non-microscopy methods to distinguish whether solid or dissolved palladium was the active catalyst. Some of their results suggested mechanisms occurring at the palladium nanoparticle surface, while others indicated a leaching process.

Scaianos group then used total internal reflectance fluorescence (Tirf) microscopy to directly study the atoms at work. In this process they shine specific wavelengths of laser light across a region 100200nm above a microscope slide that contains mixtures including fluorescent dyes. The microscope detects the resulting fluorescence in high resolution, potentially down to around 20nm pixel sizes and captures events occurring on timescales of 100ms. Thats enough to capture important details about catalyst behaviour.

To study the SuzukiMiyaura reaction, the Ottawa team designed a novel chemical system. They started with a molecule that fluoresces green, which has two bromine atoms that enable it to participate in carboncarbon bond formation reactions. Adding 2-thienylboronic acid can make a monosubstituted molecule, and then a disubstituted one, which fluoresces red. Using Tirf the chemists tracked when they saw the products form, and where.

At first the team saw fluorescence bursts at the same place as the palladium nanoparticles. They therefore thought carboncarbon bond formation was only happening at the palladium nanoparticle surface. But a peer reviewer who assessed their paper prior to publication suggested that atoms could be leaching and readsorbing.

The chemists rose to this challenge. They placed an area of catalyst comprising palladium nanoparticles distributed on titanium dioxide support material side-by-side with an area of titanium dioxide containing no catalyst. They then let reagents flow from the catalyst side of the slide to the pure titanium dioxide side. To their surprise, they soon started to see fluorescence bursts originating on the pure side. Tirf microscopy demonstrated that the catalytic sites, atoms or small clusters of palladium, are active once they land back on the titanium dioxide support, highlighting the heterogeneous, yet mobile, nature of the catalytic system investigated, Costa underlines.

Vivek Polshettiwar, from the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) in Mumbai, India, says that leached palladium atoms becoming active sites after attachment back to catalyst supports is indeed an exciting finding. Most heterogeneous catalysts for Suzuki coupling use amine or thiol functionalised supports before loading palladium, adds Polshettiwar. This generally significantly reduces leaching, he notes. It will be interesting to know if these systems also follow the same mechanism.

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Palladium catalyst voyage prompts carboncarbon bond formation rethink - Chemistry World

Jared Dudley knew when he signed with the Lakers that his off-court contributions might be more meaningful than his impact on the court. As a 34-year-old veteran of 13 years in the NBA, his mind and locker room presence have begun to eclipse his basketball productivity.

But Dudley remains invaluable for how he contributes to team chemistry. He has been a mentor to younger players in the past, a role he took on once again for Kyle Kuzma this season, and hes always available for spot minutes when there are injuries, foul trouble, or a coach is simply looking for a player to settle the team down.

That means Dudley had to develop real on-the-court chemistry with his teammates in Los Angeles. The Lakers got that process started during the offseason with LeBron James pick-up games, and in an interview with Michael Pina of SB Nation, Dudley revealed there was one specific detail he needed to work through with the teams frontcourt players.

When I got here Id turn the ball over throwing to our centers because they expected a lob, Dudley said. I dont really throw lobs, Im more of a bounce passer.

Dudley solved his problem by initiating conversations with LAs big men, verbalizing his own in-game habits so that everyone could get on the same page.

Anecdotally, I can never remember Dudley throwing a lob pass Chris Paul, he is not so Dudleys self-assessment of his distribution tracks. Per NBA Stats, he only made 16 passes to Lakers centers this season, three of which resulted in assists. That is an incredibly small sample size to work with, but if youll indulge me, lets check the tape to see how Dudley got on the same page with JaVale McGee and Dwight Howard.

Here Dudley is getting McGee two dunks.

And then a hook shot for Howard.

It appears Dudley and his bigs achieved a compromise over the course of the season. There are no lobs or bounce passes in these clips, because they met somewhere in the middle: a good old-fashioned chest pass.

Dudley is still a bounce-pass enthusiast when it comes to the Lakers backcourt, but he wouldnt be a good teammate if he didnt adjust to the habits of the other players on the roster. It would probably be asking too much of Dudley to start throwing lob passes at this stage of his career, especially considering Howards present-day vertical jump, but a chest pass gets the ball just high enough so that the team can avoid turnovers.

Chemistry has been difficult to achieve around the league, as Pina notes, but players like Dudley, who communicate nonstop, are essential to working through those challenges. Its part of why the Lakers are one of the most close-knit teams in the league.

For more Lakers talk, subscribe to the Silver Screen and Roll podcast feed on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts. You can follow this author on Twitter at @sabreenajm.

Link:
Jared Dudley breaks down how he developed chemistry with Lakers big men - Silver Screen and Roll

Stephanie Richards, a UWMadison Department of Chemistry graduate student, evaluates the cellular connection status of a QuantAQ sensor package. Photo by Joseph Gord

In a city teeming with traffic, its common to smell exhaust and other air pollutants on the street. But air pollution doesnt always stay outside. Fluctuations in outdoor air quality can cause changes in indoor air pollution, which can lead to respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, cancer, and can adversely affect pregnancies, according to the National Institutes of Health.

Chemists at the University of WisconsinMadison are working to better understand how air quality fluctuations outside of a building affect the composition of air inside. The project is a collaboration between the Department of Chemistry and Johnson Controls, which works in heating, ventilation, air conditioning and smart building technology.

Assistant Scientist Joseph R. Gord, from the UWMadison Department of Chemistry, checks the operation of a miniature pump which provides constant gas-throughput for an optical particle counter. Photo by Stephanie Richards

The building is alive and responds to episodic changes in air quality, says chemist and lead researcher Tim Bertram, citing increases in wildfires and exhaust from traffic flow. An air filtration system that could respond to those changes would offer the benefits of clean air, without a continuous cost.

To make this idea a reality, the researchers must first determine how the quality of outside air affects the air inside a building and if changes in air quality can be assessed quickly enough to make filtration decisions. To do so, the Bertram group teamed up with Boston-based QuantAQ to deploy four outdoor air quality sensors around the Department of Chemistrys building complex in Madison and one within the building.

We want to know if we can measure air quality around the building, Bertram says. We also want to determine what controls the variability of local air pollution and if we can measure it fast enough to make a decision.

Though other systems for air quality assessment already exist, information access takes too long to allow for immediate adjustments in filtration. The QuantAQ sensor packages measure three sizes of particulate matter, as well as levels of ozone, nitric oxide, nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, and carbon dioxide, any of which could lead to lung damage and other health problems. The sensors also track meteorological data, including humidity, temperature, atmospheric pressure, wind speed and direction, solar irradiance, and noise.

The data are automatically uploaded to a server, allowing the scientists to assess possible correlations between things like the suns rays and an increase in ozone, or an increase in noise and the presence of an idling vehicles exhaust.

We can see graphs that show how much of each pollutant is present and how it lines up with each sensor, says Stephanie Richards, a graduate student on the project. The system uploads five, one-minute averages every five minutes, so we get 60 points per hour, per sensor.

Johnson Controls, which funded the research, may be able to use the results of this research to create technology that could determine when air filtration is needed, and building designers could use this research to determine the best locations for air intakes.

For now, the current project is focused on air quality correlations, which lets the researchers do what they do best.

We get to focus on the chemistry problems of whats happening around the building, says assistant scientist Joseph Gord, and how we might address any air quality issues.

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If you think the songs in the charts sound like they were made by machines, youre probably wrong an AIslyrics would be better.

Thats according to research by ticket site TickPick, which recently tested whetherpeopleprefer artificial or humansongwriters.

The company scraped thousands oflyrics from genius.com and grouped them intorock, rap, country, and pop songs. The wordswere then fed toatext-generating machine called GPT-2, which used machine learning to create new sets of lyrics.

The system composed 100 songs in each genre, which the TickPick team turned into four original six-track albums. They then ran the lyrics through Grammarlys plagiarism checker to check that the AI songwriters werent stealing from the artists that inspired them.

[Read:Researcher builds AI rapper to spit sick rhymes with mixed results]

They then tested whether 1,003 music fans could spot which lyrics were made by AI and which were written by real musicians and whether they preferred the songs created by humans or machines.

In each category, the respondents were shown three lyrics written by acclaimed human artists,and one created by an AI.

When asked which verse was the most emotional, almost 40% of people said they more touched by the AIs wordsthan lyrics writtenby Adele, R.E.M., and Johnny Cash.

And who can blame them? Only a heart of stone would be unmoved by this tear-jerker:

I stand alone and think its better to be alone. Lonely days, I just cant find the will to go on. Im in this state, and my esyes show me that Ive been taken.

After wiping tears from their eyes, the respondents were asked which songwriter was the most creative.

Again, the AIsmashed the so-called legends, attracting 65% of votes for this inspirational poetry:

When clouds part to reveal a man in the wilderness outside the pale light of morning. A secret within the door can hear him say. The clouds will reveal what I mean.

Humanitys last chance to overcome the machines came in the overall favorite category and theAI was finally defeated. It nonetheless deserves applause for this imaginative effort:

I got my rig in the back of my Beemer. Professional when I graze, Im professional when I argue. 40 glass, Im laughing at that s***, Ima be roaring at that s***

The experiment also revealed which genres are hardest forAI songwriters to master.

The respondents struggled to spot which pop and country lyrics were written by an AI. And its rock song was so emo that they thought it was written by My Chemical Romance or Nirvana.

However, they were less convinced by artificial rapper Young AI. Almost 36% of them recognized that a human did not create these bars:

In the city at night, wild stars appear. From far away, theres a quiet storm. About to collapse, Im in a rush to buy a house. The disappointment, just too strong to overcome. My ego and my consciousness got me out the track. So I search for answers, but there arent none.

The researchers believe this is because the unusual syntax of rap songs is hard foralgorithms to interpret, which should keep rappers safe in their jobs for now. But for rockers, pop stars, and country singers, it might be time to pass their mics to the machines.

Published April 24, 2020 14:26 UTC

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This AI wrote such emo lyrics that humans thought it was My Chemical Romance - The Next Web

In 2014, the water supply to the city of Flint, Michigan was switched from the Detroit system to the Flint river to cut costs. Improper treatment of the water supply led to issues with water quality and serious consequences for the health and wellbeing of residents.

The water was contaminated, and Flint residents were being poisoned.

Low chlorine levels in the water system led to an outbreak of Legionnaires disease that spread to 100 people and killed 12. The contaminated water also corroded old pipes, leaching lead a neurotoxin that can cause irreversible damage to neurological and cognitive function in children into the supply. Dangerously high levels of lead have been found in the blood of children from areas where the water was shown to be unsafe.

And one of the reasons we know about what happened in Flint? Citizen science, combined with community activism.

Flint resident LeAnne Walters was one of the first to have high levels of lead confirmed in her home supply after her tap water ran brown. After months of educating herself about Flint water systems, she reached out to Marc Edwards, a professor of civil and environmental engineering from Virginia Tech. Edwards supplied Walters with hundreds of testing kits, so that residents could collect water samples, and agreed to run analyses in his laboratory.

Without a citywide sampling event that was led by Flint residents the Flint water crisis never would have been recognised, says Edwards, who was awarded the AAAS Scientific Freedom and Responsibility Award for his collaborations with Flint residents. Without data, youre just another person with an opinion.

Edwards explains that the three-bottle testing kit used by Flint citizen scientists was much more sophisticated than the one-bottle test typically performed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The team collected samples when the tap was switched on and then after 45 seconds and three minutes. He believes the data gathered enabled the team to communicate better public health information than the government agencies.

The community leaders of the project displayed fierce dedication. You cant say enough about how hard they worked and how smart they were, says Edwards. The teams not only collected representative water samples, they also implemented safety measures to prevent anyone from tampering with the samples. That became important later, when the integrity of our methods was challenged, explains Edwards.

Controls, checks and balances are imperative in all forms of science. Community projects are no different, particularly when the stakes are so high.

While the vast majority of citizen scientists performed their duties diligently and with the highest ethical standards, one resident was found to have deliberately enhanced the levels of lead in their drinking water. They reported inordinately high lead concentrations, despite no known lead pipes leading to their property. An investigation revealed that lead fishing weights added to the plumbing had skewed the results considerably.

While shocking, Edwards didnt find this to be especially surprising, particularly because the crisis put billions of dollars [in compensation] in front of a vulnerable and poor community. Hes also pragmatic about issues of misconduct in citizen science, as stated in an article he co-authored about the lessons learned from the Flint project: No-one is above the temptation to cheat, whether citizen or scientist those who view citizens as incorruptible paragons of wisdom and virtue are at least as misguided as those who believe the same of scientists and engineers.

The experiences in Flint informed the design of a follow-up citizen science project that aims to build a better understanding of the pipes within residences across the US: Crowd The Tap. Led by citizen science expert Caren Cooper from North Carolina State University and funded by the EPA, Cooper says the project promotes access to safe drinking water by assisting individuals and groups in creating inventories of pipe materials that deliver drinking water to homes.

I think that Flint raised a lot of awareness about the fact that lead contamination in water comes from the infrastructure itself. There really is not a good handle on where there are still lead pipes, she adds.

The project applies a bottom up approach to science rather than the top down approach thats reliant on government agencies to provide testing and data. Participants enter data about their homes, using magnets to identify steel pipes or simple coin scratch tests to find lead. The hope is to empower tenants and owners to take steps to improve the safety of their drinking water.

A lot of times, data doesnt speak for itself, explains Cooper. So, I think usually it combines well with some sort of community activism. And Cooper believes that data and community values, taken together, is what should inform policy.

All science takes place in a societal context where there are priorities, values and subjectivity, but Cooper believes that we can still follow an objective process when collecting and analysing data.

I agree at the confluence of crowdsourced data and activism theres an exciting opportunity for positive social change.

Read more:
How Flint tapped in to community action | Opinion - Chemistry World

Jimmie Monsoor (front, wheelchair) and other veterans and guardians tour the USS Missouri. Steve Ranson / LVN

World War II veteran Jimmie Monsoor reads letters sent to him by area students. Monsoor and other veterans attended a reception at the Honolulu Elks Club. Steve Ranson / LVN

World War II William Curry, left, and Jimmie Monsoor were part of an Honor Flight Nevada trip to Hawaii. Steve Ranson / LVN

John Konvicka pushes Jimmie Monsoor past saluting sailors at the dining facility at Pearl Harbor Hickam Joint Base. Mon navy lunch

mon pearl harbor handshake

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Editors note World War II and Korean War veterans visited Pearl Harbor earlier this year as part of Honor Flight Nevadas first trip to Hawaii. The end of World War II in both Europe and the Pacific occurred 75 years ago.

The surprise attack on Pearl Harbor early on the morning of Dec. 7, 1941, prompted a call for volunteers to enlist in the military and fight for their country.

One such young man was Jimmie Monsoor, a La Crosse, Wisc., native who now lives in Reno, but his age at the time prevented him from serving.

When Pearl Harbor was bombed, everybody was ready to join, he said. I was too young. Later on, I wanted to join the Marines, but my mother wouldnt sign. She said I was too young.

Monsoor was 15 years old when the United States declared war on Japan. As the years slowly pressed on, Monsoor waited before he could join the military, but instead of volunteering at a younger age like he wanted, he received a draft notice when he was 18 years old. Within two weeks, he left for basic training. Monsoor entered the Army Air Force and spent 1945-1946 in a crucial position.

Praise the Lord, so to speak, he said. I was very fortunate to get in at the end of the war.

As a chemical technician, he was in charge of a bombs dump chemical storage on Guam, a small island in the Marianas that was recaptured by American forces in 1944.

One of my jobs was to protect those bombs, and if they had a leak, Id go in and decontaminate it, he said.

Monsoor said it was dangerous work by tending to an arsenal of mustard, napalm and chemical bombs. Each projectile was filled with liquefied noxious gas that was released when the bomb exploded. If a leak developed, Monsoor said a crew donned their decontamination equipment and fixed the leak.

To this day, Monsoor also remembers Guams hot, humid weather, and the jungle and other vegetation that covered half the island.

There were lots of insects, Monsoor said. We were fortunate the island was sprayed every two weeks.

Monsoor attended basic training Sheppard Field and Wichita Falls, Texas, and completed his advanced training for chemical technician Buckley Field, Colo. After World War II ended, Monsoor, who was a corporal, slipped into the inactive reserves, but with the breakout of war on the Korean peninsula, he was recalled. Monsoor, who spent total of 12 years in the military, remained stateside.

When World War II ended, though, Monsoor settled in California rather than returning home to Wisconsin. He attended a junior college and then California State University Sacramento where he majored in chemistry and minored in math, yet he felt his purpose in life was unfilled.

I didnt like being a chemist, he said. I applied to a pharmaceutical company in sales and management, and spent 40 years in pharmaceuticals.

Monsoor also had another trick up his sleeve, that of a magician. He opened a magic store to promote his hobby and was a magician who belonged to different organizations.

After he retired, he and his late wife, Marilyn, had planned to stay in California, but they decided to move in Reno in 2001 where housing costs were more reasonable, and the area wasnt as crowded.

Since he can remember, Monsoor has respect for those who don the uniform to serve their country. He and Marilyn flew to Washington, D.C. in 2012 on the first Honor Flight Nevada to see the nations memorials built in honor of the nations fighting men and women. Marilyn, a registered nurse, served in Vietnam on aerovac (aeromedical evacuation) missions, and also in Japan and England before retiring as a lieutenant colonel. She died in 2017.

The trip to Pearl Harbor earlier this year comes as many nations remember the 75th anniversary of World War IIs end. Monsoor had been to Pearl Harbor before as a young soldier and then with Marilyn after they married, but he said it was nice to be reminded of the price of freedom.

The five days on Oahu in February rekindled those cherished memories for the 93-year-old Monsoor.

I think of my wife, he said when they saw some of the memorials at Pearl Harbor. I wish she was here to see them again.

Not only does Monsoor reflect on his current journey to Pearl Harbor but also the need for younger generations to learn about the second world war in their classes.

I dont want people to forget, he said. I want them to remember.

Originally posted here:
Veteran waited to join the war effort: Chemical technician's age kept him from fighting until 1945 - Nevada Appeal

Dear Dr. Blonz: I am hoping to learn more about the history of chemicals used as food additives. With the advent of controlled atmospheres to limit spoilage, why are additives even needed? S.L., Tulsa, Oklahoma

Dear S.L.: There is definitely confusion about food additives: about how they work and why they are needed. Fresh, whole foods remain on the top of the priority list, but food additives which include preservatives, flavors and colors should not be automatically feared. To be sure, they are a mixed lot, but the more you learn, the more you may find that some deserve appreciation.

Some additives are naturally occurring substances, while others are synthesized in a laboratory. All are chemicals, but the same can be said for everything we eat, whether it comes fresh from the garden or in a package on your grocers shelf. And what may surprise you is the fact that whether an additive is all-natural or chemically manufactured has little bearing on its safety. This is a controversial topic, but seeing as you asked about history, that will be my focus.

If you think that food additives are an invention of modern science, think again. For thousands of years, people have added substances to food to maintain or enhance its appearance and taste, and to preserve its shelf life. Cosmetic color additives have been traced as far back as 5000 B.C.; the use of salt as a preservative dates back to 3000 B.C.; sulfite preservatives were used by the ancient Romans; and the use of herbs and spices to enhance taste and appearance, and often to conceal spoilage, has been around since biblical times.

Beginning with the industrial revolution, more and more people moved from the farm to the city. There were more mouths to feed with less land. And food had to be transported greater distances. All this brought about a greater need for foods and food products to remain fresher for longer and be able to withstand a wider variety of storage conditions. Through the use of food additives, processors could begin to offer a year-round supply of safe, wholesome and convenient foods.

But were they safe? Could just anything be used as an additive? For a long time, there was little control over what was added. Unscrupulous food purveyors could get away with using questionable chemicals to make already-spoiled foods take on the appearance and taste of a more wholesome product. It wasnt until 1889 that a USDA chemist named Harvey Wiley began to examine the widespread use of additives. His work led to the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906, the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act of 1938 and eventually to the Food Additives Amendment of 1958. These laws formed a protective framework that remains in place today.

Todays food additives are strictly regulated. The testing of a new additive can take several years and includes a comprehensive battery of chemical and animal testing for a wide variety of potential effects and interactions. The Food and Drug Administration decides on additives safety and regulates their use in foods.

(Ed Blonz, Ph.D., is a nutrition scientist and an assistant clinical professor at the University of California, San Francisco. He is the author of the digital book The Wellness Supermarket Buying Guide (2012), which is also available as a free digital resource at blonz.com/guide.)

Send questions to: On Nutrition, Ed Blonz, c/o Andrews McMeel Syndication, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO, 64106. Send email inquiries to questions@blonz.com. Due to the volume of mail, personal replies cannot be provided.

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On Nutrition: 'Chemical' or 'natural' additives are here to stay - Tulsa World

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Water molecules arrange themselves into boat-shaped hexamers on metal surfaces. Thats the conclusion of a theoretical study that claims to have solved a long-standing discrepancy between experimental results which seemed to show flat hexamers and theoretical predictions of a chair conformation.

Water is weird. Its unusual properties have led some researchers to think of it as two different liquids instead of one homogenous material. In 2002, chemists discovered that thin water layers form regular hexamers on hydrophobic metals like copper at low temperatures. In scanning tunnelling microscope (STM) images, these structures looked flat. But several teams theoretical calculations later showed a chair-like adsorption configuration to be more stable than a flat hexamer.

A team of scientists in China and Sweden now thinks that it has solved the water puzzle, showing that a boat-shaped hexamer not only matches the experimental result but is in fact lower in energy than the chair conformation.

The team simulated STM images through ab initio molecular dynamics. Only for the boat configuration did they show the same elongated, C2 symmetric hexagon seen in experiments. Further calculations confirmed that the boat configuration is an electronic global energy minimum, meaning it is more stable than either the chair or the flat hexamer.

A better understanding of how water interacts with surfaces could help researchers design materials whose properties change in the presence of water.

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Water's boat shape resolves disagreement between theory and experiment - Chemistry World

Have you ever noticed how a bite of warm cherry pie fills your mouth with sweetness, but that same slice right out of the refrigerator isn't nearly as tempting? Scientists know this phenomenon to be true, but the mechanism behind it has been poorly understood.

Now, using fruit flies as his subjects, UC Santa Barbara Distinguished Professor Craig Montell has discovered one process responsible for this occurrence. Montell's team, which includes Qiaoran Li, Nicolas DeBeaubien and Takaaki Sokabe, found that cool temperatures suppress the appeal of sweetness. However, these conditions did not affect the sugar neurons themselves. Rather, they acted via other sensory cells by way of a protein originally discovered to sense light in the eye. Despite this, the perception of coolness in sugary food is not altered by light. The results appear in the journalCurrent Biology.

"The appeal of food is influenced by more than just chemical composition," said Montell, the Duggan professor in the Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology. "We already know that cool temperatures reduce the delectability of sweetness in humans." He and his colleagues wondered whether this was also true in fruit flies, and if so, what were the underlying mechanisms?

The team found a significant difference in fruit flies' interest in feeding between 23 degrees Celsius (73.4 Fahrenheit) and 19 C (66.2 F). That said, they measured no difference in the activity of the flies' sweet-sensing taste neurons, despite the change in behavior.

"Since the temperature is not directly affecting the sugar neurons, it must be affecting some other types of cells, which then indirectly affect the propensity to consume sugar," Montell noted.

Fruit flies detect sugar with one type of taste neuron. Bitter is sensed by another type of neuron, and mechanosensory neurons detect the texture of food, such as hardness. However, temperature sensation is not quite as simple. Both bitter and mechanosensory neurons are also involved in detecting coolness. Only if both are activated does the brain interpret that as a cool signal.

All of these stimuli seem to reduce the animal's desire to feed, explained Montell. Bitter compounds trigger bitter neurons, which tell the fly to stop feeding. Hard foods trigger the mechanosensory neurons, which also tell the fly to stop feeding. And cool temperatures trigger both, to the same effect.

Critical to this response is a protein called rhodopsin 6. Rhodopsins are most commonly associated with vision, but over the past few years the Montell group has connected rhodopsins to a variety of other senses. Indeed, just a couple weeks prior, Montell's lab published the first study connecting different members of this class of protein to chemical taste.

"The bitter neurons express this rhodopsin called Rh6, and if you get rid of it, then cool temperatures no longer suppress the appeal of sugar," he said.

Without Rh6, the bitter-and-cool-detecting neurons are no longer turned on by low temperatures. And since cool-sensation requires activating multiple, different types of neurons, loss of Rh6 prevents the fly from recognizing the lower temperature, thereby eliminating the decreased attraction to sugary food.

"The surprise was finding that it was really the other neurons, not the sugar neurons, whose activity went up," Montell said, "and that the cool activation of other neurons was indirectly suppressing the sugar neurons."

The sweet-sensing neurons are still activated by sugars at low temperatures; however, the activation of these other neurons by decreased temperature suppresses the communication between the sweet-detecting neurons and the animal's brain. This is likely achieved by an inhibitory neurotransmitter released by the bitter/cool-activated neurons.

As for why fruit flies avoid food when it's chilly, Montell suspects it's due to their metabolism. Fruit flies' metabolism, and thus food requirements, are affected by temperature. Lower temperatures mean slower metabolisms, and less need for food. And generally, if the food is cold, so is the fly.

In fact, the fly generation time -- the time it takes an egg to turn into an adult fly -- doubles from 10 days to 20 when the temperature is lowered from 25 to 18 degrees Celsius. "Everything is just slowed down," Montell said, "and that's why feeding is reduced. You don't want to eat the same amount when your metabolism is slowed down." This explanation doesn't hold true for warm-blooded animals like humans, even if we show a similar behavior.

In the future, Montell and first author Qiaoran Li plan to further investigate the mechanosensory side of food appeal by looking at how particle size influences feeding behavior. As an example, he offers the distinct difference between fresh and refrozen ice cream. Despite having the same chemical composition and temperature, most people prefer ice cream that hasn't melted and refrozen into a block.

Reflecting on the surprising finding, Montell remarked, "It's great for your expectations to be wrong, as long as you can then figure out what's right."

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The appeal of food is influenced by more than just chemical composition - Jill Lopez

VERMILLION, S.D. In an effort to aid the campus community during a time when hand sanitizer is scarce, the University of South Dakota Department of Chemistry developed their own sanitizer and began distributing it on campus.

The team is led by the chemistry department's research assistant professor Aravind Baride, Ph.D., NMR specialist Anjaneyulu Putta, research associate Bruce Gray and laboratory storekeeper Anthony Solbach. The reasoning behind developing the sanitizer is two-fold for the research team: keep lab equipment in optimal working condition and slow the spread of COVID-19.

Switching the equipment off for several months is not a good option if we want it to work well after this crisis is over, said Gray. Our department chair, Andy Sykes, asked our team to come up with some method to protect ourselves from potentially spreading the virus as we interact with these instruments.

After realizing the university already had access to the raw ingredients, the team created a hand sanitizer and incorporated it into their protocol to keep the typical contact surfaces disinfected.

Our sanitizer is similar to commercial alcohol-based hand products. Its at least 70 percent alcohol by volume with one to two percent glycerin and the rest is water, said Gray. When we have to interact with one of these instruments, we disinfect our hands with this solution before and after we use it.

Other university employees saw this as an opportunity to distribute the disinfectant to the USD community.

Kevin OKelley, assistant vice president of research compliance, said USD President Sheila K. Gestring reached out to him asking if the chemistry department had the ability to make large batches of the hand sanitizer to distribute throughout campus.

Once we were able to determine that the university had enough ingredients to make 40 gallons of sanitizer, we set up a distribution system, said OKelley.

Roughly two gallons of hand sanitizer has been distributed every day to the Muenster University Center information desk, OKelley said. USD has given out about 20 gallons of hand sanitizer, four ounces at a time.

Due to limited supply, the hand sanitizer is only available to USD students, faculty and staff.

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USD Chemistry Department Creates Hand Sanitizer To Distribute To Campus Community - Vermillion Plain Talk

Even though most tours are postponed or canceled right now due to coronavirus, it doesnt mean we cant get excited about whats to come. One of those things that may still come to be is the Used touring with My Chemical Romance, at least according to the Used bassist Jeph Howard.

If thats not enough good news, the Used also dropped their new album Heartworktoday (April 24) so pop that on and check this out.

The Useds vocalist Bert McCracken has been casually mentioning a tour with My Chemical Romance for months. It started at a couple of their intimate live shows, then in a radio interview.

Next, the Used canceled their European tour and their appearance at Slam Dunk Fest. They said an opportunity arose that they couldnt pass up. This just furthered the idea that they were touring with My Chemical Romance.

McCracken appeared onThe Green Room with Neil Griffithspodcast and was asked about a My Chemical Romance tour. McCracken replied that hes been saying theyre on the tour because they should be.

Furthermore, on an episode of Shane ToldsLead Singer Syndromepodcast, McCracken said that he was mainly joking on stage about the tour but would love to join MCR if the opportunity arose.

I think we made a big deal about the relationship from the beginning, McCracken says. Ive been friends with Gerard [Way] since the band broke up.[] I saw him at a Frank Iero show about four years ago and thats when we reconnected. I do like to tell jokes from stage but I texted him and was like Dude, I hope you guys know that these are all just jokes to make us smile, but we would all be honored to tour with you.

Well now, the Useds bassist Jeph Howard appeared on the Colombian radio station Radioacktiva and seemed to promote the hype a little more regarding the tour.

At one point during his appearance, Howard begins to talk about My Chemical Romance. He starts with their touring history as he leads up to playing their cover of Under Pressure.

But, at the tail end, Howard says something quite noteworthy.

[Im] really glad these guys [MCR] are back together and touring again, Howard says. And definitely, at some point, you are going to see us on tour together.

You can listen to the moment Howard spoke about My Chemical Romance in the post below, and check out Radioacktiva here.

[BIG NEWS ]Today Jeph from The Used was invited to a radio station in Colombia to talk and play music, he said that possibly they will tour again with MCR, I recorded it for you from MyChemicalRomance

If you havent checked it out yet, stream the Useds brand new album Heartworkbelow.

Do you think that the Used and My Chemical Romance will tour together? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below!

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Is this more evidence of the Used touring with My Chemical Romance? - Alternative Press

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COVID 19 Update Flow Chemistry market: Poised to Garner Maximum Revenues by 2027 with major key players in the market Honeywell International, Inc.,...

Filming sex scenes was a new experience for Edgar-Jones and filming anything at all was new for her co-lead, Paul Mescal, 24, who is primarily a theatre actor.

It was very strange because I felt that [Paul Mescal] was Connell and I knew everything about him.

Over time, says Edgar-Jones, the M-rated intimate scenes, which are key to the unfolding of the narrative, became just another part of the filming schedule. Well, almost. They are odd. It is the most strange thing that you [shoot those scenes] and then you go off to lunch with everyone and have a jacket potato and chat about nothing.

Rooneys novel is about an intense on-again-off-again relationship between Marianne and Connell, who fall in love in their final year of school in a village in Irelands County Sligo and go on to attend Trinity College in Dublin. Mariannes family is wealthy and abusive; Connell is the product of a working class single-parent household with complications of its own. At school, she is a whip-smart social pariah with a sharp tongue; he a popular athlete who also owns a very big brain. As time passes, the social cache of each character shifts, and a beautifully rendered series of misunderstandings thwart their relationship. The book has been variously described as an exquisite romance, a great Millennial novel and a compulsive read.

Normal People reveals the tender but complicated first love between two teenagers in Ireland.Credit:Stan

Rooney who co-wrote the script for the first six episodes and was also an executive producer devotes much of the novel to stating exactly whats going on in her characters heads, which is often in frustrating contrast to what they say and do. This interiority presented both challenges and benefits when it came to the screen adaptation.

It is quite tricky to communicate a lot of the unspoken stuff, says Edgar-Jones. But also we were so lucky because when else do you have your characters psyche written out in such insane detail?

Watching unspoken thoughts and feelings pass subtly across Edgar-Joness pale, dark-eyed face is one of the many pleasures of the early episodes of the series and its easy to forget that a camera would have been right up in her grill at the time.

So long, Marianne ... Daisy Edgar-Jones in her first lead role in Normal People.Credit:Stan

The early episodes were directed by Lenny Abrahamson, the Irish film director and screenwriter who won numerous awards for his 2015 film, Room. Edgar-Jones says he has a real knack for using the camera to illuminate a characters perspective and thoughts.

There was this one shot called 'the special' where the camera would be like really close, just roaming, she says, holding her hands up to her face like an open book and moving them around. It would be right up close and youd have to stop worrying about your moustache and just get on with it.

The later episodes of the series were directed by Hettie Macdonald, who has a host of TV directing credits to her name, including The Tunnel, Fortitude, Howards End and "Blink", the episode of Dr Who, from the David Tennant years, that many critics have lauded as the shows best. Each episode of Normal People runs for an undeniably TV-esque 30 minutes, but the overall pacing and production values are decidedly cinematic.

Rooneys involvement with the screen adaptation of her novel went well beyond co-writing the script. She was involved in everything from casting to critiquing the rushes. In her second year at university Trinity, like her characters Rooney won the European University Debating Championships and, in profiles, comes across as intensely cerebral and articulate, someone who would not be backward about coming forward with a scathing opinion.

Edgar-Jones concurs with this impression of Rooney. Yes, she sounds quite terrifying I was so worried because she is so intelligent and I am a big fan and quite easily intimidated by people to be honest so I was like oh, I am just going to crumble.

The pair met several times during production and as it turned out Rooney was absolutely lovely" says Edgar-Jones. "She is quite like Connell, like wholesome and lovely, just normal and approachable. Its interesting, isnt it?

I met her for the first time at the read through. It was a bit of a scary time and Sally came up to me and said this is crazy isnt it, like absolutely mad. It must have been mad for her, too. She has created these characters in her front room and then its being read out loud and talked about by a group of strangers.

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Abrahamson has said that finding actors with the vital on-screen chemistry to play Marianne and Connell took some time. Edgar-Jones had binge read and fallen in love with Normal People before she was called in for a chemistry read with Mescal, who had already been cast as Connell some weeks prior. She really wanted the role by then. She walked into the audition room, she says, and it was very strange because I felt that [Mescal] was Connell and I knew everything about him. I was nervous, but as soon as we started doing the scenes it just felt very easy and very natural, and I started to enjoy it.

The pair read through one of the more serious interchanges between Marianne and Connell, and when they finished all the panel were crying, and I was like hmmm, thats a good sign, says Edgar-Jones.

Fans of the book who watch the series should be able to surrender their preconceived ideas about Marianne and Connell without too much heartache. Mescal and Edgar-Jones performances are accomplished and their bond convincing. As Abrahamson has said: I believe people who know and love the book will feel the series is a very faithful transposition of the novel onto screen.

Normal People premieres on Stan on April 27. (Stan and this masthead is owned by Nine.)

Lissa Christopher has more years experience as an editor and writer with The Sydney Morning Herald than she cares to count, and is now a print and digital producer for Traveller. Shes a glamper not a camper and wherever she travels she likes to start eating as soon as possible after making it through passport control.

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Chemistry is key to the TV adaptation of Sally Rooney's Normal People - Sydney Morning Herald