Device Rids Buses of Dangerous Pathogens The best place to enjoy a breath of fresh air may be a city bus, if Rice Univ. students have their way. A team of graduating seniors has created a system for public transit that would continually clear the air of pathogens that can lead to tuberculosis (TB), flu and pneumonia. The CityBusters – Joseph Spinella, Jerry Lue, Sundeep Mandava, Grace Ching and Shidong Chen, all seniors – have installed a $500 device on a METRO bus in Houston that has proven effective at killing 99.8 percent of the pathogens that circulate through the air-filtering system. The device, called FluProof, incorporates high-powered ultraviolet lamps that sterilize the air on the fly. Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news-Device-Rids-Busses-of-Dangerous-Pathogens-043012.aspx
Artist Sachiko Kodama is known for her mesmerizing ferrofluid sculptures. Ferrofluids are a colloidal liquid consisting of nanoscale ferromagnetic particles and a carrier fluid such as water or oil. They can react strongly to magnetic fields, forming spikes, brain-like whorls, and even labyrinths. (Photo credits: Sachiko Kodama; via freshphotons)
Day 2 of our mushroom lab: running our sample through a DEAE-Sepharose column
“Here is something a little different! I work in a lab at a large hospital, so we see some interesting things. A coworker of mine collected these urines to make a “pee rainbow.” It only took a few days before we had our full spectrum of color. :) It was then requested that I bring my camera to work and document this endeavor.”
PUMPKIN-SPICED FLUORESCENCE
Inside a pumpkin, seeds don’t need much chlorophyll—the molecule that helps plants convert light into food—because there isn’t a lot of light deep inside the fruit’s flesh. Instead of chlorophyll, the green seeds are chock-full of protochlorophyllide, a highly fluorescent molecule that glows orange-red under ultraviolet light and can be converted into chlorophyll a by an enzyme in the seeds. The enzyme reduces protochlorophyllide to produce chlorophyll when the enzyme encounters light, which occurs only after the seed has left the pumpkin and therefore needs to start producing its own food so it can grow. Helmut Brandl, a science communicator and professor at ETH Zurich, extracted this protochlorophyllide by grinding up pumpkin seeds and mixing them with nail polish remover (bottom row).
Submitted by Helmut Brandl
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Small changes add up to big results. You can activate the movement.
Tune into the livestream for the United State of Women Summit 6/14 here . GIF by Tumblr Creatr Thoka Maer
Ooh, I love fluorescent compounds! It's a great reward for the long process of synthesis.
How incredible is this compound I made??! It’s an NBD amine, which is fluorescent and used for labeling compounds for fluorescence assays.