ACS Chemistry for Life

Clean fuels could reduce deaths from ship smokestacks by 40,000 annually
Environmental Science & Technology

Rising levels of smokestack emissions from oceangoing ships will cause an estimated 87,000 deaths worldwide each year by 2012 – almost one-third higher than previously believed, according to the second major study on that topic. James Winebrake and colleagues note that government action to reduce sulfur emissions from shipping fuel (the source of air pollution linked to an increased risk of illness and death) could reduce that toll. Most oceangoing ships burn fuels with a high sulfur content that averages 2.4 percent — linked to increased risks of lung and heart disease. Policymakers now are considering limiting ships emissions by either restricting sulfur content in fuel or designating air pollution control areas to reduce air pollution near highly populated coastal areas. Requiring ships to use marine fuel with 0.5 percent sulfur within 200 nautical miles of shore would reduce premature deaths by about 41,200, the study concludes. Lower sulfur reductions could reduce deaths even further, they say, adding that designated emission control areas will also have a positive impact.

Battling the force that wastes 1 out of every 10 gallons of gasoline in cars
Chemical & Engineering News

C&EN Senior Business Editor Melody Voith notes that engine friction – the force that wastes almost 1.4 million barrels of oil per day in cars and trucks in the United States alone – could become less of a problem for fuel-conscious consumers thanks to promising new oils and other materials that scientists are developing. One in every 10 gallons of gasoline in the average car goes to overcoming friction in the engine – about 1.4 million barrels of oil wasted per day or almost $31 billion worth of fuel (at $60 per barrel) lost every year. But the article describes how high-tech lubricants and additives now in development could vastly reduce the effect of friction and improve energy efficiency in everything from car engines to power-generating wind turbines. That could improve the fuel economy of cars by 3-5 percent, according to one estimate. Scientists are also trying to reduce wear on engine and machine parts, one of the consequences of increased friction, by designing tougher materials that can better withstand extreme heat and other harsh conditions. One promising approach is the use of nanoparticles – super-strong particles just 1/50,000th the width of a human hair – to coat engine parts and make them more slippery.

Potentially toxic flame retardants detected in baby products
Environmental Science & Technology

Heather M. Stapleton and colleagues are reporting detection of potentially toxic flame retardants in car seats, bassinet mattresses, nursing pillows, high chairs, strollers, and other products that contain polyurethane foam and are designed for newborns, infants and toddlers. They describe hints that one flame retardant, penta-brominated diphenyl ethers (pentaBDE), banned years ago in some areas, actually remains in use. Flame retardants are added during manufacture to reduce the risk of polyurethane foam catching fire and to slow down burning if it does. Seeking to meet government flammability standards, manufacturers then turned to other flame retardants, which in many cases, have less health data available. Stapleton’s group detected potentially toxic flame retardants in 80 percent of the polyurethane foam samples collected from 101 common baby products. Among them were compounds associated with pentaBDE, suggesting that the substance – banned in 172 countries and 12 U.S. states – still remains in use, as well as two potential carcinogens, TCEP and TDCPP.

Japan disaster’s impact reaches far beyond slow-down in auto exports
Chemical & Engineering News

C&EN staffers – Jean-François Tremblay and Jyllian Kemsley – present a comprehensive status report and update on how Japan’s earthquake, tsunami and nuclear power plant damage affected its chemical industry and scientific research infrastructure at universities and other sites. Damage from the March disaster at Japanese chemical plants that produce raw materials for the electronics components, although modest in itself, has had some of the most severe impacts in history on the global electronics industry. An additional story by C&EN’s Glenn Hess focuses on how lessons learned in Japan are helping governments in the U.S. and other countries review and strengthen their own nuclear safety policies. Japanese chemical industry did not, on the whole, suffer heavy damage, but energy shortages resulting from the shut-down of nuclear power plants may hamper production of many chemicals in the months ahead, raising global concerns on when the electronic materials supply chain will be fully rehabilitated.

Mercury levels in Arctic seals may be linked to global warming
Environmental Science & Technology

Gary Stern and colleagues are reporting for the first time that high mercury levels in certain Arctic seals appear to be linked to vanishing sea ice caused by global warming. Canadian Arctic ringed seals, like many Arctic marine animals, have relatively high levels of mercury. The scientists analyzed the mercury content in muscle samples collected from ringed seals between 1973 and 2007. They then compared the levels to the length of the so-called “summer ice-free season,” a warm period marked by vanishing sea ice in the seals’ habitat. They found that the seals accumulated more mercury during both short (2 months) and long (5 months) ice-free seasons and postulate that this is related to the seals’ food supplies. Higher seal mercury concentrations may follow relatively short ice-free seasons due to consumption of older, more highly contaminated Arctic cod while relatively long ice-free seasons may promote higher pelagic productivity and thus increased survival and abundance of Arctic cod with the overall result of more fish consumption and greater exposure to mercury.

Working on the railroad? Using concrete could help environment
Environmental Science & Technology

Railroads around the world face that decision as they replace millions of deteriorating cross ties, also known as railway sleepers, those rectangular objects used as a base for railroad tracks. Robert Crawford reports that there have been long-standing concerns about environmental consequences of manufacturing railway sleepers because it involves harvesting large amounts of timber. Reinforced concrete sleepers are an alternative that offer greater strength, durability and long-term cost savings, he said. Crawford studied the greenhouse gas emissions of wooden and reinforced concrete sleepers based on one kilometer (0.62 miles) length of track over a 100-year life cycle. He found that emissions from reinforced concrete sleepers can be from two to six times lower than those from timber. “The results suggest strongly that reinforced concrete sleepers result in lower life cycle greenhouse emissions than timber sleepers,” the report states.

Capturing CO₂ in a bowl
Inorganic Chemistry

J.A. Tossel reports the accidental discovery of a bowl-shaped molecule that pulls carbon dioxide out of the air, suggesting exciting new possibilities for dealing with global warming, including genetically engineering microbes to manufacture those CO₂ “catchers.” He notes that another scientist discovered the molecule while doing research unrelated to global climate change. Tossell recognized that these qualities might make it useful as an industrial absorbent for removing carbon dioxide. Tossell’s new computer modeling studies found that the molecule might be well-suited for removing carbon dioxide directly from ambient air, in addition to its previously described potential use as an absorbent for CO₂ from electric power plant and other smokestacks. “It is also conceivable that living organisms may be developed which are capable of emplacing structurally ion receptors within their cell membranes,” the report notes.

New insights into health and environmental effects of carbon nanoparticles
Environmental Science & Technology

David Rand and Robert Hurt and colleagues published a new study that raises the possibility flies and other insects that encounter nanomaterial “hot spots,” or spills, near manufacturing facilities in the future could pick up and transport nanoparticles on their bodies, transferring the particles to other flies or habitats in the environment. The research focused on determining how different kinds of exposure to nanoparticles affected larval and adult fruit flies. There were no apparent ill effects on fruit fly larvae that ate food containing high concentrations of nanoparticles. However, adult flies died or were incapacitated when their bodies were exposed to large amounts of certain nanoparticles. During the experiments, the researchers noted that contaminated flies transferred nanoparticles to other flies, and realized that such transfer could also occur between flies and humans in the future. Since larvae can tolerate very high doses of nanoparticles in the diet, but adult flies show very different sensitivities, the environmental impact depends on the ecological context of nanoparticle release.

Secret funding fosters hope for new drugs for autism
Chemical & Engineering News

C&EN Senior Editor Lisa Jarvis notes that until recent interest from big pharmaceutical companies, a small drug company in Cambridge, Mass. named Seaside Therapeutics was virtually the only company trying to develop drugs for autism and fragile X syndrome. Fragile X syndrome, the most common known genetic cause of autism, results from mutation in a single gene with symptoms ranging from learning impairment to mental retardation. The article describes how Seaside, armed with funding from an anonymous wealthy family and new insights into the basic science behind these disorders, is making progress toward treating these much-neglected diseases. Two of the company’s potential drugs show promise in clinical trials as treatments for Fragile X syndrome. One appears to improve the behavior of children with severe social impairments. On the heels of Seaside’s encouraging results, big pharmaceutical companies that once showed little interest in tackling these diseases are now trying to develop their own new medications.

Toward the first nose drops to treat brain cancer
Molecular Pharmaceutics

Tomotaka Shingaki and colleagues report the development and successful initial testing of a new form of methotrexate – the mainstay anticancer drug – designed to be given as nose drops rather than injected. Brain cancer is difficult to treat, partly because current anticancer drugs have difficulty reaching the brain because the so-called blood-brain barrier (a protective layer of cells surrounding the brain) prevents medication in the blood from entering the brain. But new evidence indicates that some drugs administered through the nose, either as nose drops or nasal spray, can bypass this barrier and travel directly into the brain. The scientists tested methotrexate nose drops on laboratory rats with brain cancer. Compared to cancer treated with an injectable form of the drug, the nose drop drug reduced the weight of tumors by almost one-third, the scientists said. “The strategy to utilize the nose-brain direct transport can be applicable to a new therapeutic system not only for brain tumors but also for other central nervous system disorders such as neurodegenerative diseases,” the article noted.

Ingredient in soap points toward new drugs for infection that affects 2 billion
Journal of Medicinal Chemistry

Rima McLeod and colleagues report on the use of triclosan’s molecular structure as the model for developing other potential medications for toxoplasmosis. Toxoplasmosis is one of the world’s most common parasitic infections, affecting about one-third of the world population, including 80 percent of the population of Brazil. Many have no symptoms because their immune systems keep the infection under control and the parasite remains inactive, but it can cause eye damage and other problems. Most current treatments have some potentially harmful side effects and none of them attack the parasite in its inactive stage. The scientists knew from past research that triclosan has a powerful effect in blocking the action of a key enzyme that T. gondii uses to live. Triclosan, however, cannot be used as a medication because it does not dissolve in the blood.

Portable laser devices to improve disease diagnosis
Chemical & Engineering News

C&EN Senior Editor Celia Henry Arnaud notes potential diagnostic tools with the ability to see beneath the skin and detect disease, without exposing patients to X-rays. They embrace a technology that involves focusing a laser beam painlessly through the skin onto a bone or onto the surface of a tooth. After hitting its target, the beam returns to an electronic detector with imprinted information that can reveal whether disease is present. Called Raman spectroscopy, the technology is a mainstay tool in chemistry laboratories that is finding a new life in medicine. The article describes growing medical interest in Raman-based devices, especially for diagnosing osteoporosis and other bone diseases, and for tracking the effectiveness of treatment. Another application may be in very early detection of tooth decay, so that dentists can treat soft spots on tooth enamel before “drill-and-fill” becomes the only option, and blood tests conducted without taking blood samples.

Insights into environmental conditions that affect highly pathogenic bird flu virus survival
Environmental Science & Technology

Joseph Wood and colleagues note that the highly pathogenic (H5N1) avian influenza virus so far has been rare but dangerous in humans, with mortality rates of about 60 percent. On the eve of the 2010-11 influenza (flu) season, they have identified the environmental conditions and surfaces that could enable a highly pathogenic (H5N1) bird flu virus to survive for prolonged periods of time – cooler temperatures and low humidity. The study could lead to new strategies for preventing the flu virus from spreading. The scientists investigated the ability of a strain of highly pathogenic H5N1 originating from Vietnam to survive on a variety of materials under different environmental conditions, including changes in temperature, humidity, and simulated sunlight. They found that H5N1 survived longer (up to two weeks) at cooler temperatures – around 39 degrees Fahrenheit – but lasted only up to one day at room temperature. The virus also tends to persist at low humidity and no sunlight and on certain surfaces, including glass and steel.

Progress toward treating infections by silencing microbes’ “smart phones”
Chemical Reviews

Marvin Whiteley and Holly Huse point out that bacteria use chemical signals to communicate with each other to launch infections and monitor their environment. These signals can trigger infections when their numbers reach a certain threshold – a process known as “quorum sensing.” The “smart phones of the microbial world,” the authors describe progress toward understanding and blocking this biochemical chitchat, a development that could lead to new treatments for the growing problem of antibiotic-resistant infections. One prime target are the 4-quinolones, signaling molecules produced by Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a common disease-causing microbe. Their review of more than 60 years of research on 4-quinolones found promising indications that such a conversation-stopper will be developed. Scientists, for instance, now have evidence that a certain enzyme that modifies 4-quinolones can reduce infection.

New molecular robot can be programmed to follow instructions
Nano Letters

Andrew Turberfield and colleagues have developed a programmable “molecular robot” – a sub-microscopic molecular machine made of synthetic DNA that moves between track locations separated by 6nm. The robot, a short strand of DNA, follows instructions programmed into a set of fuel molecules determining its destination, for example, to turn left or right at a junction in the track. They point out that other scientists have developed similar DNA-based robots, which move autonomously. Tuberfield describes a robot that can be programmed to choose among different branches of a molecular track, rather than just move in a straight line to harness their potential as cargo-carrying molecular machines. The key to this specialized movement is a so-called “fuel hairpin,” a molecule that serves as both a chemical energy source for propelling the robot along the track and as a routing instruction. The instructions tell the robot which point it should move to next, allowing the selection between the left or right branches of a junction in the track, precisely controlling the route of the robot – which could potentially allow the transport of pharmaceuticals or other materials.

Archaeological whodunit from the hometown of Romeo & Juliet
Chemical & Engineering News

C&EN Associate Editor Carmen Drahl notes three new bright blue pigments – Romeo Blue, Juliet Blue, and Flint Blue – with origins in the hometown of Shakespeare’s star-crossed lovers Romeo and Juliet, have become stars in a drama that is unsettling experts on conservation of archaeological treasures around the world. The drama began last year when prehistoric flint tools began showing visible signs of contamination – a bright blue tinge. The tainted relics came from a museum in Verona, Italy, the setting for Shakespeare’s great tragedy. Archaeologists were fascinated, having never encountered such a color change in their careers, especially one involving a hard stone like flint. Scientists traced the possible origins of the pigments to an ingredient in synthetic rubber mats, which held the tools, and contaminated them. The incident is creating a new awareness among museum conservation experts about the possibility of other, previously unknown interactions occurring between ancient treasures and the environments in which they are stored.