Can I Get a Drumroll Please?

Ladies and Gentleman, the winners have been announced!

Robert J. Lefkowitz (left) and Brian K. Kobilka (right)

At 2:30AM this morning in California, the recipients of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry were called and informed of their accomplishments. Robert J. Lefkowitz, 69, and Brian K. Kobilka, 57, have discovered the molecular workings and structures of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs). GPCRs are a family of proteins that have been discovered to be the transmitters of critical biological messages for functions such as vision, smell, taste, and neurotransmission.

The two men set out on their scientific journey in an attempt to understand the biological processes that occur during a body’s production of stress hormones, such as adrenaline. Science already uncovered what happens to a person when the hormones are produced; a receptor is bound by the hormone and then a person experiences focused vision, quickened breathing, diverting blood from the less important body systems etc. The groundbreaking aspect of Lefkowitz and Kobilka’s findings is that the nature of the receptors for these hormones are now known.

Lefkowitz first traced the signaling of these receptors in the 1970s with radioactive blocking agents attached to hormones. By marking the hormones, Lefkowitz was able to follow where they attached in the body and observe the activities of the receptors they attached to. With much effort, Dr. Lefkowitz was able to identify the receptor proteins and prove they were specific molecules.

In the 1980s, Lefkowitz’s group at Duke University, which Kobilka was a part of, found the gene that actually produced one of the protein receptors. The group saw that the shape of the protein had many long spirals that wove through the cell membrane exactly seven times.

3D image of rhodopsin.

Realizing that the receptor he discovered had the same characteristic seven helicies as another receptor that had been found in the retina, in this case the light receptor rhodopsin, Lefkowitz and his team set out to find several other similar receptors that were found to be in a family of receptors, called the G protein-coupled receptors. Today, about a thousand of these GPCRs are known. They reside on the surface of cells and react to a host of hormones and neurotransmitters. Dr. Kobilka moved to Stanford and progressed to determine the three-dimensional structure of the GPCRs, which involved the utilization of x-ray crystallography.

“We hope by knowing the three-dimensional structure we might be able to develop more selective drugs and more effective drugs,” Dr. Kobilka said. The ultimate goal with all this new information is to refine drug design. Many drug molecules attach to cells, not only at the intended target, but also to other receptors.  This may help eliminate those unwanted side effects that one experiences when taking certain drugs.

I Do Not Like Perchlorates and Ham, I Do Not Like Them SAM I Am.

As some of you may have heard, there are some curious things happening on Mars. To be specific, there is a robot named Curiosity cruising around the red planet as we speak, and he is packing some heat, literally.

Picture of Curiosity while he was waiting
to be sent on his mission to Mars.

On our friend Curiosity, who is the size of a car and runs on nuclear power, there is a device that turns rocks into dust for his analysis on Mars. The rock-vaporizing laser, named ChemCam, has a range of 25 feet and can identify elements in the rock gas. Scientists are hoping that ChemCam finds rock vapors that have traces of carbon in order to further research efforts.

Another tool Curiosity has on his belt isn’t something you can buy at the Home Depot, because a team that consists of scientists and engineers at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, University of Paris, Jet Propulsion Laboratories, and Honeybee Robotics created this microwave-sized instrument. SAM (Sample Analysis at Mars) has 74 cups to use for studying ground-up rocks that will be heated to 1800 degrees, and then examined by three different instruments (Quadrupole Mass Spectrometer, Gas Chromatograph, and Tunable Laser Spectrometer) in order to identify the compounds on Mars, and hopefully find organic materials.

Now, you may be thinking, “Kayte, NASA already sent up two Viking landers in 1976 to examine the surface of Mars for organics.” What SAM does, that the Viking landers didn’t do in the 70’s, is heat up the examined rocks to temperatures hotter than the Vikings could. This intense heat destroys perchlorates, which are believed to destroy organics during the increase of its environment’s temperature, before they get a chance to eat up the vital organics Curiosity is looking for. SAM also has nine cups that utilize a chemical solvent that gives way for SAM to examine rocks at lower temperatures.

A cartoon view of where the three different
instruments are located within SAM.

Such altered methods of examining rock compositions will hopefully assist scientists in answering three main questions while Curiosity is checking out Mars. These questions can be found on the SAM Instrumentation description on the NASA website, as well as a description of the systems and instruments contained within SAM’s capabilities.

The possibility of life on Mars is a concept that NASA is still trying to validate. With NASA’s hopes and dreams up on the red planet set within a robot named Curiosity, we can only hope that his friends ChemCam and SAM can help him bring us answers that feed our interests in the possibility of a futuristic world on Mars.

Bring ‘em home Curiosity. Bring ‘em home.

He's Having A Shortage

Balloons are one of the most popular uses for helium.

If you walk into Vons right now, head towards the florist’s station, and ask for a balloon you would be sincerely turned down. It’s a sad time when you are unable to buy a “Get Well Soon” balloon for your friend in the hospital and have to resort to a teddy bear or a mundane card. Even though helium is the second most abundant element in the universe, it is slowly floating away with all of those balloons we like to buy. 

Helium gas is concentrated underground in places with large amounts of uranium ore. The uranium slowly emits alpha particles, which can capture electrons and become helium gas. Underground air can contain concentrations of helium that make up approximately 7% of its composition. The Helium is removed from the natural gasses by the process of cryogenic distillation and then sent away for distribution by the U.S. Federal Helium Reserve. The majority of these "helium fields" used to supply the U.S. Federal Helium Reserve are located in the Texan Panhandle. 

While all this may seem “fine and dandy”, we are finding ourselves in a bit of a shortage of this element we know to shrink our voice boxes and be the culprit behind our balloons flying away. 

In 1996, congress passed a mandate to privatize the U.S. Federal Helium Reserve program in hopes to move the United States out of the helium business by 2015. Basically, the government wanted the reserves to be empty in 2015. It was thought that alternate sources and productions of the element would have been found by that time, but it looks to be a little less possible now than it was projected to be sixteen years ago. 

With these reserves becoming less and less full, we are finding several areas that might begin to suffer with this oncoming depletion of helium. Health care, small-scale research projects, party balloon sales will soon feel the wrath of this shortage, if they haven’t already. 

MRI machine

"Helium is absolutely essential to MRI production," says Tom Rauch, global sourcing manager for GE Healthcare, one of the largest manufacturers of MRI systems.. Liquid Helium is used to cool MRI magnets because of the low boiling points (approximately -452 degrees F or -296 degrees C). "Helium is currently the only element on Earth that can effectively keep the magnet this cold and consequently allow for the high field strength, stable and uniform magnetic fields that make modern MRI systems possible," he says. 

Even in Ontario, Canada, researchers are facing obstacles related to this shortage. Rising prices give smaller research facilities a more difficult time purchasing Helium with the prices rising at the rate they are. “It’s made it difficult to do the research because it’s extremely expensive,” said Grace Parraga, a professor and researcher at the Robarts Research Institute at the University of Western Ontario. Even at a discounted price for scientific research, she said her laboratory pays $795 per liter. That’s up from $300 not so long ago. Prof. Parraga said they’ve been unable to perform a clinical trial because of the high costs. 

But there is a silver lining in all of this chaos! In response to the troubling shortages of Helium, a bipartisan senate bill has been introduced called Senate Bill 2374 The Helium Stewardship Act to reauthorize the Federal Helium Reserve in Texas to continue selling helium beyond 2015. The purpose of this bill is to continue the sale of Helium past the previous cut off date set by the 1996 mandate. Hopefully, these sales will repay the treasury back for the costs to set up the reserve in the first place as well as assist with the national debt. Although these sales will not help with the eventual depletion of Helium on Earth, they will cushion the blow to the places where this viable resource is needed in our everyday lives. 

Yet hope still exists in three new Helium sites opening up in the next twelve months. Wyoming, Algeria, and Qatar will be housing these sites, adding around a 25% increase to the world supply, and contributing to the elimination of the current shortage. 

So, the next time you want to bring a balloon somewhere in order to brighten someone’s day or make a friend feel better, just choose the teddy bear or the card for the sake of MRI’s everywhere. 

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A New da Vinci Code?

The da Vinci Surgical System

Leonardo da Vinci, known for his revolutionary advances in art, music, and science, is now known for his ability to peel a grape.

The da Vinci Si Surgical system is the future and present of surgeries here in Ventura County. Earlier this year, St. John’s Regional Medical Center in Oxnard was awarded a $1,750,000 grant, the largest gift in the history of the hospital, which was used to purchase the da Vinci system. “I am overwhelmed by this generous gift to St. John’s,” said Laurie Eberst, president and CEO for St. John’s Hospitals in an interview posted on the St. John’s Hospital website. “It demonstrates that our legacy is strong and that local philanthropic leaders recognize and support the innovative surgical procedures being performed at St. John’s by our highly skilled physicians.”

The da Vinci Si Surgical System is one of the most technologically advanced surgical platforms available today. It is used as an extension to the surgeon during procedures, for those such as lung cancer, prostate cancer, thoracic surgery, gynecological procedures, urology, and general surgeries. “The application of this technology in the treatment of lung cancer [at St. John’s] is a relatively new and tremendously advantageous approach,” said Dr. Bruce Toporoff, a cardiothoracic surgeon at St. John’s, per the St. John’s Hospital website. “The potential to perform minimally invasive surgery to treat and cure lung cancer is phenomenal and will enhance St. John’s active lung cancer program.” Toporoff added, “we are already innovative in our cardiac surgery program and the use of robotics affords us new opportunities in the future.” The surgeon is in control of the da Vinci system during the entire surgery and is able to project precision that is impossible to replicate with just one’s hands. The system allows the procedure to involve the smallest incisions possible, as well as giving the surgeon 3-D views of the patient.

The da Vinci Si Surgical System benefits both the hospital and the patients through shorter hospital stays, reduced blood loss, fewer blood transfusions, minimized side effects, faster recuperation, reduced postoperative pain, and smaller incisions that lessen the likelihood of infection. Incisions made by the surgeon using the da Vinci System are so small and precise they can peel a grape! A video for this grape peeling can be seen on the St. John’s Hospital website.

Technological advances like these are bettering our medical practices every day. We have a machine that eliminates the possibility of a surgeon's hand shaking hindering the success of a procedure and it’s only a few miles away from Cal State Channel Islands. The future looks bright for students aspiring for positions in the medical field because machines like this are opening more and more doors.

Once again science, you rule. 

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From Green Waste to Dark Earth

Untreated soil (left)
Soil treated with biochar (right)

Though carbon sequestration, the act of taking carbon out of the atmosphere, is hardly a new concept when it comes to the fight against climate change, researchers all over the globe are eager to think up new wacky ways to do it. Biochar, a newly developed charcoal-like soil additive based on an ancient technology, has researchers and environmentalists thrilled about its potential to reduce our carbon footprint. In a 2010 study that was published in Nature titled Sustainable Biochar to Mitigate Global Climate Change, it was calculated that if industrial scale biochar production was practiced globally it could offset carbon dioxide emissions by 12%.

The biochar soil enhancement technique comes from the remarkably fertile soils of ancient Amazonia. The man-made dark earth soils, otherwise known as terra preta soils, have been found to contain charcoal, fish bones, ceramics and other bits of debris. The extraordinary thing about terra preta soils is that though naturally they are particularly barren and fruitless in nature, they have remained fertile for thousands of years.

Biochar is made from any organic waste product. Normally organic waste would be consumed by an animal or decomposed, eventually making its way back into the atmosphere in the form of carbon dioxide or methane. Instead, thermal degradation breaks down the waste in a pyrolysis process, heating in the absence of oxygen. Combustible gas is then produced which provides more than enough energy to sustain the reaction for the rest of the production process leaving behind a charcoal-like residue. Since the carbon is stabilized in this process it can be stored in the ground for thousands of years without escape.

Reduction of greenhouse gasses isn’t the only benefit to this technology. Since biochar has a weak electric charge it attracts plant nutrients in the form of positive ions in the soil. Preliminary research suggests that the use of biochar can boost plant yields as well as reduce ground water contamination from fertilizers.

Looks like biochar may be the next new thing in progressive agriculture as well one more weapon in the arsenal for scientists in the battle against climate change. Thanks for the tip ancient Amazonians!

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Rest in Peace F. Sherwood Rowland

F. Sherwood Roland, May 2008

F. Sherwood Rowland, Nobel laureate most famous for his groundbreaking atmospheric chemistry work in the mid-nineties on the formation and destruction of the earth's ozone layer, died at his Corona del Mar home earlier this week on March 10th at the age of 84 from complications with Parkinsons Disease.


Rowland and his two colleagues Paul J. Crutzen and Mario J. Molina won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1995 for their extensive work on the potential destruction of earths stratospheric ozone layer by anthropogenic sources, specifically chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), which were commonly found in refrigerants and other man-made materials. Rowland and Molina's paper titled Stratospheric Sink for Chlorofluoromethanes: Chlorine Atom-Catalyzed Destruction of Ozone that was published in Nature in 1974, was instrumental in the banning of CFCs by the Montreal Protocol in 1996.


F. Sherwood Rowland will surely be missed and revered in the scientific community for his significant contributions.

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Ocean Acidification: Global Warming’s Partner in Crime

Impact of ocean acidification on a key Arctic pelagic mollusc

As carbon dioxide (CO2) levels rise and global warming continues to rear it’s ugly head, disaster may be in store for some of our oceans key players. According to a study titled The Geological Record of Ocean Acidification published in Science this month, due to ocean acidification, the decline in pH caused by the rise of CO2 mainly due to anthropogenic sources, we may be headed into dangerous territory in comparison with historical carbon cycles.

Earth’s oceans gobble up approximately one quarter of the CO2 in the atmosphere. Carbonic acid is then formed, lowering the pH of seawater. Due to the drop in pH the concentration of the carbonate ion, which would normally be supersaturated in surface waters, is reduced. For calcifying organisms, organisms made of calcium carbonate, a decrease in carbonate ion concentrations could spell catastrophe. In the incidence that acidification directly affects calcifying organisms such as corals, molluscs and other creatures that produce their shells and plates from calcium carbonate, it could eventually upset the entire marine food chain.

In the study researchers looked to earth’s geological record for clues to what biotic responses might be based on record disruptions in carbon cycling and climate change, which were potentially caused by ocean acidification. In the past it has been challenging for researchers to determine future impacts of ocean acidification due to the limited sample period and the fact no existing oceanic crust or sediment is available for examination over 180 million years old.

Admittedly the study isn’t perfect. Researchers state in the paper “no past event perfectly parallels future projections in terms of disrupting the balance of ocean carbonate chemistry;” however, in the timespan of our geological record there are several events providing evidence regarding biotic responses in the incidence of carbon cycle disruption. It was concluded in the study that acidification levels seem to be headed for a maximum that we haven’t seen in the last 300 million years, which they call “unknown territory of marine ecosystem change.”

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