The New Science of Drug Testing: The Sewers Never Lie. At best given current engineering and construction methods in my jurisdiction, sanitary sewers are tied into mainlines, between manholes. Unless they divise a way to sample accurately within a line that is traditionally between 6 and 12 inches in diameter, anywhere from one to a hundred yards away from an accessible manhole (that is, one which is sized appropriately for human entry), then the most accurate they can get is "someone upstream of this manhole (could be one house, could be three hundred), is using illicit drugs".
Beyond that, they would have to prove which person within the residence is using the drugs. Ignoring all of that, there are several other items impacting readings. Did someone just dump their prescription down the toilet? It is an interesting and potentially frightening consideration that they may be testing waste from a sewer that you contribute to, in order to track drug use. Paranoid much?? Nicotine and the Chemistry of Murder | Wired Science. The 1850 murder of Gustave Fougnies in Belgium is not famous because of the cleverness of his killers.
Not at all. They – his sister and brother-in-law – practically set off signal flares announcing their parts in a suspicious death. It’s not famous because it was such a classic high society murder. The killers were the dashing, expensive, and deeply indebted Comte and Countess de Bocarmé. The death occurred during a dangerously intimate dinner at their chateau, a 18th century mansion on an estate in southern Belgium. Nor it is remembered because the Comte died by guillotine in 1851 – so many did after all. No, this is a famous murder because of its use of a notably lethal poison. And that was certainly the idea when the Comte and his wife decided to murder her young brother for his money. But back in the 19th century, of course, there was no way to peel apart its neurochemical effects. Note: Carbon (black), hydrogen (white), nitrogen (blue) Images: 1) Murderpedia 2)Wikimedia Commons. Is Arsenic the Worst Chemical in the World? | Wired Science. “Arsenic is the number one environmental chemical for human health,” Joshua Hamilton tells me during a recent phone call.
We’re talking about his latest research, a just-published study in PLoS ONE which found that this naturally occuring poison causes harm in an astonishingly small dose — 10 parts per billion. Hamilton’s study looked at arsenic’s effect on mother mice and their offspring. But he chose the 10 ppb dose for a very human reason. It’s the safety standard the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency sets for arsenic in drinking water. Why does EPA need such a standard? Global estimates of people drinking arsenic-contaminated water can run as high as half-a-billion people — and can also involve far more dangerous concentrations than in the United States. Before Bangladesh, arsenic was best known for its long history as a homicidal poison. “In the 1960s, no one cared about arsenic and no one tested for it in environmental settings,” Hamilton says. Images: 1) U.S. When arsenic peppermints poisoned nearly 200 people in a single night.
10 of the Most Dangerous Chemicals in the World. Interesting — when I was in the Army, it was called CBR (chemical, biological, radioactive). I wonder why they changed the order and the initials? Pressure from Jay Leno? NBC was for Nuclear, Biological, Radiological. I think it might have been for memory's sake, which might have something to do with the tv studio indeed - but maybe just for giggles. The military does not always make sense. When were you in? I was in back in the late 70s.
I remember atropine was one of the drugs that was used to treat the immediate effects of nerve gas exposure. And we're supposed to believe that our benevolent government has truly decided to destroy all our VX stockpiles. I dunno, we've got much more targeted, devastating methods of wiping ourselves off the planet these days. I was in in the 90's. The husband, Mr. 10 of the Deadliest Proteins on Earth. New chemical circuits make becoming a cyborg even cooler. Is Scopolamine the world's scariest drug? The drug, called scopolamine, also known as ‘The Devil’s Breath,' is derived from a particular type of tree common in Colombia called the Borrachero tree. The word "borrachero," which roughly translates to "get-you-drunk," grows wild in Bogota,Colombia. This tree which naturally produces scopolamine is so famous in the countryside that mothers warn their children not to fall asleep below its cunningly beautiful yellow and white flowers.
"We probably should put some sort of fence up," jokes biologist Gustavo Morales at Bogota's botanical gardens to Reuters, eyeing children playing with borrachero seeds everywhere. The pollen alone is said to conjure up strange dreams. Read more... And when extracted and made into a colorless, odorless and tasteless powder, scopolamine does more than induce strange dreams. Quickly dissolved in liquids, criminals slip the powder into drinks or sprinkle it on food. Screenshot/Youtube andreasnilsson1976 Far from being a joke,the late Dr. Screenshot via YouTube. Meet the two newest additions to the Periodic Table of Elements. Cortisol. Human natural glucocorticoid hormone Chemical compound Cortisol is a steroid hormone, in the glucocorticoid class of hormones. When used as a medication, it is known as hydrocortisone. Health effects[edit] [edit] [edit] Cortisol plays a crucial role in regulating glucose metabolism and promotes gluconeogenesis (glucose synthesis) and glycogenesis (glycogen synthesis) in the liver and glycogenolysis (breakdown of glycogen) in skeletal muscle.
In general, cortisol stimulates gluconeogenesis (the synthesis of 'new' glucose from non-carbohydrate sources, which occurs mainly in the liver, but also in the kidneys and small intestine under certain circumstances). Cortisol also plays an important, but indirect, role in liver and muscle glycogenolysis (the breaking down of glycogen to glucose-1-phosphate and glucose) which occurs as a result of the action of glucagon and adrenaline.
Metabolism of proteins and lipids[edit] Immune response[edit] Cortisol can weaken the activity of the immune system. The Periodic Table | Elements. 1 You may remember the Periodic Table of the Elements as a dreary chart on your classroom wall. If so, you never guessed its real purpose: It’s a giant cheat sheet. 2 The table has served chemistry students since 1869, when it was created by Dmitry Mendeleyev, a cranky professor at the University of St. Petersburg. 3 With a publisher’s deadline looming, Mendeleyev didn’t have time to describe all 63 then-known elements. So he turned to a data set of atomic weights meticulously gathered by others. 4 To determine those weights, scientists had passed currents through various solutions to break them up into their constituent atoms. 5 From this process, chemists determined relative weights—which were all Mendeleyev needed to establish a useful ranking. 6 Fond of card games, he wrote the weight for each element on a separate index card and sorted them as in solitaire. 12 Noble gases (far right on the periodic table) have closed shells of electrons, which is why they are nearly inert.