Chemistry and the Media Help Control Covid Down Under

Australian Officials closed Sydney's iconic Bondi Beach March 21  Matthew Abbott for the NYT

Australia and New Zealand initially had outbreaks of the viral disease probably resulting from the heavy travel between the two countries and other parts of Asia.  Now, however, according to a report from Damien Cave in the New York Times, both countries have among the lowest infection and mortality rates in the world. Australia, a country of 25 million, has recorded a total of 6670 cases and 78 deaths (3 per million) and New Zealand, a country of 5 million, has had 1456 cases and 17 deaths (also 3 per million).  Note that at the moment the US death toll is 56,649 (173 per million).  Mr. Cave reports that (my bold):

It all started with scientists. In Australia, as soon as China released the genetic code for the coronavirus in early January, pathologists in public health laboratories started sharing plans for tests. In every state and territory, they jumped ahead of politicians.

“It meant we could have a test up and running quickly that was reasonably comparable everywhere,” Dr. Collignon said.

The government then opened the budgetary floodgates to support suffering workers and add health care capacity. When infections started climbing, many of the labs and hospitals hired second and third rounds of scientists to help.

Taking the advice of their own experts and over objections from the public both governments introduced strict travel bans and lockdowns early.  The public has accepted the restrictions in large part because of consistent messages from the government by way of the media.  Prime Ministers of both countries took the role of explainer in chief.  Scott Morrison of Australia, a conservative, prefers conservative talk radio while libeal Jacinda Ardern of New Zealand leans towards Facebook Live.  Mr. Cave notes that "both have received praise from scientists for listening and adapting to evidence."

Data Can Be Held in the Smallest of Things

The Hefty RAMAC 350

As technology progresses and our computing abilities grow, the need for more advanced data storage solutions arises. We’ve come a long way so far. Back in 1956, IBM released a revolutionary hard drive: the RAMAC 350, capable of storing a whole 5 Mb worth of data. It stored its data on 50 platters, each 24 inches in diameter, and the whole drive weighed about a ton. In modern day, the storage capabilities have increased dramatically as the size of drive required to house data continues to shrink. Recently, Nimbus Data released the ExaDrive DC100, a solid-state drive capable of holding 100 Tb of data which fits into a 3.5 inch form factor. The DC100 utilizes 3D NAND technology, meaning it takes the already existing NAND storage technology which arranges cells side-by-side for data storage, and stacks those layers of cells perfectly on top of one another to greatly expand the size of storage on the drive. In general, we are now capable of storing data on transistors 14 nm across, or about 14 times wider than a strand of our DNA. But as we move forward to increased data storage sizes, we approach a limit to how much data we can hold within a certain amount of space, and we must innovate new materials and solutions for data storage.

One avenue for this innovation may have been found recently by an international team of researchers led by Paul Ching-Wu Chu, founding director of the Texas Center for Superconductivity. The new technology utilizes what is known as a skyrmion: the smallest possible perturbation to a uniform magnet. A skyrmion is a point-like region surrounded by a field of spins. It can exist especially in lattice structures of solid materials. Its exact nature is complicated, but its applications to technology are very promising.

A vector field of 2D magnetic skyrmions

Skyrmions can be moved using very little electrical current, and present a possibility for a new type of data storage, wherein a bit is encoded based on the existence or non-existence of a skyrmion. However, there are some problems that come with skyrmions. Much like superconductors, another useful material composed of lattice-structure solids, skyrmions usually only exist at a very low and very small range of temperatures. For example, the material that Chu’s team has studied normally only exists in a skyrmion state at 55-58.5 K, a range of only 3.5 K. These temperatures would make it very difficult and cumbersome for the material to be used for data storage, but recent developments may have found a solution to this problem.

Room temperature skyrmions have been observed, and are not brand new (they have been observed as far back as 2015 when the idea for data storage using skyrmions was developed and studied). Chu’s team was able to achieve this using the compound copper oxyselenide, expanding the temperature range up to 300 K (just above to room temperature). It achieves this by putting the material under immense pressure. The skyrmion state was observed in Chu’s compound at 300 K when put under 8 GPa of pressure. However, this presents another problem similar to the original issue of temperature; 8 GPa is about 80,000 times more pressure than Earth’s atmosphere, meaning a storage material held at that pressure would need a large and expensive amount of specialty equipment. But none of this is breakthrough news yet. The exciting development from this team comes from the suggestion that for this material, atmospheric pressure can be substituted for chemical pressure to achieve stable room-temperature skyrmions.

Normal pressure the way we think of it is atmospheric pressure, the force of gas particles moving around and pushing against one another and the surfaces they come in contact with. This is an external pressure, pushing from the outside of the material (in this case, our lattice compound). Chemical pressure is achieved when adding chemical entities (atoms, ions, or molecules) into the lattice of a solid. This pressure can be changed with the size or charge of the inserted particles and has the unique ability to be either positive or negative, acting either with or against the external pressure. The act of inserting foreign particles into a lattice structure is commonly referred to as “doping” and has many applications.

The doping of a silicon system with boron

The suggested use of chemical pressure that comes from doping can be used as a substitute to atmospheric pressure, which could make a material capable of having room-temperature skyrmion states a commercially viable option for data storage. This is just one potential route among many for the future of high-density data storage, and shows us the interconnected nature of the development of chemistry and computational technology.

Lab Technique Makes Bacteria Face the Music, and it is Metal!

Ever since I learned about the dangers of antibiotic drug resistance in high school biology, an occasional anxiety visits me and reminds me that the time bomb hasn't been diffused. The horror stories my wrestling coaches told me about MRSA to make sure we mopped the mats properly did little to help this. The tale goes that a patient with a bacterial infection chose to stop taking their antibiotics when they felt better, rather than when the doctor prescribed. As figure 1 explains, the population takes the opportunity to regenerate; not only will the infection return, but now with the ability to resist antibiotics on a larger scale. 

Fig. 1: Genetic adaptation and transference allow a population to survive antibiotics.

A rather ominously titled report by the CDC reports that on average, someone in the United States gets an antibiotic-resistant infection every 11 seconds and every 15 minutes someone dies. This statistic is lower than in previous years, but not without a warning: "Without continued vigilance, this progress may be challenged by the increasing burden of some infections." As we watch the United States cut funding from the World Health Organisation, and Capitalists steadily combat affordable healthcare, only the willfully ignorant could miss the writing on the wall. Antibacterial Resistance is going to become a major threat once again.

Purdue University engineers recently developed a laser-texturing technique that allows metal surfaces to kill bacteria instantaneously. The team already proved this technique effective against the MRSA I was so afraid of as a kid. This massive step toward reducing the spread of infectious bacteria creates nano-scale patterns on the metal's surface. The patterns increases surface area of the metal, allowing for contact with more bacteria. An article detailing the discovery emphasizes on the efficacy of this lab technique over various nano-coating techniques that attempted to enhance the antibacterial properties of metals in the past. Laser texturing adds no new substance, while the substances nano-coating used were often toxic. 

Fig 2: Laser Texturing. Increased surface area allows for the lethal dose of copper ions to enter bacteria much faster.

The continuing research of how to face upcoming health challenges is indispensable. If it is not impressive enough that the engineers at Purdue University amplified the disinfectant properties of metal to such a degree, than consider the secondary impact of the technique. As can be seen in the University's video, this technique makes metal surfaces more hydrophilic. Orthopedic implants will attach more strongly and safely, improving the integration of the implants into bone. 

Bacteria and Nanowires: A Match Made for Space

Nanowires

An article published on, sciencedaily.com, chemists at the University of California- Berkeley, may have found the means to sustain life on Mars and reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The rise of carbon dioxide due to the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation has been seen across the globe. With the rise in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere a multitude of results have been yielded. The greenhouse effect, when gases such as carbon dioxide trap the sun’s heat which causes a rise and temperature, but one of these results. The greenhouse effect coupled with deforestation and other forms of pollution are promoting climate change, which has had drastic effects on wildlife and the environment. 

 

Sporomusa ovata

Scientists have created a hybrid (biomechanical) system of bacteria and nanowires that uses solar energy to convert carbon dioxide and water into other organic molecules such as carbohydrates, oxygen, and acetate. The nanowires are thin silicon strands, about one hundred times thinner than a strand of human hair, which are used as the electrical components and solar cells. These scientists have also hit a new milestone and have begun packing bacteria (Sporomusa ovata) in the nanowires. The nanowires conduct the solar energy to the bacteria while the bacteria is able to pull carbon dioxide from the air, add some water and you have a process very similar to photosynthesis. 

At first the efficiency of this method was not the best but, that was soon corrected. The conservation of the solar energy to organic molecules was similar to the efficiency of photosynthesis in plant but drastically low when compared to silicon solar panels. They first tried to just add more bacteria but soon realized that the pH of the surrounding water used for the process increased, this caused the bacteria to separate from the wires and break the circuit. To fix this they found a way to keep the water slightly acidic in order to counteract the continuous acetate production. This also allowed them to pack more bacteria into the nanowires, increasing efficiency by a factor of almost 10, making this more efficient than photosynthesis conducted by most plants. 

With this system able to draw carbon dioxide from the air this could directly address climate change by helping to remove excess carbon dioxide. Scientists also believe that this system could be essential in helping support colonies on Mars. There is expected to be a vast amount of frozen water just beneath the surface of Mars. With this biohybrid system, Mars colonists would have the raw material needed in order to begin the first colonies. 

Who is qualified for Covid pass?

In a coronavirus outbreak piece in the New York times, reporter Jason Horowits discusses the circumstances of going back to work in Italy. In order for the Italians to go back to work they have to have the right antibodies. Since the curve of the new infected cases in Italy is going down, governors  along with researchers and scientists are determining the proper way of when and how to reopen without facing any new challenges.

 Italy has reported the highest coronavirus death toll of any country.Credit...Alessandro Grassani for The New York Times

A special license has been proposed for Italians who possess antibodies that show they have had beaten the virus. The process of giving these licenses is not clear yet. As the number of cases has been decreasing, the governors of Italy are thinking seriously about reopening the economy. Due to the fact that Italy was one of the first infected countries with very large numbers of infected and death cases, it gives the researchers the opportunity to gain insight into how the virus works and biological properties that protect against it.

The intensive care unit for critical coronavirus patients at the Papa Giovanni hospital in Bergamo, near Milan

Scientists in Italy have found out that the virus resulted in two types of antibodies, one that appears at the first week of the infection and the second one that appears after 20 days and as a result show that the person has had the virus. further studies are being processing for safely reopening in Italy.

The Science of Hugging: What we Lose when we are Isolated

In "Op-Art" piece in the New York Times, Kristen Radka, author and illustrator outlines the science behind our need to touch and what we lose when we isolate ourselves to prevent the proliferation of disease.  She recounts moving to a town where she knew no one and lived alone.  She found herself growing hungry for some kind of human touch.

Art from Kristen Radka's New York Times piece.

She notes the science behind our need for touch.  Regular touch release oxytocin and leads to feelings of compassion.  It reduces levels of stress hormones like cortisone, cortisol and dihydro-cortisone.

Stress homones include dihydro-cortisone

Regular hugs strengthens the immune system helping to fight infection and reducing the severity of febrile diseases like flu and covid 19.  It also lowers blood pressure, particularly important for expectant mothers.  It is all of this we lose when we isolate ourselves in response to a pandemic.