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Reflection #1: Molecular Structure Analysis of COVID-19 Virus

The COVID-19 virus has successfully shaken all of us across the globe to our core. It seemingly came out of nowhere in a small province of China in December of last year and has been growing more volatile and deadly by the day. As it continues to spread more and more rapidly and preventative and caution measures are being taken to the extreme across the globe, scientists and doctors are all searching desperately for a vaccine. To do so, they must analyze  the molecular structure of the virus to more accurately determine its features that make it so violent and in time be able to develop a vaccine to combat the virus.

This is not the first time the world has dealt with a Coronavirus outbreak. The SARS epidemic of the early 2000s and the MERS epidemic about a decade later were also coronaviruses. It is known how deadly these viruses can be once contracted by humans. Upon blood analysis of some of the initial patients that had contracted the virus, a previously unknown strain of the virus revealed itself. The new strain showed 88% likeness of identity in its genome sequence to that of two previously known SARS like coronaviruses transmitted by bats, as well as about 50% likeness in identity to the genome sequence of the MERS coronavirus.

Currently, just like with the SARS virus and the MERS virus, there is no proven antiviral agent available for COVID-19. It seems as of right now all anyone can do is slow the bleeding. Certain general treatments such as oxygen therapy, fluid conservation management and broad-spectrum antibiotics (used to help prevent secondary infection) remain the current most important strategies for treating patients. Other avenues and therapeutic methods are being pursued every day. Certain medications are being tried on patients to see if they are capable of blocking viral RNA synthesis and alleviating the symptoms. One such antiviral drug is Remdesivir, which has shown very positive results in the past against the SARS and MERS viruses. Two other medications that have been used to treat Malaria have also just been approved by the FDA for use one patients.

Until a vaccine is developed for COVID-19, we are all at the mercy of this virus. Labs in China are currently working to launch more than 80 clinical trials on potential vaccines for COVID-19. As well as some of the treatments mentioned above, certain HIV drugs are now being examined for effectiveness as well as the application of stem cells.

Li, Xiaowei, et al. “Molecular Immune Pathogenesis and Diagnosis of COVID-19.” Journal of Pharmaceutical Analysis, 2020, doi:10.1016/j.jpha.2020.03.001.

 

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Reflection #2: Life on Other Planets?

In chemistry, an equilibrium is achieved when the reaction reaches a homeostatic state where the rate of the forward reaction equals the rate of the reverse reaction. In every equilibrium reaction, the reactant and product concentrations eventually stop changing over time because these rates become equal. Most chemical reactions occurring all the time, all around us in our atmosphere are occurring at equilibrium and if they are not, they are trying to attain it once more. In an attempt to discover life elsewhere in the Cosmos, doctors and space scientists are developing new ways of detecting life. One of these new, promising ideas involves observing atmospheric disequilibria.

It has been common practice for many years now to observe varying amounts of oxygen in the atmosphere and use those observed amounts as indications of life. However, these doctors and scientists are now considering the possibility of other forms of life in the Cosmos that do not bio-mechanically produce oxygen. In fact, this may be a very rare case rather exclusive to our planet. Given the complexity of the biochemistry of the production of oxygen, there is a high probability of just that.

The concept of atmospheric disequilibria may seem rather strange, especially when considering our planet’s ability to sustain life. In reality, this may hold the answer to other planet’s abilities to do so as well as sustain other types of life we are not yet familiar with. As a result, new studies are looking throughout the history of Earth (being the only inhabited planet we know of) to find periods where the Earth’s atmosphere contained a mixture of gases that were occurring in a reaction out of equilibrium and only existed in the presence of living organisms. Through these studies it was actually determined that life’s ability to produce large amounts of oxygen has only surfaced within the last 600 million years. Considering the earth is over 4.5 billion years old, that is not all that long ago.

Now, a new potential combination of gases has now emerged through research that would hold promising evidence of life if discovered elsewhere in the universe. That combo would be methane along with carbon dioxide, less carbon monoxide. The carbon atoms in the two molecules (methane and carbon dioxide) are at opposite levels of oxidation. The carbon dioxide molecule has as many oxygen atoms as it can hold while the methane molecule has no oxygen atoms and instead has hydrogen. Achieving these levels of opposite oxidation is almost impossible to do through non-biological processes without producing carbon monoxide as well. Carbon monoxide is severely toxic to several forms of life and therefor the absence of the gas makes an all the better case for a living community. So vice versa, a planet that shows high levels of carbon monoxide is probably not the best candidate for being able to support life.

University of Washington. “A new ‘atmospheric disequilibrium’ could help detect life on other planets.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 24 January 2018. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/01/180124141603.htm>.

Reflection #3: How Ions Actually Move Inside a Battery

The world of technology is constantly evolving and it is evolving at an ever growing rate. A huge shift in technology that has been seen within the past fifteen years and most certainly within the past five years has been the shift to more clean sources of energy. A perfect example would be the Tesla. Tesla’s are 100% battery powered vehicles and they are charged in the same way that one would charge their phone. Now, the down side to owning a Tesla or any other battery powered vehicle for that matter would in fact be it’s environmental benefit, seeing as how it can take up to 12 hours to attain a full charge in one of these vehicles. If this charging time could be significantly reduced however, perhaps this is would be a big stepping stone towards everyone being able to obtain clean energy in such a way.

Okay so first, let’s talk about how a basic battery works. In this case, because it is related to the study I am referencing, we will consider a battery with lithium ions. Ions in the battery are transported between the positive (cathode) and negative (electrode) through an electrolyte, creating electricity. In most all cases a fast charging-battery is desired. To help achieve this, LTO (a material composed of lithium, titanium, and oxygen) is commonly used as the anode. Because of the presence of lithium already in the compound, it is better suited to accommodate lithium ions from coming the cathode more rapidly.

Scientists at Berkley National Labs have been experimenting for some time with these LTO batteries to determine why they work so well as fast-charging electrodes and how they can continue to improve them further. To more accurately determine how these lithium ions were moving in the electrode, the team of scientists actually constructed an electrochemical cell that they could monitor under an electron transmission microscope. Through the scientist’s analysis, they determined that LTO has several intermediate configurations in which the atoms are not in their usual arrangement. When these distortions occur the energy barriers are lowered making a “fast-track” for the lithium ions to enter.

Think of it like this. The electrode (whatever it be) is like a revolving door that normally, lithium ions have to try and squeeze themselves through with a low success rate leading to a slower-charging battery. However, replacing the electrode with LTO allows the lithium ions to travel through much more quickly and successfully because LTO actually undergoes changes in structure to better accommodate the lithium ions coming in, allowing for a faster-charging battery. This understanding of how LTO works as an electrode in a lithium battery to create a fast-charging battery is just one way we are getting closer to obtaining cleaner, affordable energy for everybody.

DOE/Brookhaven National Laboratory. “Chasing lithium ions on the move in a fast-charging battery.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 12 March 2020. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/03/200312112656.htm>.

Reflection #4: The Nuclear Theory So Far…

A team of researchers at UMass Lowell headed by nuclear physicists have made a discovery that could very well change the nuclear model of the atom as we know it. The discovery came from experimentation derived from a pretty big question that the team of researchers were looking for the answer for. That question being,  “How are the chemical elements created in the universe?”.

One of the ways of observing the formation of atomic nuclei is by observing X-ray bursts. These are explosions that happen on neuron stars in space (remnants of larger stars towards the end of their life). In order to simulate these instances of cosmic phenomena, the researchers set out creating exotic atomic nuclei in a controlled lab environment to measure their nucleic properties. Basic atomic theory states that atoms are the building blocks of the universe. The theory also suggests that inside the atom are two very similar particles; the proton and the neutron. The only fundamental difference between the two being that the proton carries a positive charge and the neutron carries a neutral charge. The number of protons an atom possesses indicates what element that particular atom belongs to. The total combined weight of the protons and neutrons in an atom together will give you the atomic weight of that atom. Finally, we know that isotopes of an element are atoms that possess the same number of protons but, have a different number of neutrons therefore effecting the mass number.

At the research facility, nuclei were sped up to close to the speed of light and then smashed apart, in turn creating strontium-73. This particular isotope of strontium contains 38 protons and 35 neutrons and can only survive for fractions of a second. Researchers then worked tirelessly in creating more than 400 nuclei of the strontium-73 isotope so that they could compare the nuclei to that of a substance with more known properties, bromine-73. Bromine-73 has an interchanged number of protons and neutrons with that of the strontium-73 nuclei, having 35 protons and 38 neutrons. In the atomic field these are referred to as “mirror partners” or “mirror images”. This normally makes it safe to assume similar properties between the two nuclei but, upon observation of the over 400 strontium-73 nuclei created, researchers found the exact opposite to be true, raising a slew of new questions regarded nuclear atomic theory. The two nuclei should have identical structure but however, they do not. Perhaps this just means we are not near as far along in our basic understanding of the universe as we initially thought.

University of Massachusetts Lowell. “Discovery challenges nuclear theory: Researchers test the way we understand forces in the universe.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 1 April 2020. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/04/200401130840.htm>.