@serotonin & @dopamine

​​🔵 THE CHEMISTRY OF DATE FRUITS 🟢 Date fruits take about 200 days to fully grow and ripen, and their ripeness is classified as either kimri (unripe), khalaal (full-sized), rutab (ripe, soft), or tamr (ripe, sun-dried). During the ripening process, the moisture content decreases and the sugar content increases. Below a moisture content of around 25 %, the dates are self-preserving. 🟢 An average date in the tamr stage weighs about seven to ten grams and has about 20 kcal. These calories stem almost entirely from the sugar contained in the fruit in the form of sucrose, glucose, and fructose. During ripening, sucrose is converted to glucose and fructose by the enzyme invertase. Dates also contain small amounts of fat (mostly in the skin) and protein (roughly 1–3 %). 🟢 Dates are a good source of dietary fiber, with over half a gram per dried fruit. While these fibers are indigestible by humans, they have healthy effects such as curbing appetite and regulating blood sugar and digestion. The fruit also provides minerals such as potassium, calcium, and iron. 🟢 In addition, fresh dates are especially rich in phenolic antioxidants, which scavenge free radicals and may protect the health of cells and reduce inflammation. Specifically, dates have been shown to contain benzoic acids, cinnamic acids, flavonoid glycosides and esters, flavan-3-ols, and proanthocyanidins, which all belong to the phenolic compounds. So overall, while dates are rich in sugar, they deliver a whole range of healthy nutrients. ━━━━━━━━━━━ 🧪 @Serotonin ⚗️

​​🔵 ANTARCTIC GREENHOUSE 🟢 By providing special artificial light, an ideal temperature, and selected nutrients in a closed greenhouse, plants grow entirely without soil, more quickly, and with a higher yield than in their natural environment. This is the result of a test run of the EDEN-ISS greenhouse at the Bremen site of the German Aerospace Center. 🟢 In December, the greenhouse will be run by DLR scientist Paul Zabel for one year at the Neumayer III Antarctic station located on the Eckström Ice Shelf in the Atlantic sector of Antarctica, which is operated by the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI). The technology will enrich the diet of the Neumayer III winter hermits and at the same time the supply scenario of a human mission to the Moon or Mars is simulated. 🟢 The aeroponics technique is used to cultivate plants in a sterile environment without soil by spraying them with a water/nutrient blend. The researchers adjust the atmosphere in the greenhouse to best suit the needs of the plants. The carbon dioxide content is increased, special filters to clean the air of any fungal spores and bacteria are used, and the air is sterilized with UV radiation. This enables entirely organic cultivation without insecticides and pesticides. Like on a space station, the greenhouse has an airtight circulation system, including an airlock that the researchers will use as entrance. The closed circuit makes it possible to recapture all of the water that the plants release into the air and reuse it. 🟢 The artificial Sun is a cocktail of blue, red and white light that bathes the containers and plants in shimmering violet hues. Light is shone on the plants in a determined day/night rhythm for 16 hours, after which they are left to rest light-free for eight hours. A water-cooled LED system, with computerized control of each individual LED and its wavelength, provides the specific conditions needed for each plant to thrive effectively. ━━━━━━━━━━━ 🧪 @Serotonin ⚗️

​​🔵 WHY DOES WATER IMPROVE WHISKY? 🟢 The “original whisky” from the barrel is diluted from 70 vol-% of alcohol to about 40 vol-% before it comes into the bottle. And true whisky experts know: diluted with a bit of water, the aroma of a noble drop may unfold even better. But why is that so? Björn Karlsson and Ran Friedman, Linné University, Kalmar, Sweden, have used computer simulations to investigate how water/ethanol mixtures behave in the presence of the flavoring agent guaiacol and how the individual components interact with each other. 🟢 In addition to water and alcohol, whisky contains many different organic ingredients, which characterize the taste decisively. Responsible for the typical smoky flavor of Scottish whiskys are, for example, phenols, in particular, the plant material guaiacol. 🟢 The scientists found that guaiacol is preferentially mixed with ethanol in the liquid. It can form hydrogen bonds to the water molecules as well as to the alcohol molecules. However, in the case of ethanol, there is also an additional attraction between the short alkyl chain of the alcohol and the aromatic ring of the aroma molecule. If the whisky is diluted to 45 to 27 vol-% of alcohol, the guaiacol loses more and more contact with the ethanol. The guaiacol rises to the surface of the liquid and thereby changes the smell and taste of the whisky. 🟢 There is a narrow ridge between whisky optimization and whisky disaster, the scientists say. Whatever mixture is the ideal, always depend on the whisky and the aroma components characteristic for it. ━━━━━━━━━━━ 🧪 @Serotonin ⚗️

​​🔵 EFFECT OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON COFFEE 🟢 Coffee is increasingly popular. Ethiopia is the home of the popular Arabica bean. Coffee farming generates a quarter of Ethiopia’s export earnings. In 2017, the International Coffee Organisation (ICO) predicts that consumption of the bean will outweigh its production for the third year in a row. Climate change leads to rapidly increasing temperatures and decreasing rainfall. As a result, if nothing is done, coffee beans could be in shorter supply, of poorer quality, and selling at a higher price. 🟢 Aaron P. Davis, Justin Moat, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Surrey, UK, and colleagues have used a modeling approach in combination with remote sensing, supported by rigorous ground-truthing to understand the influence of climate change on coffee production. 🟢 They found that if greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions continue at their current rate, the global temperature could rise by as much as 4°C. 39–59 % of the current growing area for coffee could experience climatic changes that are large enough to make them unsuitable for coffee farming. Unless something is done to restrict global warming, 60% of Ethiopia’s coffee territory could be lost and the amount of land suitable for the Arabica bean in South East Asia could shrink by more than two-thirds. 🟢 Solutions include the artificial manufacturing of strains of the Arabica bean which are more resistant to extreme climates and the relocation of coffee areas, in combination with forest conservation or re-establishment. The latter could see at least a fourfold (>400 %) increase in suitable coffee farming area, according to the researchers. However, they also emphasize that the “real solution must be to limit global warming in line with the targets agreed upon at the COP21 Paris climate talks, requiring a collective effort from everyone involved”. ━━━━━━━━━━━ 🧪 @Serotonin ⚗️

​​🔵 TRICLOSAN IN YOUR TOOTHBRUSH? 🟢 Ji Han and Baoshan Xing, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MS, USA, and colleagues have found that triclosan, a broad-spectrum antimicrobial, can accumulate in the toothbrush during brushing and is then uncontrolled released. For their study, the researchers had a robot simulate three-month brushing with 22 different manual toothbrushes and six triclosan-containing kinds of toothpaste. 🟢 Particularly soft bristles can store up to the twelfth of the dose normally contained in the toothpaste. After switching to a toothpaste without triclosan absorbed triclosan was gradually released into toothpaste slurries and the oral cavity. During the first two to three days of brushing, the toothbrush gave even higher doses of triclosan into the liquid than when brushing with triclosan-containing toothpastes. It occurred most rapidly in peroxide-containing “whitening” toothpastes, followed by alkaline and surfactant-rich toothpastes. While the active ingredient in the triclosan-containing toothpastes is largely bound to particles and thus immobilized, the free-dissolved form from the toothbrush is more bioavailable. 🟢 In animal experiments, triclosan triggered liver damage and cancer as well as muscle weakness, and it can also promote antibiotic resistance in bacteria. Overall, the triclosan exposure through this enrichment and release does not exceed the usual limit values. However, researchers see this as a hidden source of uncontrolled exposure. ━━━━━━━━━━━ 🧪 @Serotonin ⚗️

​​🔵 CHEMISTRY OF AN EARTHWORM 🟢 Earthworms play a role in the global cycling of carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and organic matter. They accumulate metals, they aerate the ground, and aid water drainage to it. The earthworm can grow up to 30 cm long. It occurs worldwide but there are many different species. Simply described, the earthworm consists of two tubes inserted into one another: the skin muscle tube with its longitudinal and circular muscles and the intestinal canal. 🟢 Lumbricidae earthworms (the common European earthworms) pull leaves into their tube system by sucking on a leaf. The worms release a secretion containing amylase from the pharyngeal glands. This moistens the leaf and promotes its decomposition process. The decomposition is done by fungi and bacteria. With sucking and pumping movements of the mouth, the decomposed food is then eaten by the worms. This process brings fungi, bacteria, and small particles of earth into the digestive tract of the worm. The humus of the top layers of earth has gone through the earthworms. 🟢 In the muscular, hard-walled stomach, the rotted plant remains are rubbed between mineral particles that have been taken up with the food. In the intestine, various enzymes and microorganisms help to break up and digest the food. ━━━━━━━━━━━ 🧪 @Serotonin ⚗️

​​🔵 GRAPHENE AS HAIR DYE 🟢 Hair dyeing is a complicated chemical process. Hair is covered by a kind of protective dandruff layer of overlapping cells called the cuticle. It needs chemicals like ammonia to break these and to allow the dyeing molecules to go inside the hair structure. This damages the structure of the hair, making it brittle, and the chemical cocktail often also contains toxic substances. 🟢 Jiaxing Huang, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA, and colleagues have used graphene oxide (GO) and its reduced form r-GO to create water-based formulations to form smooth and continuous coatings on hair. The solution of graphene and a polymeric binder dyes platinum-blonde strands black. The color remained for at least 30 washes – the prerequisite to reaching the performance requirement of permanent hair dyes. It is also possible to produce brown tones or color variations by simple chemical changes. Graphene hair dyes can be applied by spraying, brushing, and then drying. 🟢 Instead of penetrating the hair, the thin, flexible graphene layers wrap around a single hair, thus causing less damage. Tinting works on the same principle but they wash out very quickly. Once this graphene color coat has formed, the graphene is very good at repelling water. So it is not quickly decomposed during washing. Also, the colorant contains no toxic substances and cannot easily enter the body. Graphene is conductive, therefore, the coating on hair surfaces greatly improves antistatic performance. 🟢 According to the researchers, the graphene hair dye renders new properties, for example, by making the hair surface conductive and then combining it with portable electronics. ━━━━━━━━━━━ 🧪 @Serotonin ⚗️

​​🔵 HOW DOES THE THIRST-MAKING EFFECT OF ALCOHOL COMES ABOUT? 🟢 Steven Kliewer and David J. Mangelsdorf, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, USA, and colleagues have explored this question: The consumption of alcohol in mice stimulates the production of a specific hormone called FGF21 in the liver. To clarify whether this hormone is related to the onset of thirst, the team examined two groups of mice: “normal” and genetically engineered mice that could not produce FGF21. 🟢 Under normal diet, all animals drank about the same amount of water. When the mice got food that had a similar effect on the nutrient balance in the body as alcohol, the mice from the control group drank more water. The fluid intake in the genetically modified mice did not change. The release of FGF21 stimulates the thirst center in the hypothalamus of the animal’s brain, thus preventing dehydration caused by the diuretic effect of alcohol. At the same time, the desire to continue drinking alcohol is suppressed. 🟢 The concentration of liver hormone in human subjects also increased after they had drunk a mixed drink of alcohol and juice. The FGF21 level reached its highest value after two hours, before slowly dropping off again. The consumption of pure juice, on the other hand, caused no release of the messenger substance. 🟢 FGF21 may one day be used as a drug to prevent over-consumption of alcohol and its consequences ━━━━━━━━━━━ 🧪 @Serotonin ⚗️

​​🔵 WHAT IS IN A LIPSTICK? 🟢 Depending on the current fashion trends, the ideal lipstick can be glossy, matte, transparent, highly opaque, or color-intensive. The perfect lipstick has a high melting point of about 55 to 65 °C so that it does not run even at warm temperatures and is so stable that it does not break off during application. At the same time, it is soft to allow easy application to the lips, and so that it spreads evenly and forms a smooth film. It should only melt when applied to the lips and not before. All of this is achieved by the right mixture. 🟢 To prevent lipsticks from leaving traces on glasses, for example, the oil content is often reduced and replaced by synthetic resins and silicone oils or paraffins. The long-lasting effect occurs because the substances have a low melting point, which means that they become liquid when applied to the skin. They stabilize the color film after. However, this non-breathable layer on the lips my wash out body-own fat and make the lips dryer. Phenyl-modified silicones and special silicone resins provide gloss. 🟢 Lip gloss has the same ingredients as lipsticks in different proportions: It has usually less wax and more oil. Usually it comes in containers because of the different texture. 🟢 Impurities such as aluminum, manganese, or heavy metals (lead, chromium, cadmium) may also be found in lipsticks. As they are not intentionally added, they do not appear at the ingredient list. Instead they get into the lipstick accidentally with other ingredients as they are naturally occurring, for example, in mineral dyes, soil, and groundwater. ━━━━━━━━━━━ 🧪 @Serotonin ⚗️

​​🔵 BLEACH CLEANING PRODUCTS POLLUTE INDOOR AIR. 🟢 Cleaning the house with bleach products containing sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl) as the active ingredient leads to the emission of various chlorine-containing reactive species. These include hypochlorous acid (HOCl) and chlorine gas (Cl2). Concentrations depend on ventilation. 🟢 HOCl and Cl2 are strong oxidants that can react with many indoor chemicals. Examples are terpenes, a group of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) commonly found in indoor environments from the use of cleaning and personal care products, plants, food, air fresheners, etc. Limonene is one of the most abundant VOCs; α-pinene is another example. However, the impact of bleach emissions on indoor air quality has received little-to-no consideration. 🟢 Chen Wang, Department of Chemistry, University of Toronto, ON, Canada, and colleagues have investigated the potential reactions of bleach fumes and limonene or α-pinene and whether these reactions occur in typical indoor environments. Reactions were studied both in the dark and under indoor lighting conditions (from indoor fluorescent lights and north-facing windows) in an environmental chamber. 🟢 The team measured limonene and its volatile reaction products online with proton transfer reaction mass spectrometry (PTR-MS). They characterized the particles by the evolution of their size distribution and composition with both online and off-line techniques. Aerosol mass spectrometry (AMS) measurements indicated a large contribution of particulate chlorine species. Electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) analysis of filter-collected particles indicates the formation of high molecular weight products. 🟢 The study illustrates the potential for particle formation during the use of common cleaning products. The researchers found that potentially harmful particles can be formed. According to the researchers, the composition and possible health effects of these particles need to be studied further. ━━━━━━━━━━━ 🧪 @Serotonin ⚗️