Month: September 2022

PRION MUTATIONS. "More than 20 amino acid replacements have been observed in inherited prion diseases. Some amino acid polymorphisms in PrP of human, sheep, and mouse appear to influence the onset and phenotype of prion disease." http://mbe.oxfordjournals.org/content/20/1/111.full View in LinkedIn

EPIGENETIC INHERITANCE. "Prions are...an epigenetic form of inheritance, which means they don't alter any DNA sequence yet still change the organism's traits." https://lnkd.in/eT4cFFg View in LinkedIn

FRAGMENT FROM NATURE for two weekends is about formic acid, made by insects like beetles and ants. Humans can only make this chemical under pressure and heat, and most creatures are very susceptible to its extremely toxic nature. By contrast, insects make it at ambient temperatures and store it in highly concentrated form in their bodies, showering and bathing in this liquid, without adverse effects. View in LinkedIn

TOXICITY of formic acid. The OSHA 8-hour limit for formic acid is 5 parts per million. It is a very toxic chemical, capable of causing shock, severe burns and even human death. Respirators, gloves and protective clothing is required to handle this acid. In carabid beetles, formic acid is stored in the poison glands at an astonishing 80% concentration, or some 160,000 times more than the OSHA limit. https://lnkd.in/eqedn5i View in LinkedIn

DISTILLATE OF ANT. A number of ancient recipes can be found for distillation of formic acid from ants dating from 1749: "A quantity of these insects collected in May and June was put into a large retort, water being poured upon them, the whole was distiller with a fire slowly increased to boiling..." https://lnkd.in/e3bMYxc View in LinkedIn

LITMUS TEST. "As Ray noted, in a 1670 letter to the Royal Society's Philosophical Transactions, he was prompted to investigate on consulting Langham's Garden of Health, where he met with the passage: 'Cast the flowers of chicory among an heap of Ants, and they will soon become as red as blood'. Chicory flowers are known to change colour according to soil pH, and they seemed to have served to the natural philosophers of Ray's era as handy natural litmus paper." https://lnkd.in/eFTfaPq View in LinkedIn

ARROW POISON. "In 1889 Henry Morton Stanley reported to the Royal Geographical Society "that several of his party, being hit by the arrows of the natives, died almost immediately in great agony. The poison was found to consist of the bodies of red ants, ground to a fine powder, and then cooked in palm-oil. This mixture was smeared on the arrow-heads." https://lnkd.in/eMyhQQV View in LinkedIn

BOUTIQUE ANTY-GIN. "Formic acid, the inbuilt defense mechanism for ants, is a very reactive type of organic compound, particularly when combined with alcohol. When alcohol and formic acid are brought together they produce a range of aromatic esters (compounds that produce smells and flavors) that enhance the taste of fermented or distilled drinks." Not for the faint of heart. https://lnkd.in/eut95Eq View in LinkedIn

ALARM PHEROMONES. "Workers of formicine ants eiect a mixture of formic acid and the secretion from Dufour's gland against an enemy. The secretion from this gland in F. rufa consists of a great number of substances, 39 of which have been identified. The dominating substances form a homologous series of aliphatic, saturated hydrocarbons. Some of these hydrocarbons as well as the formic acid are alarm pheromones." https://lnkd.in/eBy26WC View in LinkedIn

UNUSUAL PROPERTIES. "Formic acid is miscible with water and most polar organic solvents, and somewhat soluble in hydrocarbons. In hydrocarbons and in the vapor phase, it actually consists of hydrogen-bonded dimers rather than individual molecules. In the gas phase, this hydrogen-bonding results in severe deviations from the ideal gas law. Liquid and solid formic acid consists of an effectively infinite network of hydrogen-bonded formic acid molecules." https://lnkd.in/eN8mRWC View in LinkedIn