Word: acids
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...scientists already knew that fats belong to a class of compounds known as esters, which are made from acid molecules linked with alcohol molecules. So they started tinkering with the number of fatty acids that could be attached to a molecule of alcohol. In the process, they made an unexpected discovery. In laboratory animals, an ester composed of an alcohol and one fatty acid was pretty well digested and absorbed. But two fatty acids were better, and three were better still. The chemists reasonably assumed they could keep adding more...
Wrong. As soon as the scientists added a fourth fatty acid, the digestibility and absorbability of the compound decreased. Five fatty acids decreased it further still. And six fatty acids, attached to a molecule of sorbitol, a sweetish alcohol used in food products, made the compound completely indigestible...
...SOON AS THEY SAW THE PLUME OF gas, the Mexican truck drivers leaped out of their cabs and ran for the American side of the border. Acrylic acid, a toxic chemical, had leaked from a tanker waiting in line for U.S. Customs inspection, and the liquid was vaporizing as it gathered in a noxious pool. It was "chewing holes in the pavement," says Lee Thompson, who saw it all happen in early November at the border station outside Laredo, Texas. His hazardous-materials response team, fortuitously on the scene for a training exercise, rushed to prevent the highly flammable acid...
Serious tragedies occur almost weekly. Last September, just north of the border, a Mexican driver was killed when a spark caused by carelessness ignited his tanker filled with jet fuel. Texas officials recently investigated a sulfuric-acid spill in Laredo involving a 16-year-old driver with no insurance and no shipping papers. His rig had faulty brakes; nine of its 18 tires were bald. It is not uncommon to find several Mexican truck drivers carrying insurance cards with the same name and policy number...
...Paul, George and Ringo have stepped back into the Beatle spotlight, they have done so on tiptoe. The lads freely discuss their drug use--what Paul calls the "herbal-jazz cigarettes," which garnered arrests for several of the Beatles, and the experiments with lsd. When they were told that acid could alter their minds, McCartney recalls, "John was rather excited by that prospect, and I was rather frightened." McCartney also talks about the strippers they dated in the Hamburg bars. But all are mum on sexual escapades after those early years. If any groupie got to stay overnight during...