Word: nitrogen
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...arms elongate into gleaming spikes that impale people and latch onto moving cars. It can appear as a bulge in the floor, transforming itself into a humanoid that then proceeds to walk through a steel gate, its artificial skin oozing between the bars like melted butter. Frozen by liquid nitrogen, it is shattered into a thousand pieces, but its fragments congeal again into a glistening body of liquid chrome...
...people of Mexico City call it nata, or scum. It is the sickly brown cloud that stubbornly hangs over the megalopolis, home to 23 million people. Composed primarily of carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and ozone, the smog has made the winter of 1991 the most toxic in Mexico City history, triggering a 16% to 20% jump in the incidence of respiratory infections, nosebleeds and emphysema. Since September, the city has enjoyed only six days in which noxious gases did not exceed danger levels. "The atmosphere has no time to recuperate," says Homero Aridjis, president of the Group...
...most pressing problem is posed by the fiery oil wells, which after a month of continuous burning will create enough smoke and soot to cover an area half the size of the U.S., according to some projections. The by-products of combustion include carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide and, because of the high sulfur content of Kuwaiti crude, a good deal of sulfur dioxide -- a prime component in acid rain...
...long, 6-ft.-high machines generate a cloud of neutrons that penetrate the luggage. These combine with the nitrogen in plastic explosives to generate gamma rays; an array of detectors identifies the substance. But other items containing nitrogen, including wool sweaters and padded ski boots, can set off warnings. The manufacturer, Science Applications International Corp. of San Diego, says the false alarms can be reduced with further experience. At the moment, says FAA administrator James Busey, "we have no other system available...
...Lithuania, are declining dramatically, and summer bathing is in jeopardy. The Vistula River, which runs through Poland, is so laden with poisons and corrosive chemicals that stretches are considered unusable for factory coolant systems, much less for drinking water. The Danube is endangered at every turning by runoff from nitrogen-rich agricultural fertilizers and by the industrial plants that discharge along its banks, from West Germany, where it rises, to Romania, where it pours into the Black...