Word: nitrogen
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Glashow synthesized nitrogen tetra-iodide, an extremely unstable compound which explodes when anything is dropped on it, and took to soaking dollar bills in nitric acid. This turns the dollar bill into flashpaper, which burns very rapidly and leaves no ash. Glashow gave this up when it became too expensive...
Those in favor of this recombinant DNA research emphasize its potential benefits including the ability for plants to fix nitrogen, the potential for finding out more about cancer cells and the development of cheaper ways to make insulin. They claim that the review board should recommend that the Cambridge City Council lift its ban on the research enacted this summer and allow the work to be done under federal guidelines released earlier this year...
...orbital pictures show that the planet is crisscrossed by dry "riverbeds" and sinuous valleys, including a deep Grand Canyon-like depression called the Valles Marineris, that were probably carved out by running water. During Viking's descent, the lander's instruments sniffed and measured both nitrogen (3%) and argon (1.5%) in the Martian atmosphere. Nitrogen is an essential element in the molecules of terrestrial life. Also, the presence of approximately the same percentage of argon found in the earth's air suggests that Mars at one time had a denser atmosphere more conducive to the evolution...
...NITROGEN FIXATION. At present only legumes such as peas, beans and alfalfa-with the aid of a soil-dwelling bacterium called rhizobium-are known to be naturally capable of fixing nitrogen from the air-joining it to other substances to form compounds necessary for plant growth. Most other plants must obtain their nitrogen from natural and man-made fertilizers. But scientists are seeking to give more plants this nitrogen-fixing ability. At Utah's Brigham Young University, biologists are attempting to "infect" other species of plants with rhizobia. Scientists in England have isolated the segment of the rhizobial...
...food increase attributed to the so-called "Green Revolution" in agriculture. Scientists are also seeking, through cell manipulation, to improve the characteristics of plants. Biologists at the USDA laboratory at Beltsville, Md., and at other centers are experimenting with ways to improve the efficiency of both nitrogen fixation and photosynthesis, the processes by which plants produce the proteins necessary for growth. One researcher has already succeeded in showing that plant engineering may some day be practicable. In 1972 Peter Carlson of Brookhaven National Laboratory managed to unite the cells of two species of tobacco and produce a new plant. Carlson...