Word: potassium
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...they always have been, fireworks are handcrafted. Computers may trigger the bursts and create complex "choreography," but the basic recipe for many fireworks has remained unchanged for a hundred years: potassium nitrate or perchlorate; sulfur, charcoal or aluminum; plus assorted chemicals to produce varied hues. "With all the space-age advances," says Dave Oppermann, a "play-by-play" commentator, "they're still making fireworks much the way they have for hundreds of years." John Adams would be content--give or take...
...Aili Kaups what she ate this morning, and she'll tell you "half a cantaloupe." But that's only half the story. The Brentwood, Calif., literary-agency administrator also had some potassium (for energy), super-oxide dismutase (an antioxidant), lipotropic formula (to fight cholesterol), chasteberry herbs (alleviates premenstrual symptoms), kyolic (aged dried garlic extract), chromium piccolinate (an appetite suppressant), vegetable phyter (dried vegetable concentrate) and 30 or so other nutritional odds and ends...
...Math Club, but he never stayed long and did not strike his classmates as weird or worrisome--unlike another student who wound up in jail. He did have one notable hobby, though: "I remember Ted had the know-how of putting together things like batteries, wire leads, potassium nitrate and whatever and creating explosions," recalls his boyhood friend Dale Eickelman, now a Dartmouth professor. The boys detonated explosives in fields or in a metal garbage can, using ingredients they could scrounge around the house or buy at the hardware store...
...protein that plays a crucial role in Alzheimer's may hold the key to developing a test for early detection of the disease. The protein, beta amyloid, destroys a brain cell's ability to regulate potassium, the chemical that triggers signals governing memory. Since the protein also affects other cells, scientists hope to develop a skin test to detect the onset of Alzheimer...
Since 1977, scientists have sought a substance which experimental evidence had demonstrated prevents the proper functioning of the sodium-potassium pump, a cell regulatory mechanism which helps to maintain a proper balance of ions in the cell...