The absorption bands induced in α-Al2O3 by gamma and reactor irradiation have been studied. The slight coloration due to γ-rays saturates. Bands specific to reactor irradiation have been found and their growth studied.

The problem of finding the site of injury from x-radiation is usually resolved to whether the nucleus or the cytoplasm is more radiosensitive. This is not easily determined sines the various cell components are interdependent and therefore cannot be evaluated separately. One approach to this problem is to compare the radiosensitivity of individuals that differ in the number of sets of chromosomes. Thus, by comparing haploids, diploids and polyploids one can determine whether additional genomes modify the radiosensitivity of the cell or organism. If a differential deleterious effect is obtained between individuals that differ in ploidy, a nuclear-type damage is proposed, if no such differential effect is obtained, the injury is presumed to be cytoplasmic.

In aqeuous solution hydrogen interferes with the discharge of zirconium. Cozzi added methylene blue to effect a separation of potential; however, only a small part of the zirconium participates in the electrode reaction and the wave is poorly defined. Colichman and Ludewig carried out the polarography in anhydrous methanol and thus avoided interference due to hydrogen ions. It has been found that a polarographic determination of zirconium can be carried out in aqueous solution if the zirconium is complexed by fluoride and the pH is sufficiently high to separate the zirconium wave from the hydrogen wave without precipitation of hydrous oxides. These conditions are attained at a pH of 7.0 and fluoride concentration of approximately 0.1 molar.

One of the materials most extensively studied with the dry state ionizing particle approach described in the preceding papers has been T-1 bacteriophage. It was one of the earliest materials subjected to cyclotron bombardment in the Yale biophysics group (Pollard and Forro, 1951) and a number of workers associated with the group have from time to time returned to it (Pollard and Jane Setlow, 1954). One reason is that investigation of various functional properties of a single material is relatively easy for bacteriophage, and among the T-series coliphages T-1 is the most easily handled dry. Another reason is that the bacteriophage work, as represented to a large extent by T-1, does not fit the one primary ionization - one inactivation conclusion stated in the preceding paper by Dr. R. B. Setlow for many other materials. T-1 is one of the exceptions and we have kept coming back to it to see more clearly why is is exceptional.

In the preceding note, it is shown that one could introduce correction factors into a molecular orbital theory treatment of the ethylene molecule which bring the results into closer agreement with experiment. These correction factors decrease the separation in energy between nonpolar and polar structures and were therefore found to decrease greatly the amount of configurational interaction in ethylene. Moreover, since state T of ethylene is purely nonpolar while state V is completely polar, the separation between these two states was decreased through the introduction of the correction, in agreement with experiment.

As a result of unreported information, it was suspected by some people that a change in dimension was experienced by 2S Aluminum due to a sudden change in neutron flux impinging on it. This was thought to be of the order of 500 microinches per inch in magnitude. Such an effect, if present, could help explain some of the creep phenomena reported lately (i.e. change in creep rate due to cyclotron bombardment.)

Initial rough measurements of the quality of the gamma radiation from Co-60 in air indicated agreement with the theoretical calculations of Spencer and Fano for an infinite water medium. Further experiments were performed, duplicating the conditions assumed in the calculations. Since the spectral region between 100 kev and 1 mev has already been examined by Hayward, it was decided to investigate in detail the region below 100 kev and above 1.0 mev. Total radiation dosage measurements were made in water using Victoreen ion chambers. The build-up factor was measured as a function of distance. Good agreement was obtained with the results of White. The spectrum below 150 kev was examined with a small NaI(Tl) scintillation counter and both the shape of the spectrum and the attenuation as a function of distance was in good agreement with the calculations. At distance less than 30 cm from the source the spectral shape changed, gradually broadening with the peak shifting to higher energies. The primary region above 1.0 mev was examined using a large NaI(Tl) crystal, and the gradual loss of resolution in the two primaries as a function of distance with an increase in lower energy events was shown. The measurements to …

The modern version of the old Schumann plate for photography in the far ultraviolet, where the gelatine of the emulsion absorbs strongly, is the ordinary unsensitized plate coated with a fluorescing layer, which may be mineral oil, salicylic acid or some proprietary compound. Exposure of such a plate then becomes a two-step process, the actual insolating rays being the fluorescence set up wherever rays of shorter wavelength strike the plate. A recent investigation of the relationship between contrast and wavelength of a plate coated with mineral oil showed that contrast was constant from about 1300 to 360 angstroms, and was the same as the contrast at 3150 angstroms, which was the wavelength of the fluorescing oil. In the region between 3150 and 1300 the contrast was lower and variable. It was shown that this variation was due to the transparency of the fluorescing layer to ultraviolet, so that the emulsion received a mixture of fluorescent and activating rays.

Like all fundamentally sound ideas, the electric tape described by Stanley E. Norris is capable of modification to most local conditions and special problems. This note is a report on two such modifications.

In a manner somewhat analogue to that employed by R. Margulies in his memo (BNL Log No. C-2985) on fast source corrections in sigma piles, corrections to be applied to the data obtained on the laid-up graphite in the BNL reactor have been calculated. The correction was computed for a Ra-Be source using the data of Seren and using a standard graphite density for the BNL pile of 1.69. Values of the correction for different experimental sets of data were computed for each of three different diffusion lengths measured parallel to the channels. A correction for diffusion lengths perpendicular to the channels was also determined.

A number of pipetting aids are commercially available which obviate the necessity of filling pipets by oral suction. Most of the commercially available devices involve fitting the pipet into a soft tight fitting bushing and filling by means of either a piston or a rubber bulb. The pipet is then emptied by means of a valve control which permits, it is claimed, a dispensing accuracy of 0.1mL. It is at once apparent that the probable error (10% for a 1 mL. pipet) is considerably greater than is permissible for great precision. In practice these devices are found to be awkward and after a period of use tend to become even more so due to corrosion of the valve and aging of the rubber bushing and rubber bulbs.

A new colorimetric method for the determination of cholesterol has been investigated. It makes use of the relatively stable green color given by a purified digitonin precipitate with the anthrone reagent of Dreywood. Equal precision can be obtained with the new method using 1/10 or less of the quantity of material required for present colorimetric methods.

The isolation and purification of an enzyme makes it possible to consider the reaction which it catalyzes from the standpoint of organic chemistry, i.e. as a reaction between organic molecules in which the catalyst happens to be a protein. Such a consideration allows the tools of physical organic chemistry to be applied to the the study of the enzyme mechanism, and, since a number of enzymes have been purified, to obtain correlations of what might otherwise appear to be unrelated processes. One of the particularly powerful tools used in the elucidation of chemical mechanisms is stereochemistry, and it would be expected that similar conditions might lead to a clarification of enzymatic mechanisms and enzyme-substrate intermediates. In this article, the effect of enzymatic reactions on the configuration of the asymmetric carbon atoms involved in the reaction has been examined and the observed changes described by mechanisms which are compatible with both the chemical and biochemical evidence.

A method has been developed for the determination of cyanide in the presence of dilute ferrocyanide, in the concentration ratio Ferrocyanide/Cyanide = 100 - 200. The method consists essentially of adding ferric sulfate in concentrated H2SO4 to the solution containing cyanide in the presence of ferrocyanide and sparging the solution with air. The HCN is collected in dilute KOH and the resulting KCN solution then analyzed according to the method of Childe and Ball and Lecoq. While the accuracy of the method is only slightly better than ±10 percent, it does provide a means of determining micro-molar quantities of cyanide in the presence of ferro cyanide for which the test was developed.

This report is a summary of the neutron attenuation data which have been obtained at the Brookhaven shielding facility on a mock-up of the fuel-rod-unloading plug used in the KAPL Reactor. Before this program was initiated, a number of small scale tests had been made in the ORNL lid tank on carbon steel mock-ups of components of the rotating plug. The results of the tests indicated considerable neutron streaming through the vertical steel and air members of the plug. However, the lid tank source strength and dimensions did not permit the tests to be extended to the full plug height. In view of the concern aroused by the ORNL tests and the absence of fundamental information on the transmission of neutrons through steel and the addition height (12') available here resulted in a request for BNL to construct and test a mock-up of a sector of the SIR top plug in accordance with KAPL specifications.

Continuous measurements of the ambient air temperature have been made on a 420-ft tower at Brookhaven for nearly four years. Operational requirements associated with reactor operations have established a need for equipment which is durable, stable and accurate. The sensing elements consist of Leeds and Northrup resistance thermometers (Thermohms), housed in radiation shields and aspirated by a central pump. A twelve-point, triple-range recorder effects the successional measurement of temperature at each level. Two model R Leeds and Northrup instruments record the differences in temperature between the top of the tower and its base, and between the top and an intermediate level. Numerous tests and experiments have been conducted to determine the characteristics of the Thermohms, radiation shields, recorders, and the aspirating system. A technique is described for calibrating the tower thermometers and their associated recorders. Brief mention is made of the importance for lightning protection on a high tower.

The experiments to be described were undertaken to correlate the metabolism of glucose by muscle with the transport of phosphate across the cell membrane, and the relative effects of insulin on the two processes. The isolated rat diaphragm was used as the experimental tissue, and P-32 phosphate and glucose uniformly labeled with C-14 were used as tracers. The selection of diaphragm was based on the finding first made by Gemmill (1) that the addition of the insulin to an incubation medium containing glucose resulted in an increased deposition of glycogen by diaphragms in vitro. Villee and Hastings have confirmed Gemmill's findings with C14 labeled glucose, and have demonstrated that the elevated R. Q. in the presence of added insulin noted by Gemmill is accompanied by an increased oxidation of glucose derived from the medium. An increased turnover of the acid-soluble P compounds of the resting striated muscle of cats under the influence of injected insulin has been reported by Sacks (3) and similar observations have been made by Goranson, Hamilton, and Haist (4) in rats. It has also been shown (5) that the administration of glucose to the fasted cat along P-32 leads to an accumulation of the tracer in …

It has been considered possible that the low-level radiation decomposition normally encountered in the neutron bombardment of organic halides might have some influence on the properties of halogen activity retained in organic form. The decrease in retention produced by chlorine and the increase produced by allyl chloride appears to be experimentally identical under the three conditions of bombardment used.

In preliminary studies on antibody production by spleen and lymph node intraocular transplants in cobalt-60 gamma irradiated mice, we observed that transplanted animals appeared to withstand whole-body irradiation better than irradiated control animals. In view of the work on splenic protection of x-irradiated animals by Jacobson et al. (1,2) and Storer (3), we thought it worthwhile to study the protective effects of spleen and lymph node transplants in the anterior chamber of the eye of cobalt-60 gamma irradiated mice.

Dilute aqueous solutions of ceric sulfate and ferrous sulfate in 0.8M H2SO4 were irradiated with hard X-rays. Using the mechanism for the radiation induced oxidation of ferrous sulfate solutions proposed by Rigg, Stein and Weiss and the mechanism for radiation induced reduction of ceric sulfate solutions proposed by Hardwick, values for the radical yield ratio 2Gf/(Gr + 2Gf) are obtained. These are 0.21 and 0.38 respectively, indicating that the two mechanisms are mutually incompatible.

During the last year we have been attempting to increase our understanding of the significance of the various dilution methods used to measure the extra-cellular fluid. When the dilution methods were first proposed to obtain a measure of the extracellular fluid volume, it was hoped that an agent could be found which would distribute uniformly and exclusively throughout this compartment, which would approach equilibrium rapidly, and which could be measured by simple and accurate procedures. We have turned our attention chiefly to the methods themselves using dogs and non-edematous adults as subjects.

Preparations of chlorophylls which had the same absorption spectra at room temperature exhibited different spectra at low temperatures. The origin of the difference was in the temperature dependence of equilibria between the two forms present in polar solutions of each preparation. The equilibria of any given preparation proved to be reproducible and were easily characterized by the temperature at which corresponding absorption maxima of the two forms had the same height. Thirteen of fourteen preparations of chlorophyll b and chlorophyll b' distributed themselves among three characteristic temperatures. (The fourteenth appeared to be out of line on another account also). The existence of these different chlorophylls seems to be in part traceable to the origin of spinach from which they were extracted. Chlorophyll a also seemed to have similar properties but was not studied as extensively as was chlorophyl b because of the greater difficulty of resolving the forms in equilibrium. Possible structural formulas of chlorophyll b are discussed to account for the varieties which have appeared.

An interesting dynamic foundation problem was recently posed at Brookhaven National Laboratory in supplying the main magnet power for the three billion electron volt (3BEV) Cosmotron; at present the highest energy particle accelerator known to be in operation.

The meteorological control program developed at Brookhaven National Laboratory requires some simple means of classifying atmospheric turbulence so that the dispersion of cooling air from the nuclear reactor may be measured and forecast on a routine basis. The first approach to the problem, was based on the variations of horizontal wind direction as measured by a standard Bendix-Friez Aerovane mounted 355 ft. above ground. The time interval used was one hour. The original system has proven satisfactory in most respects, and is still in daily use.