An on-line, nonreferenced apparatus for measuring the concentration of a biomarker species in authentic biological samples in solution comprises conduit means for conducting said sample solution from a source of said solution, stream diversion means disposed within the conduit for diverting a predetermined amount of said sample for analysis, means for introducing and independently regulating the flow of one or more reactants disposed in fluid communication with said diverted stream, incubating means within the diverted stream for reacting said reactants and biomarkers to produce a bioluminescence emission, and means disposed within the diverted stream for monitoring said emission intensity which is correlatable to said biomarker concentration.

An apparatus and method are described for retorting oil shale using solar radiation. Oil shale is introduced into a first retorting chamber having a solar focus zone. There the oil shale is exposed to solar radiation and rapidly brought to a predetermined retorting temperature. Once the shale has reached this temperature, it is removed from the solar focus zone and transferred to a second retorting chamber. In the second chamber, the oil shale is maintained at the retorting temperature, without direct exposure to solar radiation, until the retorting is complete.

The central detector of the Axial Field Spectrometer (AFS) is a cylindrical drift chamber using a bicycle-wheel geometry. Its design has been optimized for jet-like events with high track densities. This is accomplished through a high degree of azimuthal segmentation (4/sup 0/ sectors) with up to 42 space points per track, using measurements of drift time and charge division. Particle identification in the non-relativistic region is obtained by (dE/dx) sampling. The detector is operated in an inhomogeneous magnetic field at event rates of typically 5 x 10/sup 5/ collisions per second. Preliminary results will be presented on the detector performance achieved after one year of operation at the ISR.

As part of the National Uranium Resource Evaluation (NURE) Program, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory analyzed about 30,000 stream sediment samples from selected areas of the western United States for numerous chemical elements. The analysis was performed by neutron activation. Data for the concentrations of gold and silver for the samples in which they were detected are presented. Gold was detected in 310 samples, and silver in 19. Latitudes and longitudes are given for the sites from which these samples were taken.