Evening star., 1937-04-16
HEARTBEAT CAUSE
BELIEVED FOUND
Dr.. Brewer, U. S. Expert,
Tells Chemists About
Potassium Isotopes.
BY THOMAS r, HENRY.

BY THOMAS r. HENRY.
CHAPEL HILL, N. c., April 15.-
Presence in the body of minute frac-
ton Of an ounce of an elusive, radio
active substance may be responsible
for the beating of the heart and be
Intimately associated with the phenom-
ena Of growth.
This was implied in a report to
the American Chemical Society meet
ing here yesterday by DR.. A. Keith
Brewer of the Bureau of Chemistry
and Soils Of the Department of Agri-
culture. The substance is an isotope
OF the element potassium. This ele-
ment exists in three forms, or isotopes,
Of slightly different atomic weights.
Two of them are very rare and have
the peculiar property of radio activity
which they share with the heavy ele-
ments. An atom of K40 or K41, as the
rare isotopes are known, emits two
hard beta, or negatively charged, rays
and one X-ray.
1t has been known for some years
that removal of the minute amount
of potassium from the body would
stop the beat Of an animals heart,
but that the injection of radioactive
element would start it again. This
may be explained by DR.. Brewers find
ing that the radioactive K4l tends
to concentrate in animal and plant
tissue.
Decreases With Age.
He found that K-41 tends to be
especially concentrated in embryonic
tissue, and that it decreases as the
animal or plant grows older. In the
heart itself relatively little of the
strange iSotope was found
Actually the amount of energy emit
ted by the potassium isotope in a
human body is very minute Never
theless more than 200 atoms are
breaking up every second and the
total energy, if it were in the form of
visible green light is 500 times as
great as the minimum the eye could
see.
Another curious property of the
potassium isotope is its ability to speed
up the termination of seeds.
DR.. Brewer has conducted a search
depths of 2l2 miles, and in mineral
and plant material from all parts of
the world. 1t seems to be especially
concentrated in sea pulp and in po-
tato vines. The latter sem to reverse
the ordinary course of nature in that
the amount of isotope increases as
they grow older.
The ratio of two amino acids. cys-
tine and tryptophane, in the blood
serum may be an important indicator
OF acute infections, it was reported by
DR.. M. x. Sullivan of Georgetown
University Medical School.
DR.. Sullivan found that this ratio
was considerably lower than normal in
persons suffering from various acute
infections, notable among which is
acute arthritis. The probability, he
said, is that cystine, which is a sulphur
carrier, is depleted by the withdrawal
OF sulphur to fight the Infection 1t is
becoming of increasing Importance as
a detoxifying agent.
This finding developed from extern
sive studies conducted by DR.. Sullivan
on the cystine content of the finger
nails and hair Of arthritis victims,
Bacteria Improves Butter.
Putting bacteria to work to improve
the flavor of butter was reported by
M. E. Parker of Chicago. The typical
naVor OF good butter, he said, has been
traced to substance known as di-
acetyl. There are about two parts of
this material in 100000 of butter, or
three-thousandth of an ounce Der
pound.
Now DR.. B. w. Hammer of Iowa
State College has isolated specific bac-
terra who create diacetyl. This makes
IL possible to regulate the diacetyl con-
tent to any desired amount.
Chemistry will determine for the
housewife the best way of cooking fish
at any given season, it was reported
by DR.. Maurice E. Stansby and James
M. Lemon Of the Bureau Of Fisheries
Laboratory at College Park, Md. The
1000 energy value of fish is largely de-
pendent on the oil content, which
varies from season to season, they
SAID. Fish having high oil contents
should never be fried, they pointed out,
since the frying process decomposes
the highly unstable Oil to give rancid
Havors. Some species of fish may be
Tried at one season, when they have
low Oil content, and are better broiled
or oaKed at other seasons, when the
OIL content has reached maximum.
In the case of the common mackerel.
they pointed out, the oil content va
ries from 2 to per cent in Spring to
as high as 80 per cent in late Summer.
1t will vary in energy value from about
$50 calorles pound in April to more
than 1000 calories in September.
Huge piles of coal dust estimated
in the millions of tons now are allowed
to go to waste In the anthracite
fields OF Pennsylvania, but can be
made into smoleless briquets suitable
to take the place of anthracite at a
cost considerably lower than that OF
getting the hard coal itself from
the ground, 1t was reported by DR..
Foster D. Smell, New York chemical
engineer.
This is made possible, he said. bv
discovery Of new binder-a solution
OF cillcic acid gel in sodium silicate-
which holds the coal particles together
and yields briquet stronger than
the coal itself Coal briquets in the.
past DR.. Smell said, have had bad
name because they have been very
smoky" They have been much
closer to bituminous than to an
thracite coal. The new product does
not smoke.
UlrnAI ia nllfR ~~-~