Evening star., 1949-09-26
Hot AIgoe' Help Explore
Complex Life Processes
Green Scum on Stagnant Water
Useful in Radioactive Study
By Thomas r. Henry


OAK RIDGE, Tenn.-"Hot algae" are
proving a chemical treasure chest.
They are manufacturing exploding amino
acids with which it is possible to explore
some of the most elemental and complex
processes of life.
1t has been possible to concentrate in
these lowly organisms the greatest radio
activity yet achieved in living things, ex-
cept for some of the sea plankton affected
by the atomic bomb blast at Bikini.
Production of the "hot algae" is an
achievement of chemists at the Atomic
Energy Commissions Argonne Laboratory at
the University of Chicago and they now are
being distributed from the Oak Ridge center
to the university and industrial laboratories
throughout the country.
These algae are single -celled plants which
are quite close to the most primitive organ
isrns now living. They make up the green
scum which forms on stagnant water They
are almost at the foot of evolution, but they
are among Natures most efficient chemists.
Many of the basic substances necessary
to the life of a man also are essential for
these loWly organisms. They are such
efficient operators of photosynthesis the
basic process of life by which starches and
sugar are made from carbon dioxide and
water, that they are often, according to
isotope chemists here too hot to handle"
WltilouG cACcpClOudl precautions.
13 Types Extracted
From the most common of them, scene-
desmus, which is the dominant organism in
the blue-green scum, there have been ex-
tracted to date Is of the amino acids. These
are quite close to the fundamental life
chemicals Within the bodies of plants and
animals they are built up into extremely
complex substances the proteins. which are
the major constituents of living tissue.
Only nature can make the amino acids
themselves and in this job the algae are
serving as natures handmaidens. These
algae depend, as do all other green plants.
on photosynthesis. They extract the element
carbon out of the atmosphere and fit its
atoms into the molecules they are building.
In the Argonne laboratory they simply are
exposed in an atmosphere which has been
greatly enriched with carbon IA, the ex-
ploding type of carbon atom, and this is
incorporated into the exploding forms Of
amino acids and some of the vitamins.
These, in turn, are fed to animals and,
since they can be traced through the body
by their radiations, the complex process of
building proteins can be followed.
Injections Into Rats Used.
Vital in many life processes is the element
phosphorus. 1t enters into extremely COM
plex substances which cannot be synthesiZed
in the laboratory. Methods of Incorporating
radioactive phosphorus which will enable
scientists to trace the building of these vital
bricks of life now are being devised.
Among these are the peculiar types OF
fatlike substances known as the phospho-
lipids, the function of which in the life
processes still is not clearly understood.
They cannot be synthesized outside the
bodies of living animals.
Atomic Energy Commission contractors
have found, however, that it is possible to
create radioactive forms by injections Of ex-
ploding phosphorus into rats and dogs. The
animals then are killed and the materials
recovered from the livers. In this way have
been procured samples of lecithin and
cephaln, the latter of which is chiefly con-
centrated in the brain and presumably plays
some part in mental processes.