News tagged with potassium
Safer way to make diazomethane developed
(PhysOrg.com) -- Diazomethane is a toxic, explosive reagent prepared as needed in laboratories, where it is commonly used in cyclopropanation, but its explosive nature prevents it being used widely on an industrial ...
Mar 23, 2012 |
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RNA editing responsible for colder water survival in octopus
(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers have discovered that when it comes to the survival of an octopus living in frigid waters, the reasoning is not a difference in the gene DNA but rather a difference in the RNA editing.
Jan 06, 2012 |
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A second pathway for antidepressants: New fluorescent assay reveals TREK1 mechanism
(PhysOrg.com) -- Using a unique and relatively simple cell-based fluorescent assay they developed, scientists with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) ...
Medicine & Health / Medical research
Feb 07, 2011 |
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Brown University chemists simplify biodiesel conversion
As the United States seeks to lessen its reliance on foreign oil, biodiesel is expected to play a role. According to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, a branch of the Department of Energy, biodiesel ...
Oct 07, 2010 |
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With new technique, astronomers find potassium in giant planet's atmosphere
(PhysOrg.com) -- Any driver who's seen deer silhouetted by the headlights of an oncoming car knows that vital information can be conveyed by the outlines of objects.
Aug 31, 2010 |
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The Secret of Life May Be As Simple As What Happens Between the Sheets -- Mica Sheets
(PhysOrg.com) -- That age-old question, "where did life on Earth start?" now has a new answer. If the life between the mica sheets hypothesis is correct, life would have originated between sheets of mica that ...
Aug 06, 2010 |
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Nanotube transistor controlled by ATP could improve man-machine communication
Scientists have built a hybrid bionanoelectronic transistor that can be powered by ATP, or adenosine triphosphate, the energy currency in living cells. The researchers, Aleksandr Noy and colleagues from Lawrence Livermore ...
May 13, 2010 |
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Hydrocarbon superconductor created
(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists from Okayama University in Japan have discovered that the hydrocarbon picene can be made to superconduct when potassium atoms are interspersed with the picene crystals and the doped ...
Mar 10, 2010 |
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Solar power generation around the clock
(PhysOrg.com) -- A Californian company, SolarReserve, is developing a solar power system that can store seven hours' worth of solar energy by focusing mirrors onto millions of gallons of molten salt, allowing ...
Technology / Energy & Green Tech
Nov 05, 2009 |
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Epilepsy halted in mice
Scientists at Leeds have prevented epilepsy caused by a gene defect from being passed on to mice offspring - an achievement which may herald new therapies for people suffering from the condition.
Medicine & Health / Medical research
Aug 03, 2009 |
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Excessive cola consumption can lead to super-sized muscle problems warn doctors
Doctors have issued a warning about excessive cola consumption after noticing an increase in the number of patients suffering from muscle problems, according to the June issue of IJCP, the International Journal of Clinical Pr ...
May 19, 2009 |
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Flow of potassium into cells implicated in schizophrenia
A study on schizophrenia has implicated machinery that maintains the flow of potassium in cells and revealed a potential molecular target for new treatments. Expression of a previously unknown form of a key ...
Medicine & Health / Medical research
May 06, 2009 |
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Discovery of an Unexpected Boost for Solar Water-Splitting Cells
(PhysOrg.com) -- A research team from Northeastern University and the National Institute of Standards and Technology has discovered, serendipitously, that a residue of a process used to build arrays of titania ...
Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials
Apr 22, 2009 |
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Rice researchers unzip the future
Scientists at Rice University have found a simple way to create basic elements for aircraft, flat-screen TVs, electronics and other products that incorporate sheets of tough, electrically conductive material.
Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials
Apr 15, 2009 |
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Repulsive polaron: Austrian physicists realize elusive quasiparticles
(Phys.org) -- In quantum physics physical processes in condensed matter and other many-body systems can often be described with quasiparticles. In Innsbruck, for the first time Rudolf Grimm’s team of ...
May 23, 2012 |
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Potassium
Potassium (pronounced /pɵˈtæsiəm/) is the chemical element with the symbol K (Latin: kalium, from Arabic: القَلْيَه al-qalyah “plant ashes”, cf. Alkali from the same root), atomic number 19, and atomic mass 39.0983. Potassium was first isolated from potash. Elemental potassium is a soft silvery-white metallic alkali metal that oxidizes rapidly in air and is very reactive with water, generating sufficient heat to ignite the evolved hydrogen.
Potassium in nature occurs only as ionic salt. As such, it is found dissolved in seawater, and as part of many minerals. Potassium ion is necessary for the function of all living cells, and is thus present in all plant and animal tissues. It is found in especially high concentrations in plant cells, and in a mixed diet, it is most highly concentrated in fruits.
In many respects, potassium and sodium are chemically similar, although they have very different functions in organisms in general, and in animal cells in particular.
For more information about Potassium, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
