In a remote village, an aid worker pricks a sickly toddler's fingertip, and like most of the other children's blood samples, this one turns a test strip yellow. That's how an experimental malnutrition test made with bacterial ...
Analytical Chemistry
Sep 25, 2019
0
63
Organic solar cells are made of cheap and abundant materials, but their efficiency and stability still lag behind those of silicon-based solar cells. A Chinese-German team of scientists has found a way to enhance the electric ...
Materials Science
Aug 16, 2019
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400
High-harmonic generation (HHG) is a nonlinear optical phenomenon through which high harmonics of an intense laser beam are generated in a target material, typically a gas. Physicists have been studying HHG in atomic gases ...
Although nanowires are answering the demands of the market for innovative, smaller, flexible electronic devices by enabling electronic circuits on the molecular scale, assembly of nanowires into functional materials remains ...
Nanomaterials
Aug 12, 2019
4
21
A group of Japanese researchers mainly from Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology (TUAT) and Hokkaido University drastically enhanced and sped up the way to producing skeletally diverse indole alkaloids, composed ...
Materials Science
Jul 30, 2019
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13
Sangamo Therapeutics, Inc., a genomic medicine company, announced today the publication in Nature Biotechnology of a manuscript by Jeffrey Miller, Ph.D., and colleagues at Sangamo, describing two new strategies for optimizing ...
Biotechnology
Jul 30, 2019
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4
Scientists from the Skoltech Center for Photonics and Quantum Materials (CPQM) have developed a novel method to fine-tune the optoelectrical properties of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNT) by applying an aerosolized ...
Nanomaterials
Jul 24, 2019
0
8
On a molecular scale, there are surprising similarities between the outer shell of a golf ball and the white oil paint used by Van Gogh and his contemporaries. In both cases, the interactions between zinc ions and polymer ...
Polymers
Jun 24, 2019
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0
Computers and similar electronic devices have gotten faster and smaller over the decades as computer-chip makers have learned how to shrink individual transistors, the tiny electrical switches that convey digital information.
Nanophysics
May 30, 2019
2
259
The moringa (drumstick) tree has medicinal value and is a rich source of nutrients and minerals. Traditionally, its parts are known to confer multiple benefits, including anti-diabetic (leaves), cardio-protective (roots), ...
Plants & Animals
May 10, 2019
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470
Zinc (pronounced /ˈzɪŋk/, from German: Zink and also known as spelter) is a metallic chemical element with the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. It is a first-row transition metal in group 12 of the periodic table. Zinc is chemically similar to magnesium because its ion is of similar size and its only common oxidation state is +2. Zinc is the 24th most abundant element in the Earth's crust and has five stable isotopes. The most exploited zinc ore is sphalerite, or zinc sulfide; the largest exploitable deposits are found in Australia, Canada and the United States. Zinc production includes froth flotation of the ore, roasting and final extraction using electricity.
Brass, which is an alloy of copper and zinc, has been used since at least the 10th century BC. Impure zinc metal was not produced in large scale until the 13th century in India, while the metal was unknown to Europe until the end of the 16th century. Alchemists burned zinc in air to form what they called "philosopher's wool" or "white snow." The element was probably named by the alchemist Paracelsus after the German word Zinke. German chemist Andreas Sigismund Marggraf is normally given credit for discovering pure metallic zinc in a 1746 experiment. Work by Luigi Galvani and Alessandro Volta uncovered the electrochemical properties of zinc by 1800. Corrosion-resistant zinc plating of steel is the major application for zinc. Other applications are in batteries and alloys, such as brass. A variety of zinc compounds are commonly used, such as zinc chloride (in deodorants), zinc pyrithione (anti-dandruff shampoos), zinc sulfide (in luminescent paints), and zinc methyl or zinc diethyl in the organic laboratory.
Zinc is an essential mineral of "exceptional biologic and public health importance". Zinc deficiency affects about 2 billion people in the developing world and is associated with many diseases. In children it causes growth retardation, delayed sexual maturation, infection susceptibility, and diarrhea, contributing to the death of about 800,000 children worldwide per year. Enzymes with a zinc atom in the reactive center are widespread in biochemistry, such as alcohol dehydrogenase in humans. Consumption of excess zinc can cause ataxia, lethargy and copper deficiency.
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