Nexus - 0208 - New Times Magazine-pages

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NEWSCIENCENEWSCIENCEN in lighter nuclei, there is a nucleon at Leonhard Euler. NEW MAGNETIC MATERIAL each vertex of a buckey-ball nuclear What happens then, when one buck- | DISCOVERED IN THE HUMAN shell. A buckey-ball with 60 vertices, ey-ball enlarges, increasing its number BRAIN for example, denoted BB60, has 12 of vertices by four? How can the num- ; . : ; pentagonal faces and 20 hexagonal ber of pentagonal facets stay Microscopic magnetic material has faces. unchanged? been discovered in the human brain. Proof of the existence of buckey-ball Consider the example of a BB28, Geobiologist Joseph L. Kirschvink of « nuclear shells was forthcoming in the absorbing an a-particle to become a the Californian Institute of Technology late 1960's, when researchers at the BB32 as when a calcium nucleus | Says:- “They are like biological bar Technischen Hochschule Miinchen becomes titanium. [See figure 3] In the | Magnets, made of crystals of the iron studied deformations of rotating ¢-capture process the BB28 (left) has | Mineral magnetite”. Gadolinium nuclei. They found that ne of its hexagonal faces turned into “The crystals are strongly magnetic, the ‘Gadolinium nucleus, with its three new pentagons on the resulting | unlike other iron compounds in the unfilled BB60 outer shell, behaved like B32 (right). body. They come in two sizes, about a "soft rotor" easily deformed by cen- —_ However, three of the surrounding | n¢-millionth, and one 10 millionths of tifugal and coriolis forces. pentagons (shaded, left) are trans- | 2 inch wide.” But when extra neutrons were added, formed into three new hexagons on the “Homing pigeons, whales, salmon, completing the outermost nuclear shell, B32 (shaded, right). Thus with one of | honeybees and some shellfish and bac- it became smaller, more spherical, and the original hexagons lost, but three | teria have microscopic magnets. stiffer, hence more resistant to deforma- new ones produced, there is a nett gain | Unlike some of those creatures, howev- tion due to rotation. The BB60 became of two hexagons. Also, as the three | er, there is no convincing evidence that a "stiff" spherical rotor, 20 times small- new pentagons produced by the cap- | people can navigate by using internal er than the incomplete outer shell of tured a-particle are exactly cancelled | Magnets to sense Earth's magnetic ‘Gadolinium. by the loss of three originally surround- | field," Kirschvink said. This is the most direct and beautiful ing ones, the total number of pentago- "The presence of these particles open proof for the existence of structurally nal faces remains the same (at 12) from | that possibility, although their purpose stable, rigid, buckey-ball shells in one buckey-ball to the next. is unknown" he said, nuclei. This is a remarkable geometrical These microscopic magnets might The interesting thing about buckey- property of buckey-balls and a-parti- | explain alleged links between cancer balls is that they all have exactly 12 cles, which explains a-clustering and | and electromagnetic fields. pentagonal faces. This is essential for -decay in radioactive material. Until now many scientists doubted them to close into “spheroidal” shapes. Another victory to classical physics, | any real links between electromagnetic This had, in fact been proven by the over quantum dogma! fields and cancer because they thought 18th century Swiss mathematician there were no plausible mechanisms by saenicis Figure 3 which E/M fields could affect biologi- cal tissue. Kirschvink's research found an aver- age brain contains about 7 billion microscopic magnets, weighing a total of one-millionth of an ounce. (Source: Associated Press; New York Times) GENETICALLY ENGINEERED PLANT THAT GROWS PLASTIC A genetically engineered plant has been made to grow a form of environ- mentally friendly plastic, which could become a new cash crop for farmers. The capture of an a-particle by a BB2B, produces a BB32. In this process one hexagonal facet is lost but three According to the journal Science, sci- New ones are produced (shaded, above right) and although three new pentagons are produced where the a-parti- | entists said their plants manufactured a cle is absorbed (above right), three are also lost (above, left, shaded), leaving the total number of pentagonal facets r 2 invariant and equal teal . — plastic material known as PHB, or buckey-ball 28 buckey-ball 32 Leonhard Euler. in lighter nuclei, there is a nucleon at each vertex of a buckey-ball nuclear shell. A buckey-ball with 60 vertices, for example, denoted BB60, has 12 pentagonal faces and 20 hexagonal faces. BRAIN This is the most direct and beautiful proof for the existence of structurally stable, rigid, buckey-ball shells in nuclei. The interesting thing about buckey- balls is that they all have exactly 12 pentagonal faces. This is essential for them to close into "spheroidal" shapes. This had, in fact been proven by the 18th century Swiss mathematician Figure 3 (Source: Associated Press; New York Times) buckey-ball 28 buckey-ball 32 JUNE-JULY 1992 52¢NEXUS NEW MAGNETIC MATERIAL