A Poem for Christmas 2016 by me to me

Christmas for me 

Each morning I wake up is Christmas Day for me.

Unknowingly I have sinned the night before

Each morning I need Christ to be born again in me

To remove the sin the night before

Born again each day in me

A new life in Christ to lead

The multitude sings and dance

In the streets and shopping malls

Hailing Christ birth only once a year

They matter not to me

The path of least resistance

Surely is the easiest way 

For it is written

“Enter ye in at the strait gate:

For wide is the gate, and broad is the way

That leadeth to destruction

And many there be which go in”

So they sing and dance all through the night and year

Each morning till my breath of life stays

I shall take the hard and narrow way

In remembrance of Christ birth each day

Who came to Earth to suffer for me

Surely I shall follow Him

Carrying my own cross along with Him

Through life journey in Christ till the end

To be born again each day in Him

Till I reach home to Him

That’s Christmas each day for me – jb lim

Fukushima Disaster Radioactivity found in the Pacific Ocean?

 Radioactivity in the Ocean?

An Analysis by

lim ju boo

Wow!  I received yet another bogus circular inside my smart phone asking people to avoid eating fish because radioactive has been detected millions of times above normal in the Pacific Ocean.

Just remember, Japan and the surrounding water in Japan is over 5,000 km away from Malaysia.

What a joke for me.

Let me clearly put it this in a very simple easy to understand way for my Gentle Readers.

Pu-241 decays into americium-241, with a half-life of 14 years. In short it becomes less and less radioactive over the years.

Plutonium (Pu-239) is a key nuclear material used in modern nuclear reactor like those in Fukushima.

Plutonium-239 is also one of the three main isotopes demonstrated usable as fuel in thermal spectrum nuclear reactors, along with uranium-235 and uranium-233. Plutonium-239 has a half-life of 24,110 years. But I do not know which of the isotopes was implanted into the Fukushima reactors.

But it makes very insignificant difference in our argument here, and I shall explain why.

The fission of one atom of Pu-239 generates 207.1 MeV = 3.318 × 10−11 J, i.e. 19.98 TJ/mol = 83.61 TJ/kg or about 2 322 719 kilowatt hours/kg.

 

Einstein used the CGS system of units (centimetres, grams, seconds, dynes, and ergs), but the formula is independent of the system of units.

Energy Equivalent:

In natural units, the numerical value of the speed of light is set to equal 1, and the formula expresses an equality of numerical values: E = m. In the SI system (expressing the ratio E / m in joules per kilogram using the value of c in meters per second).

E = mc2

E / m =  c2 = (299792458 m/s)2 = 89875517873681764 J/kg (≈ 9.0 × 10¹⁶ joules per kilogram)

So, the energy equivalent of one kilogram of any mass like Plutonium as long as it is totally fissionable able   is equivalent to the above calculation.

Put it another way, 1 kg of Plutonium or 1 kg of any mass, theoretically yields an equivalent of

= 89.9 petajoules

= 25.0 million kilowatt-hours (approx. 25 GW·h)

= 21.5 trillion kilocalories (approx.  21 P cal)

= 85.2 trillion BTUs

= 0.0852 quads or the energy released by combustion of the following:

21 500 kilotons of TNT-equivalent energy (approx. 21 Mt), or

2,630,000,000 litres or 695,000,000 US gallons of car petrol

This amount of energy if put into a car (let’s say) would be able to push the car up to 31,771,200 km or 19, 857,000 miles (assuming the petrol consumption of an average car is 14.87 km per litre or 35 miles per gallon).

Round and Round the Earth Circumference:

This amount of energy from 1 kg of Plutonium is more than sufficient to power a car up to 3.91081 x 10¹⁰ km or 975,873 times round and round the equatorial circumference of Earth

(Earth’s equatorial circumference is = 40,075 km)

(1 US gallon = 3.78541 litres, and 1 mile = 1.60934 km)

That’s a horrendous amount of energy no nation can ever use up even for 10 years or more.

So, I do not think Japan has ever used 1 kg of any form of isotopes of Plutonium.  It was probably just 200 gm. of highly purified fissionable Plutonium, whichever the isotope they selected.

But let us say for academic argument between you and me in this WhatsApp chat group for the sake of stimulating our mind and for fun sake.

 Let us see what happens if all the entire 1 kg of pure fissionable Plutonium were released into all the oceans on this Planet, and not just a small part of the Pacific Ocean near Japan as claimed.

Well, let’s do some simple mathematics and see what happens.

How Much Water in the Oceans

First, we need to know how much water there in all the oceans of the world are, including the ice caps, glaciers, & permanent snow, etc., except inland waters like lakes and river, and water trapped in subterranean layers of the Earth and in the atmosphere, etc.  

Let us make our calculations simple.

The data I got from various sources puts the estimate at 1,362,145,400 cubic kilometres.

That’s equivalent to 10¹²  x 1,362,145,400 cubic km = 1.36 x 10²¹ litres of ocean waters which is an extremely modest estimate I should say.

Let us say, all the 1 kg of pure Plutonium has leaked into all the oceans and seas and thoroughly diluted by ocean currents of various sorts for another 1,000 years to come. What happens?

Since one kg = 1,000,000 mg of Fukushima Plutonium

Then the dilution factor is:

1.000,000 / 1.36 x 10²¹ litres = 7.35 X 10 – 16 mg = 

0.000,000,000,000,000735 mg per litre only diluted into all the ocean and sea water by ocean drifts, convection and currents

Level of Detection in Analytical Chemistry:

As an analytical chemist it is possible for us to detect any chemical substance down to the tune of several parts per billion or ppb (1 billion = 1,000,000,000, i.e. one thousand million, or 10⁹). We use highly sophisticated instrumental and state-of-art i analytical procedure to bring it down to this analytical level.

But to ask me or any well-trained analytical chemist,  even with the most advanced and classy analytical instrumentation and procedure available to my disposal  to detect any chemical substance down to the level of just 0.000,000,000,000,0007 mg per litre,  is like asking me to detect 30 – 40  molecules  inside the biggest lake in the world, let alone detect any radioactivity from a few million  molecules  of a radioactive substance thrown into the Amazon or Yangtze River.

Well mathematics does it and has shown me the way to argue for argument’s sake.

Localized Area:

 Of course, if we are only talking about a small area in the Pacific Ocean near, and around where the Fukushima earthquake catastrophe took place, then there may be a small concentration of radioactivity concentrated around that area only where the discharge flowed. Maybe a small strip of the North Pacific Ocean was affected.

Even then over time, water currents will wash away all contaminations well away from coastal regions where there is human habitation. By then any radioactive wastes from spent nuclear fuel will also be so diluted by the enormous volumes of the Pacific Ocean, that nothing can be detected chemically, or its radioactivity shown by the Geiger-Mueller (GM) tube. 

Furthermore, there is no need for fishing boats to go so near the coast or strip of waters where the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster took place, or where the radioactive waters was found.  It is a normal practice for fishing boats to go far out at sea for deep sea fishing.  The fishing yield may not be big enough near coastal region to be commercially viable.

Tritium: 

Most of the radioactivity in the Fukushima wastewater is from tritium, a type of hydrogen found naturally in far higher quantities in the ocean than from the Fukushima disaster. The rest of the radioactivity is so minimal that even eating fish in extreme amounts laced with them would even be less than the radiation received in a dental x-ray.  Even that, the natural tritium present in the ocean pales compared to other radioactive substances such as 91 % are from potassium-40, 8.6 % are from rubidium-40, and 0.3 % from uranium which were already present in the ocean since Earth was formed 4.5 billion years ago.

Most of the radioactivity in the Fukushima wastewater is from tritium, a type of hydrogen found naturally in far higher quantities in the ocean than from the Fukushima disaster. The rest of the radioactivity is so minimal that even eating fish in extreme amounts laced with them would even be less than the radiation received in a dental x-ray.  

Tritium  is a radioisotope of hydrogen (with a half-life of about 12.3 years) and emits weak radiation (β-particles) n nature, about seventy quadrillion (7 × 10¹⁶) Bq of tritium is produced annually by cosmic rays, etc. on earth. In the past nuclear testing (1945 to 1963), tritium of 1.8 to 2.4 × 10²⁰ Bq was released. In addition, tritium is discharged daily from facilities such as nuclear power stations around the world and the annual amount of tritium released from nuclear power stations around the world is 2 × 10¹⁶ Bq. 

Before the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO)'s Fukushima Daiichi NPS Accident, the annual amount of tritium released from nuclear power stations all over Japan was 380 × 10¹² Bq (which is the average annual amount discharged into the ocean during the five years before the accident). The total amount of tritium existing in nature is estimated to be 1 to 1.3 × 10¹⁸ Bq. 

The released tritium exists mostly as hydrogen that makes up water molecules and it is also contained in water vapor in the atmosphere, rainwater, sea water and tap water. The annual amount of tritium contained in the precipitation in Japan is estimated to be about 223 × 10¹² Bq.

In the International System of units (SI), becquerel (Bq) stands for  the unit of radioactivity. 

One Bq is   1 disintegration per second (dps). 

Even that, the natural tritium present in the ocean pales compared to other radioactive substances such as 91 % are from potassium-40, 8.6 % are from rubidium-40, and 0.3 % from uranium which were already present in the ocean since Earth was formed 4.5 billion years ago.

Minamata Disease

The Minamata disease due to the continuous industrial discharge of methyl mercury into the Minamata Bay of Japan between 1932 – 1868 by the Chissa Corporation, a chemical company is an example of localized chemical pollution that lead to severe neurological disorders such as   ataxia, paraesthesia (sensation of ‘pins and needles’), muscular weakness, loss of vision, hearing and speech impairment, deformity, birth anomaly, insanity, coma, and other clinical presentations, and eventual death.

It is one example how poisonous discharge into the rivers and seas can affect the health of a fishing community living around that area due to consumption of fish and shellfish that have accumulated mercury in their tissues.

The disease first recognized in 1956 has since disappeared. The reason is obvious. All the mercurial toxic waste has since disappeared around Minamata Bay and the Shiranui Sea due to enormous dilution by ocean waters that drifted them far out into the North Pacific Ocean. I believe not a trace of mercurial complex can be detected there now.

Dilution Factors

 The amount of toxic or radioactive molecules or any atoms, molecules or particles present in a volume will depend upon the concentration of a substance present.

In Chemistry, this is called Avogadro number or Avogadro constant (named after the Amedeo Avogadro) which is the number of molecular particles, or atoms present in the amount of substance given by one mole. It is related to the molar mass of a compound.

Avogadro's constant or (NA or L), has the value 6.022140857(74) × 10²³ mol−1

What would the Avogadro number of radioactive waste now in the localized part of sea near Fukushima disaster area? 

I believe it would be much less than 6.022140857(74) × 10²³ mol−1 due to its much less concentration - number of molecules per mole as defined by Avogadro constant.

Uranium and Plutonium

Plutonium (Pu) is a transuranic radioactive chemical element and an atomic number 94. It is an actinide metal that is silvery-grey in colour that tarnishes when exposed to air.  Plutonium is the heaviest element known in nature but in trace amounts.  
Its trace presence in Nature is similar to its small amounts of production from the neutron capture of natural uranium-238.

 

Plutonium is much more common on Earth since 1945 as a product of neutron capture and beta decay, where some of the neutrons released by the fission process convert uranium-238 nuclei into plutonium-239.

Since it is derived from uranium, and since uranium is a more common elements in the Earth's crust, than silver by 40 times and silver is 500 times more common than gold, uranium can be found almost everywhere in rock, soil, rivers, and oceans.

If uranium is quite a common ore on the Earth’s crust, and since it is already present naturally on this Planet with or with the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactors what then is the problem. 
The Fukushima reactors did not add more radioactive elements into the seas and environment.  Japan did not bring them from outer space. It came only from Planet Earth, and they merely put them inside their reactors.  

The total amount of radioactive substances on the entire surface of this Earth, whether inside reactors or outside in the natural environment is exactly the same.  Nothing extra was added by Man or Nature. 

They were already there 4.543 thousand million years ago even long before the beginning of any life form creeping on the surface of this Earth. What then is the problem?

In fact, the reactors subtracted the amount by spending it to yield nuclear energy, except it left behind unspent fuel as wastes, which is the issue. Spent plutonium fuels are no longer fissionable. That at least is my understanding how nuclear reactors work.

Total Amount is the Same Within and Without

Because the total amount of radioactive substances on Earth are the same, be they inside reactors or outside in the natural environment, what then is the fuss if the same natural uranium from outside which plutonium is derived decides to leak into the environment through rain,  storm,  dust winds  and the elements causing  natural erosion.

Would environmental and health activists make a fuss as though the disaster came from the damaged reactors at Fukushima?

Now this rubbish thing about radioactivity in the Pacific Ocean from the Fukushima disaster and asking everyone not to eat fish which to me as a food scientist and research nutritionist, is one of most laughable jokes of 2016 when fish is one of the best sources of excellent protein quality, and nourishment for the protein-hungry world.

In my opinion there is hardly any health risk consuming any fish or any seafood caught anywhere around Japan or elsewhere as there is hardly any trace of radioactivity in them due to the huge diluation by ocean waters mixed into the wastewater  

Whom do you believe? Those health quacks who ask others not to eat fish, and makes all sorts of health and toxicological claims or some one who showed us clearly the amounts of radioactivity in the ocean waters is so minimal.

 

Please go to this update on the Fukushima scare about radioactive seafood from Japan. 

There I explain in simpler language about trillium in the water waste where Japan is currently discharging into the Pacific Ocean. It is placed just before another article entitled here as:

“Why is the Ocean Waters Salty? Is it getting Saltier? 

 

https://scientificlogic.blogspot.com/2023/

 

Magnetic Nano Particles to Open Gates to Brain-Blood Barrier

Dear Professor Dr.  Andrew Charles Gomes

Thank you for your question soliciting my coments on this website:

http://newatlas.com/magnetic-nanoparticle-open-blood-brain-barrier/36736/

I am not an expert in this area of medicine – nano-medicine, or in nano-pharmacodynamics or its kinetics.  

But still,  I shall attempt in a simple, non-technical way to answer your question by  explaining  its mechanisms as a potential drug-delivery system especially in hard-to-access target areas such as the brain where concentrated drug dosage need to be delivered without compromising toxicity exceeding therapeutic index / therapeutic  windows to the rest of the body especially for cytotoxic agents in cancer treatment.

Brief Introduction:

The application of nanotechnology as a drug delivery system especially in cancer research and in other therapeutics is considered as nanomedicine. This  discipline is one of the most active and exciting areas of medicine scientists are actively working on today.

It applies nanotechnology to highly specific medical  and pharmacological interventions for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of diseases. The haste in nanomedicine research over  the past few decades is now  recognized  as part of translational medicine  that may result in  considerable marketing efforts  by  bio-pharmaceutical companies throughout the world.

There are at present a significant number of products using nanotechnology  such as cosmetics on the market and an increasing numbers are  in the pipeline. Presently, nanomedicine is restrained to drug delivery systems, and the results of R & D in this areas has exceeded  75% of total nanotechnology sales.

However, the application of nanotechnology as an emerging drug delivery systems would depend on their safety and efficacy data, but I believe would fail to reach clinical development for other therapeutic regimens because of their poor biopharmacological properties, such as modest solubility or poor permeability across the brain-blood barrier or even through the intestinal epithelium, circumstances that translates into poor bioavailability and undesirable pharmacokinetic  end-points.   

Currently there exist various nanoforms that have been attempted as drug delivery systems. They vary from metallic-organic conjugates,  biological compounds, such as albumin, gelatin and phospholipids in liposomes complexes, to chemical compounds  such as various polymers and solid metal-congugated complexes.

Polymer–drug conjugates, which have high-small size spectrum are normally not considered as nanoparticles(NPs).  But since their size can still be structured within 100 nm, they have been  integrated into these nanodelivery systems. 

These nanodelivery systems can be designed to have drugs absorbed or conjugated onto the particle surface, encapsulated inside the polymer/lipid bonds or dissolved within the particle matrix including perhaps magnetic –sensitive NPs which is the question Professor Dr.  Andrew Charles Gomes, a Senior Consultant ENT Surgeon associated with Johns Hopkins Hospital was asking me to comment

Brain-Blood Barrier:

First, we must consider the existence of  blood–brain barrier (BBB) which is a highly selective permeability barrier that disconnects the circulating blood from the brain extracellular fluid in the central nervous system (CNS).

This blood–brain barrier is shaped out by the brain endothelial cells, which are then linked by tight junctions with an extremely high electrical resistivity.

Neurophysiologists know that the blood–brain barrier allows only the passage of water, some gases like oxygen and carbon dioxide,   and lipid-soluble molecules into the brain.  These molecules are transported by passive diffusion, as well as the selective transport of compounds such as glucose and amino acids that are critical for neurological function.

On the other end of the blood–brain barrier it may prevent the entry of lipophilic, potential neurotoxins by way of an active transport mechanism mediated by P-glycoprotein.

Astrocytes are essential in this barrier mechanism to create the blood–brain barricade. A small number of regions in the brain, including the circumventricular organs (CVOs), do not have a blood–brain barrier such as what Prof Dr. Andrew Gomes emailed me on the above website.

However, there  are  regions in the brain where there is an open gate, and where  certain “thermo-gates” are temporary opened  at certain temperatures.  It is here scientists take an advantage when the gates are opened and / or subjected to a magnetic field for drug-laced nanoparticles to gain entry.

Normally, the blood–brain barrier exists along all capillaries and consists of tight junctions around the capillaries, but do not exist in normal circulation. Endothelial cells restrict the diffusion of microscopic objects such as bacteria and pathogens, and large or hydrophilic molecules into the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), but  allowing the diffusion of small or hydrophobic molecules  such as oxygen,  carbon dioxide and hormones.

It is in these regions of the brain t that actively transports nutrients such as glucose and specific range of proteins across the barricade which encompasses a thick basement membrane and astrocytic sheet.

This "bio-barricade” results from the selectivity of the tight junctions between endothelial cells in CNS vessels restricts the passage of even solutes which generally are not magnetic-sensitive

At the interface between blood and the brain, endothelial cells are sewed together by these tight junctions. These junctions are composed of smaller subunits, frequently biochemical dimers, that are trans-membrane proteins such as occludin, claudins, junctional adhesion molecules.

The units of these trans-membrane proteins are fastened into the endothelial cells by another protein complex that includes other associated proteins. None of these molecules to the best of my understanding can be subjected to magnetic induction.

As I have already explained, the blood-brain barrier is a highly selective semipermeable barrier running inside the majority of all the vessels in the brain, and they only that lets through water, some gases and a few other select molecules, while inhibiting potentially toxic elements in the blood from entering the brain.  

It is almost improbable for most drugs to get through excepts perhaps Levodopa, the drug  used in the management of Parkinson’s  disease.  Levodopa is probably  the best drug that mimic dopamine,  the natural neurochemical in the brain

No Entry:

Scientists currently tell us 98 percent of therapeutic molecules are also blocked by the brain-blood barrier.

However medical researchers have developed a technique using magnetic nanoparticles to open  the door for such molecules, and in so doing opening the gates  to new therapeutics  regimen for brain diseases.

"At the present time, surgery is the only way to treat patients with brain disorders," says Anne-Sophie Carret, a study senior author in this area of magnetic nano-therapeutics  

Currently surgery is the only option to remove certain kinds of tumors.  But some disorders are located in the brain stem, amongst nerves;  making surgery impossible says Anne-Sophie Carret.

By opening the blood-brain barrier to these therapeutic molecules, the researchers feel that  would provide an alternative to surgery for treating various brain diseases.

According to researchers the technique involves sending magnetic nanoparticles to the surface of the blood-brain barrier at the desired location in the brain. The researchers say this could be achieved using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technology, albeit a different method was used for their study.

Scientists in the study say that the drug-laced nanoparticles are directed to the desired location, the nanoparticles are then exposed to a radio-frequency field that caused them to dissipate heat.

This causes a small rise in temperature which in turn places mechanical stress on the barrier, thus opening  a localized gate  which allows therapeutic molecules to pass through. The opening is only temporary, remaining open for around two hours the researchers claimed.

"While other techniques have been developed for delivering drugs to the blood-brain barrier, they either open it too wide, exposing the brain to great risks, or they are not precise enough, leading to scattering of the drugs and possible unwanted side effect," says principal investigator Sylvain Martel.

Currently technique is experimental, and was developed using murine (rats and mice) models. It is yet to be tested on humans, but the researchers are optimistic that  one day it can be used  on humans.

"Although our current results are only proof of concept, we are on the way to achieving our goal of developing a local drug delivery mechanism that will be able to treat oncologic, psychiatric, neurological and neurodegenerative disorders, amongst others," says Carret.

To the best of my understanding at the time of writing this comment, this is a novel approach in breaking into the brain-blood barrier using magnetically-induced nano therapeutic molecules, but the question I  would like to  ask the researchers is, how then would these drug-tagged nanoparticles get out from the brain parenchyma once it has delivered its therapeutic molecules to the target region. Surely, the brain-blood barrier is only a one-way street.

One-Way Entry:

Drugs, especially metallic complexes and large molecules with high molecular weights cannot find their way into the general blood  circulation or cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) flow  even via active transport mechanisms,  let alone by diffusion especially if a one-way gate is closed once the nanoparticles get lodged inside the brain  This is the dilemma I need to ask my scientific-medical counterparts . I wonder what their answers would be as much as I like to direct this same question to  Professor Andrew Charles Gomez.

A Neuro-Scientist Opnion:

I had a discussion with Professor Dr. Ong Wei Yi, who is my nephew and a neuroscientist at Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore (NUS) at a family dinner on September 3, 2016.

I was talking about the use of nano-delivery cream in cosmetic application such as in sun screens,  and my nephew  cautioned me about the use of nanoparticles, depending on their size as they can lodge in the brain even by inhalation, but not by injection, probably because  of this brain-blood-barrier mechanisms,   and they can cause extensive neurodegeneration and wide spread tissue and organ damage according to Professor Ong Wei Yi.

This is my nephew’s professional opinion as a neuroscience expert at NUS.

Many Questions:

I too have many questions to ask on their biosafety that requires extensive and long-term toxicological evaluation and long-term clinical trials with safety and dose data clearly demonstrated -  right to the end of Phase Four of drug trials before magnetic  nano therapeutic molecules can find their way into clinical applications

Comments by ju boo lim (lim ju boo)