CHEMISTRY: Synthesizing Siliceous Spiny Shells

A green chemistry approach for synthesizing biocompatible gold nanoparticles

Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) are a fascinating class of nanomaterial that can be used for a wide range of biomedical applications, including bio-imaging, lateral flow assays, environmental detection and purification, data storage, drug delivery, biomarkers, catalysis, chemical sensors, and DNA detection. Biological synthesis of nanoparticles appears to be simple, cost-effective, non-toxic, and ea...

Magnetite dissolution in siliceous sediments

[1] Magnetite dissolution, and consequent loss of magnetization, is widely observed in reducing sedimentary environments, where the decrease in Eh-pH values with depth is driven by bacterially mediated degradation of organic carbon. We have observed low magnetizations in sediments with elevated pore water silica concentrations that arise from diagenesis of biogenic silica and/or silicic volcani...

Isolation and characterization of a novel agarase-producing Pseudoalteromonas spp. bacterium from the guts of spiny turban shells.

An agar-degrading bacterium was isolated from the guts of spiny turban shells. It was identified as a Pseudoalteromonas species and named Pseudoalteromonas sp. JYBCL 1. The viscosity of the inoculated agar medium decreased by more than 60% after 20 h cultivation. The agarase produced by the isolate had optimal activities at 35 degrees C and pH 7. The enzyme had extremely strong resistance to io...

Non-siliceous anisotropic crystals in tuberculous salpingitis.

Attention has recently been drawn to the similarity between the histological picture of silicious granuloma and tuberculosis of proliferative type in the Fallopian tube of man (Roberts, 1947). In the differential diagnosis emphasis has been placed on the value of the polarizing microscope. The purpose of the present paper is to draw attention to the presence of doubly refractile, but non-silici...

Carbon replicas of siliceous sponge spicules.