8.9 Earthquake (upgraded to 9.0) and Tsunami hits Japan

Post by **River** » Mon Mar 21, 2011 8:05 pm

P32 is nasty?

Post by **axordil** » Mon Mar 21, 2011 8:11 pm

The one telling thing I recall from my lab days was that they wanted to use guinea pigs instead of rats, initially, but they couldn't figure out how to make guinea pigs diabetic. They tried the usual: Streptozotocin to kill off islet cells, but after a couple of weeks, their blood glucose was back to normal. Something else in their body started making insulin.

Obviously the most important thing they could do was find a different animal to give diabetes to.

To quote the X Files: "I know, I know, gold-plated wheelchair."

Post by **Maria** » Mon Mar 21, 2011 8:17 pm

They never figured out how the guinea pigs started making insulin again? It seems like that could be a very important point to explore.

Post by **River** » Mon Mar 21, 2011 8:19 pm

Sometimes people get a little too goal-driven. I can, however, assure you that guinea pigs do develop diabetes. My siblings and I have lost three in that fashion. All of them were around 4 years old when they got sick. First they got obese. Then they started drinking lots of water, turned into furry skeletons, and died. The progression took a little less than a year, start to finish. The first time it happened, we took the pig to the vet and she said there was nothing to be done.

Post by **axordil** » Mon Mar 21, 2011 8:21 pm

See? Now that would be worth investigating: why do they get it on their own, but not when you try to kill their islets?

Anyway, my GPS says we're near the Hall of the Stars, so we should probably go back to the tsunami topic.

Post by **Primula Baggins** » Mon Mar 21, 2011 8:22 pm

River wrote:P32 is nasty?

Mr. Prim thought so. At least by comparison with what we used. Indium is a gamma emitter, but because of the short half-life it was even being injected into people for imaging studies at the time.

Post by **axordil** » Mon Mar 21, 2011 8:35 pm

*parks van in Osgiliath garage*

P-32 is hazardous because of the phosphate backbone of nucleic acids, I believe. That and bone uptake.

Since it's an energetic beta emitter you're not supposed to shield with lead--but that didn't stop us!

Post by **River** » Mon Mar 21, 2011 9:07 pm

Well, yes, I am aware that P32 ends up in nucleic acids...that's where I was putting it. But it never struck me as more or less dangerous than some of the other crap I was working with. I knew better than to put myself at risk of ingesting it (in the words of my undergrad PI, nothing kills your experiment like swallowing it) and it wasn't an inhalation hazard so I just never worried about it.

The radiolabeled nucleotides we bought came in lead containers that we stored in plexiglass boxes. Radiation Safety issued us metal cans to put our solid waste in for disposal. We put plexiglass shields around those cans because we knew exactly how bad an idea it is to put a beta-emitter behind metal. That produces x-rays...though they're at pretty low energies. Even so, those cans were in line of sight of several desks and benches and we were one of those 24/7 types of labs so we didn't want to play around.

Post by **River** » Tue Mar 22, 2011 6:53 pm

Power lines for the cooling systems are hooked up for all six reactors at the nuclear plant. Hopefully they'll have those systems up and running again soon.

This good news is tempered by the fact isotopes have been found in the food supply.

Post by **Hachimitsu** » Tue Mar 22, 2011 9:07 pm

I have heard either TEPCO (the company thant runs the plant) or the government will compensate farmers.

Yay for powerline installation.

Post by **Túrin Turambar** » Thu Jun 02, 2011 12:38 pm

Naoto Kan has survived a no-confidence motion in his leadership bought about by the handlig of the disaster. Nonetheless, he has promised to stand down when the crisis is under control. Japan will have it's sixth prime minister in as many years.

Post by **SirDennis** » Fri Jun 03, 2011 4:33 am

Worth mentioning:

"It's been many years since seventy-two-year-old Yasuteru Yamada has been to work. But now, the retired Japanese engineer is asking his government to send him -- and hundreds other retirees -- back to the grindstone.

And what a grindstone.

Mr. Yamada has organized a group of pensioner volunteers who are willing to work in the country's damaged Fukushima nuclear plant. They want to help stabilize the plant -- which would mean working in highly dangerous situations in a highly radioactive environment.

But for these retirees, volunteering to replace the younger generation already working at the plant isn't a matter of bravery or duty. It's a matter of logic..."

http://www.cbc.ca/asithappens/episode/2 ... ne-1-2011/

Socialism? Logic? Capitalism? Work ethic gone mad? Or is it just something we in the West would never expect to see in our own countries in our own life time?

Post by **vison** » Fri Jun 03, 2011 6:09 am

I'd do it for my grandchildren.

Post by **Primula Baggins** » Fri Jun 03, 2011 6:11 am

I would too, I hope.

It is logical.

Post by **nerdanel** » Fri Jun 03, 2011 4:15 pm

SirDennis wrote:Socialism? Logic? Capitalism? Work ethic gone mad? Or is it just something we in the West would never expect to see in our own countries in our own life time?

Kindness; humanity; "do unto others"; bravery; courage; decency; self-sacrifice; perhaps some manner of national identity; and yes, perhaps a pinch of logic stirred in -- but logic by itself wouldn't compel Yamada's decision. He, and his 200 colleagues, are exceptional people.

As for Japan's on-going rapid-fire changes in governance, I have to be honest that I have whiplash at this point. It had seemed when the DPJ broke through the LDP's decades-long iron control of the government that there was some space for "hope and change," but that seems largely not to have been realized.