Chemical Senses

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Chemical Senses publishes original research and review papers on all aspects of chemoreception in both humans and animals. An important part of the journal's coverage is devoted to techniques and the development and application of new methods for investigating chemoreception and chemosensory structures.

The Chemical Senses

Overview.

Three sensory systems associated with the nose and mouth—olfaction, taste, and the trigeminal chemosensory system—are dedicated to the detection of chemicals in the environment. The olfactory system detects airborne molecules called odors. In humans, odors provide information about food, self, other people, animals, plants, and many other aspects of the environment. Olfactory information can influence feeding behavior, social interactions and, in many animals, reproduction. The taste (or gustatory) system detects ingested, primarily water-soluble molecules called tastants. Tastants provide information about the quality, quantity, pleasantness, and safety of ingested food. The trigeminal chemosensory system provides information about irritating or noxious molecules that come into contact with skin or mucous membranes of the eyes, nose and mouth. All three of these chemosensory systems rely on receptors in the nasal cavity, mouth, or on the face that interact with the relevant molecules and generate receptor and action potentials, thus transmitting the effects of chemical stimuli to appropriate regions of the central nervous system.

Chemical Pathology

Chemical Pathology
Chemical Pathology is another discipline in the field of Pathology which deals with the entire range of disease. It encompasses detecting changes in a wide range of substances in blood and body fluids (electrolytes, enzymes and proteins) in association with many diseases. In addition, it involves detecting and measuring tumour (cancer) markers, hormones, poisons and both therapeutic and illicit drugs. For example Chemical Pathologists are involved in assessing levels of iron in the blood, measuring the levels of enzymes that are released into the blood after a heart attack to help in the diagnosis, and in the measurement of certain proteins produced by cancers to monitor the response to their treatment.

High Performance Formulated Fluids and Lubricants

The broad product line of UCON™ formulated fluids and lubricants and base stocks include

products that outperform petroleum, animal and vegetable oils.

These polyalkylene glycol (PAG)-based synthetic products can be varied and controlled to a degree not possible with natural oils and lubricants. They are used in applications from hydraulic fluids to quenchants, and from machinery, gear and bearing lubricants to compressor lubricants.

Chemical Oxygen Demand

Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) is a vital test for assessing the quality of effluents and waste waters prior to discharge. The COD test predicts the oxygen requirement of the effluent and is used for the monitoring and control of discharges, and for assessing treatment plant performance.
The standard test for COD involves digesting the sample with strong sulphuric acid solution in the presence of chromium and silver salts.

Plastic Bottles Release Potentially Harmful Chemicals (Bisphenol A) After Contact With Hot Liquids

When it comes to Bisphenol A (BPA) exposure from polycarbonate plastic bottles, it's not whether the container is new or old but the liquid's temperature that has the most impact on how much BPA is released, according to University of Cincinnati (UC) scientists

Scott Belcher, PhD, and his team found when the same new and used polycarbonate drinking bottles were exposed to boiling hot water, BPA, an environmental estrogen, was released 55 times more rapidly than before exposure to hot water.
"Previous studies have shown that if you repeatedly scrub, dish-wash and boil polycarbonate baby bottles, they release BPA. That tells us that BPA can migrate from various polycarbonate plastics," explains Belcher, UC associate professor of pharmacology and cell biophysics and corresponding study author

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Chemical Kinetics

Skills to develop
Explain the term chemical kinetics, and describe factors that influence rate of chemical reactions
Define and use proper units for chemical reaction rates.
Give the conditions for homogeneous and heterogeneous reactions.
Chemical Kinetics Chemical kinetics is the study and discussion of chemical reactions with respect to reaction rates, effect of various variables, re-arrangement of atoms, formation of intermediates etc. There are many topics to be discussed, and each of these topics is a tool for the study of chemical reactions. By the way, the study of motion is called kinetics, from Greek kinesis, meaning movement.
At the macroscopic level, we are interested in amounts reacted, formed, and the rates of their formation. At the molecular or microscopic level, the following considerations must also be made in the discusion of chemical reaction mechanism.
Molecules or atoms of reactants must collide with each other in chemical reactions.
The molecules must have sufficient energy (discussed in terms of activation energy) to initiate the reaction.
In some cases, the orientation of the molecules during the collision must also be considered.