Umlagerung von Azulen in Naphthalin

Summary Azulene (I) is converted into Naphthalene (II) by heating for 48 hours to 330° C.

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74. Mitt. zur Kenntnis der Sesquiterpene.     

Penicillin

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Anthropogenic ocean acidification over the twenty-first century and its impact on calcifying organisms

Today's surface ocean is saturated with respect to calcium carbonate, but increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations are reducing ocean pH and carbonate ion concentrations, and thus the level of calcium carbonate saturation. Experimental evidence suggests that if these trends continue, key marine organisms--such as corals and some plankton--will have difficulty maintaining their external calcium carbonate skeletons. Here we use 13 models of the ocean-carbon cycle to assess calcium carbonate saturation under the IS92a 'business-as-usual' scenario for future emissions of anthropogenic carbon dioxide. In our projections, Southern Ocean surface waters will begin to become undersaturated with respect to aragonite, a metastable form of calcium carbonate, by the year 2050. By 2100, this undersaturation could extend throughout the entire Southern Ocean and into the subarctic Pacific Ocean. When live pteropods were exposed to our predicted level of undersaturation during a two-day shipboard experiment, their aragonite shells showed notable dissolution. Our findings indicate that conditions detrimental to high-latitude ecosystems could develop within decades, not centuries as suggested previously.     

Global trends of whole-genome duplications revealed by the ciliate Paramecium tetraurelia

The duplication of entire genomes has long been recognized as having great potential for evolutionary novelties, but the mechanisms underlying their resolution through gene loss are poorly understood. Here we show that in the unicellular eukaryote Paramecium tetraurelia, a ciliate, most of the nearly 40,000 genes arose through at least three successive whole-genome duplications. Phylogenetic analysis indicates that the most recent duplication coincides with an explosion of speciation events that gave rise to the P. aurelia complex of 15 sibling species. We observed that gene loss occurs over a long timescale, not as an initial massive event. Genes from the same metabolic pathway or protein complex have common patterns of gene loss, and highly expressed genes are over-retained after all duplications. The conclusion of this analysis is that many genes are maintained after whole-genome duplication not because of functional innovation but because of gene dosage constraints.     

Über die Chemie des Enniatins

Summary Judging by the physical and chemical properties and bacterial spectra, the antibiotic substance, Enniatin, previously isolated from a strain ofFusarium by the authors, appears to be identical with that which was recently reported byCook et al. derived from another strain and designated by them as Lateritiin-I, although the reported empirical formulæ differ. Numerous physical and chemical characteristics of Enniatin and its degradation products are given, and, further, two relatedFusarium antibiotics, here designated as Enniatin B and C, are briefly described.

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Ausgeführt mit einem Beitrag aus den eidg. Arbeitsbeschaffungskrediten.     

Über die Kristallstruktur des Azulens

Résumé La structure du réseau spatial de l'azulène cristallisé a été déterminée à l'aide des rayons X. Les valeurs des constantes du réseau sont en général les mêmes que celles trouvées parMisch etvan der Wyk. Au contraire, la statistique des interférences observées montre des différences importantes et conduit au groupe spatial P 2₁/a, à la place de P 2₁ et P 2₁/m indiqué par les auteurs cités.

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Erstmals hergestellt vonPl. A. Plattner undA. St. Pfau, Helv. chim. acta20, 224 (1937).     

Über die Konstitution des Lactaroviolins

Summary Results of partial hydrogenation support the assumption that lactaroviolin belongs to the azulen group.     

Constraints on radiative forcing and future climate change from observations and climate model ensembles

The assessment of uncertainties in global warming projections is often based on expert judgement, because a number of key variables in climate change are poorly quantified. In particular, the sensitivity of climate to changing greenhouse-gas concentrations in the atmosphere and the radiative forcing effects by aerosols are not well constrained, leading to large uncertainties in global warming simulations. Here we present a Monte Carlo approach to produce probabilistic climate projections, using a climate model of reduced complexity. The uncertainties in the input parameters and in the model itself are taken into account, and past observations of oceanic and atmospheric warming are used to constrain the range of realistic model responses. We obtain a probability density function for the present-day total radiative forcing, giving 1.4 to 2.4 W m-2 for the 5-95 per cent confidence range, narrowing the global-mean indirect aerosol effect to the range of 0 to -1.2 W m-2. Ensemble simulations for two illustrative emission scenarios suggest a 40 per cent probability that global-mean surface temperature increase will exceed the range predicted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), but only a 5 per cent probability that warming will fall below that range.