Optical detection of meteoroidal impacts on the Moon

Impacts of meteoroids on the Moon should cause detectable optical flashes, but the population of objects that are big enough is very low, and hitherto no unambiguous impact flashes have been recorded. The flux of meteoroids associated with the Leonid meteor shower of 18 November 1999 was predicted to produce observable flashes on the night side of the Moon. Here we report the unambiguous detection of five such impact flashes, three of which were seen simultaneously by other observers. We also observed a possible impact flash on 16 July 1999. All of the flashes were of very brief duration (<0.02 s), as expected for high-speed impacts.     

Time-independent effects on cardiac action potential upstroke velocity (resting block) and lipid solubility of beta adrenergic blockers

Summary The depressant actions of 100 M of 11 -adrenergic blockers on the maximum upstroke volocity of action potential (V_max) in guinea-pig papillary muscles correlated well with the log n-octanol/phosphate buffer partition coefficients of these compounds.     

Intercalation of alkylamines into an organic polymer crystal

Organic solid-state synthesis allows formation of products that are difficult or impossible to produce by conventional methods. This feature, and the high degree of reaction selectivity that can be achieved, is a direct result of the control over the relative orientation of the reactants afforded by the solid state. But as the successful development of 'topochemical reactions' requires the careful design of suitable reactant crystals, the range of both reactions and products amenable to this approach has been limited. However, recent advances in organic crystal engineering, particularly the rational design of complex solid architectures through supramolecular preorganization, have renewed interest in topochemical reactions. Previously, we have orientated muconate monomers--diene moieties with a carboxylate group on each end--using long-chain n-alkylammonium ions, such that the topochemical photopolymerization of the solid-state reactants produces layered crystals of stereoregular and high-molecular-mass polymers. Here we show that these polymer crystals are capable of repeated, reversible intercalation by conversion to the analogous poly(carboxylic acid), followed by transformation into a number of poly(alkylammonium muconate)s upon addition of the appropriate amine. Introduction of functional groups into these crystals may allow the design of organic solids for applications such as molecular recognition, separation and catalysis, thereby extending the range and practical utility of current intercalation compounds.