/home/corante/public_html/pipeline/ en-us derek-lowe@sbcglobal.net 2006-11-27T20:18:20-05:00 hourly 1 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00 http://pipeline.corante.com/archives/2006/11/27/the_litvinenko_case_more_on_polonium_and_alpha_particles.php So, what actually happens, down at the molecular and cellular level, when a person is exposed to alpha radiation? If it’s coming from outside the body, not all that much. The outer layer of dead skin cells is enough to... 69707@/home/corante/public_html/pipeline/ Current Events 2006-11-27T20:18:20-05:00 http://pipeline.corante.com/archives/2006/08/29/evil_thoughts_of_evil_things.php There was a comment on the "Airplanes and Chemicals" post that brought up something I've been meaning to address. Says Steve, after describing an old TV show that gave rather too detailed a picture of nitroglycerin synthesis: While I am... 64590@/home/corante/public_html/pipeline/ Chem/Bio Warfare 2006-08-29T20:52:34-05:00 http://pipeline.corante.com/archives/2004/05/06/a_fire_and_its_flames.php The Washington Post ran an article the other day on a home-grown ricin lab in Paris. It's disturbing reading, and it just goes to show how easy the stuff is to make. (I discussed ricin most recently here.) Mind you,... 10960@/home/corante/public_html/pipeline/ Chem/Bio Warfare 2004-05-06T22:09:09-05:00 http://pipeline.corante.com/archives/2004/04/06/osmium_tetroxide_of_all_things.php This morning brings the news, via ABC, that the recently discovered bomb plot in London involved a quantity of osmium tetroxide. That's a surprise. I know the reagent well, but it's not what anyone would call a common chemical, despite... 10913@/home/corante/public_html/pipeline/ Chem/Bio Warfare 2004-04-06T21:07:55-05:00 http://pipeline.corante.com/archives/2004/02/03/ricin_redux.php Now that the suspected ricin in the Senate (and White House?) has been confirmed, I thought I'd repost a version of something I wrote about a year ago on my previous site, Lagniappe. (This was written after British authorities had... 10870@/home/corante/public_html/pipeline/ Chem/Bio Warfare 2004-02-03T14:40:24-05:00 http://pipeline.corante.com/archives/2003/01/08/more_ricin.php I've had some interesting e-mail on the subject, which I thought I'd address here for the curious. One person mentioned the possibility of ricin dissolved in DMSO. I have to say that that's a nasty thought, because DMSO certainly does... 10843@/home/corante/public_html/pipeline/ Chem/Bio Warfare 2003-01-08T16:04:44-05:00 http://pipeline.corante.com/archives/2003/01/07/ricin.php There's a report today that British authorities have rounded up several terrorist suspects in London - and that they had small quantities of ricin. So, what is the stuff, how bad is it, where did they get it, and what... 10841@/home/corante/public_html/pipeline/ Chem/Bio Warfare 2003-01-07T16:03:39-05:00 http://pipeline.corante.com/archives/2002/10/31/and_while_were_on_the_subject_mercury.php There's another report this morning of an arrest of a suspected Chechen terrorist, who was carrying what's described as 18 pounds of mercury in a champagne bottle. ""Such an amount of mercury would poison a very large number of people,"... 10793@/home/corante/public_html/pipeline/ Chem/Bio Warfare 2002-10-31T12:21:41-05:00 http://pipeline.corante.com/archives/2002/10/28/a_mystery_gas.php Since I did a multipart series on chemical warfare last month, I've had several e-mails asking for my take on the Russian gas used to break up the Chechen hostage situation. The information that I can get from wire-service reports... 10789@/home/corante/public_html/pipeline/ Chem/Bio Warfare 2002-10-28T12:24:39-05:00 http://pipeline.corante.com/archives/2002/09/15/chemical_warfare_part_five_the_real_world.php The previous posts have been a quick tour around the chemical weapons landscape. I have to say, it's a depressing place to visit, and I'll be glad to leave it. But I can't do that without some thoughts on what,... 10759@/home/corante/public_html/pipeline/ Chem/Bio Warfare 2002-09-15T21:34:53-05:00 http://pipeline.corante.com/archives/2002/09/14/chemical_warfare_part_four_more_on_nerve_agents_and_their_chemistry.php A good short history of Tabun and other nerve agents, largely based on this book, can be found here. To summarize, in 1937 a report on Tabun made its way to the chemical warfare branch of the German military, and... 10758@/home/corante/public_html/pipeline/ Chem/Bio Warfare 2002-09-14T21:32:43-05:00 http://pipeline.corante.com/archives/2002/09/13/chemical_warfare_part_three_how_nerve_agents_work.php Descending past mere irritants and past disfiguring killers, we arrive at the bottom of the pit. These are compounds that are to humans what a spray-can of insecticide is to flies.I mean that literally. Back in the 1930s, a group... 10757@/home/corante/public_html/pipeline/ Chem/Bio Warfare 2002-09-13T21:29:02-05:00 http://pipeline.corante.com/archives/2002/09/12/chemical_warfare_part_two_lethal_agents_other_than_nerve_gas.php We'll cover three World War I compounds, saving the latter-day nerve agents for a separate posting. 1915 was a terrible year, one among many, because it saw the advent of militarized chlorine, followed shortly by phosgene. Those two (though technically... 10756@/home/corante/public_html/pipeline/ Chem/Bio Warfare 2002-09-12T21:28:08-05:00 http://pipeline.corante.com/archives/2002/09/12/chemical_warfare_part_one_introduction.php I don't often deal with politics and world events on this site (much less than I thought I might when I started it.) There are usually plenty of other worthy writers out there who are saying just what I would,... 10755@/home/corante/public_html/pipeline/ Chem/Bio Warfare 2002-09-12T21:20:54-05:00