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Tiny Matters
Take a dive into the genes, microbes, molecules and other tiny things that have a big impact on our world with Tiny Matters. Join scientists Sam Jones and Deboki Chakravarti as they take apart complex and contentious topics in science and help rebuild your understanding. From deadly diseases to ancient sewers to forensic toxicology, Sam and Deboki embrace the awe and messiness of science and its place in the past, present, and future. Tiny Matters releases new episodes every Wednesday and is brought to you by the American Chemical Society, a non-profit scientific organization advancing chemistry and connecting the broader scientific community. Tiny Matters is produced by Multitude.
Tiny Matters
[BONUS] 1930s (inebriated) chemist poetry and a new organelle: Tiny Show and Tell Us #4
In this episode of Tiny Show and Tell Us, we cover the recent discovery of a new (relatively speaking, more like 100 million year old) organelle called a nitroplast that could revolutionize agriculture. Then we embark on a highly entertaining journey of 1930s chemistry poetry, sometimes written by inebriated chemists, and track down a rare and stunning Chemical Map of North America. Check out the map in this YouTube short and this Instagram post.
We need your stories — they're what make these episodes possible! Write in to tinymatters@acs.org *or fill out this form* with your favorite science fact or science news story you found captivating for a chance to be featured in a future episode!
Welcome to episode four of Tiny Show and Tell Us the bonus series, where you write in with your favorite science news or factoids and we read your email aloud and then dive deeper. I'm Sam Jones, I'm the exec producer of Tiny Matters and I'm here with Anne Hilden, whose name you've heard in the previous three episodes because she was the one doing the research. Hey, anne, want to tell our listeners a bit about you.
Speaker 2:Hi Sam, I'm really happy to be here. My academic background is in chemistry and I've worked as a math and chemistry teacher for a long time, but right now I'm transitioning to more of a science communication role. As part of that, I'm helping with tiny matters and I'm also writing scripts for a YouTube series called Headline Science, which has been a lot of fun.
Speaker 1:Glad you're here. So, before we get into today's episode, a reminder that we are always looking for you to write to us, because that's what makes future episodes possible. Email tinymatters at acsorg. All righty, let's hop into it.
Speaker 2:Anne, you want to start? Sure. So we have an email from a listener named Alex and Alex writes rather than learn how to do my taxes, I and many school kids learned about mitochondria in school as a functional organelle inside of an organism. I'm actually going to pause right here because I think we need to remind the listeners of some vocabulary. We're about to throw around some technical terms. Yeah, smart.
Speaker 2:So first of all, organelles. Organelles are the moving parts inside cells that make them work. Now there are two main types of cells eukaryotic and prokaryotic. Eukaryotic cells are bigger and more complex and they're what make up multicellular organisms like plants, animals and fungi. Prokaryotes are all single-celled organisms like bacteria. Now the listener mentioned the word mitochondria. I think a lot of people have heard that word but, as a reminder, mitochondria are a type of organelle that almost all eukaryotes have in common. So a mitochondrion's job is to convert energy into a form that can be used by the rest of the cell during cellular respiration, so they make ATP. That's like the currency. So those are like the dollars that get spent in the cell as it does its business.
Speaker 2:Okay, so the coolest thing about mitochondria is that they have different DNA from the rest of the cell. In fact, their DNA is like bacterial DNA. So scientists think that the first mitochondria were probably bacteria that larger eukaryotic cells swallowed, starting a symbiotic relationship, which is just very cool to think about, right? And then, like it became part of the organism. Yeah, like, how, yeah, how crazy is that? Scientists also think this was the origin story of the organelles in plants and algae that make photosynthesis happen. They are called chloroplasts, right? Okay, so there's our biology lesson for today. We're going to go back to Alex's email. So Alex says, as a refresher, mitochondria were endosymbionts that became so ingrained in the architecture of the cell they completely changed the way the cell functions and are therefore classified as organelles. This same relationship applying to mitochondria and chloroplasts has happened again in eukaryotes, and it's called a nitroplast.
Speaker 1:So cool, yes, neither Sam nor I had heard about this. So it's recent and I feel like I'm tuned in, but this is a huge thing and it somehow just was not on my radar at all.
Speaker 2:So Alex says essentially, a new organelle has been confirmed in algae which fixes nitrogen from the atmosphere as part of the nitrogen cycle. This is exceptionally cool for a few reasons. One, mitochondria and chloroplasts are thought to have evolved into organelles approximately 1.7 and 2.1 billion years ago, but the nitroplast may have evolved only 100 million years ago, so it's a baby. Yes, in evolutionary terms. Yes, yeah, yeah. So we get to see a different stage in the development of this kind of yeah, less established, I mean still.
Speaker 1:100 million years is not nothing but like compared to 2.1 billion, it's recent, yes, exactly.
Speaker 2:Number two like chloroplasts, which resulted in plants, the nitroplast could have enormous agricultural implications. With the ability to naturally fix nitrogen, integrating this organelle into crops could change agricultural practices. And number three school-aged children may get to learn about a new organelle. Science is so cool.
Speaker 1:That is cool. It is also just, yeah, it's wild. You know, I think in school growing up, you think everything is fixed. And then as you get older, especially if you go into the sciences, you realize how much things are changing and, like I used to think, oh my gosh, well, you know, when my dad was in college, like he was just learning about DNA and all this stuff and like we know everything now. And then you, all of a sudden you're like, oh, there's a new organelle.
Speaker 2:Totally. It is totally developing right around us as we speak. Yeah, so we think that this is pretty exciting because it is a fairly recent discovery. The researchers who work on this basically announced that they're classifying the nitroplast as an organelle just in April of 2024. So let's talk a little more about nitrogen fixation, because that is kind of a central element of what's so fascinating about this.
Speaker 2:Nitrogen fixation is the ability that some organisms have to take the nitrogen in the air, which is pretty inert meaning it doesn't really react chemically and turn it into compounds that plants can use as nutrients. A lot of the fertilizer that we use incorporates nitrogen, and right now it takes a lot of energy to do that in a chemical plant. So if plants can do that on their own, that would be really, really awesome. But until recently we thought that only bacteria had the ability to fix nitrogen. There are some plants, like legumes, that harbor nitrogen fixing bacteria on their roots in these little nodules. So we call those nitrogen fixing plants, but really it's the bacteria on their roots that are doing it. So here's what we know about the origins of this new organelle.
Speaker 2:The nitroplast Cyanobacteria are a kind of bacteria that can do photosynthesis, and some of them we've realized can also fix nitrogen. So there was a research group from the UC Santa Cruz that discovered DNA for this unicellular cyanobacteria that could fix nitrogen in seawater back in 1998. And basically they've been studying it ever since. So they've worked with a bunch of collaborators on both sides of the Pacific and across the US. So, for example, they worked with a group in Japan that spent a whole decade trying to figure out how to culture the algae that has the relationship with this particular kind of bacterium. So once they could grow lots and lots of this algae, they could study the cyanobacteria that they think was having a relationship with it. So under a microscope they could see that the bacterium was actually inside the algae cells. So they said, okay, maybe it's an endosymbiont, a smaller cell that has been engulfed by a larger cell and now they work together.
Speaker 2:So the recent discovery is that instead of being an endosymbiont, this cyanobacterium actually meets the qualifications for an organelle. They saw through special imaging techniques that when the algae cells divide, the cyanobacterium inside replicates in concert. So basically, the fact that its life cycle has become part of the life cycle of the larger cell is a good indication. Another indication is that it uses proteins that were made elsewhere in the cell. So it's not a totally self-sustaining system. It relies on the other machinery inside the cell to live, and because of that, because it has begun to rely on the other parts of the cell, its own genome has reduced in size, so it doesn't have to produce everything all on its own. So that's why these researchers are now saying that this counts as an organelle, and so they're calling it a nitroplast. It is the first known instance of a nitroplast. We don't know yet if there will be more inside other organisms.
Speaker 1:That's really cool. You obviously you talked about the origins of mitochondria or the proposed origins of mitochondria, and it's cool to see this happening again, or that it has potentially happened again. And very cool that they're able to sort of say we think it was cyanobacteria. Actually, they know more than we know about what actually happened that led to mitochondria, probably because we're not as far down that evolutionary track.
Speaker 2:Exactly. Yeah, so it hasn't evolved so much that we can't recognize what it used to be. Yeah, so cool, yeah, so this is a very cool discovery, because this type of co-evolution seems to be rather rare, like we really only know these three things that have evolved because of it, and it also seems that each of these instances are kind of connected with important evolutionary events. So, for example, when eukaryotic cells got mitochondria, they were able to start building more and more complex organisms. That's when we also were able to get multicellular organisms, because now they had this new way of exchanging energy.
Speaker 2:Chloroplasts, of course, made plants what they are, and if we didn't have plants that did photosynthesis, then life on Earth would not exist as we know it. So that kind of begs the question like what will nitroplasts mean in evolutionary history? Right? So I briefly talked about how we use a lot of fertilizer for agriculture and that has made us able to produce a lot more food on the planet, but it is also an energy intensive process that puts a lot of carbon dioxide in the air Not great. So if we had another way of fixing nitrogen inside plants or algae themselves, that could be revolutionary.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's very exciting, because this does seem like one of these things that could just be so transformative if we could make it work Right, and I do wonder if it'll ultimately become essential many hundreds, maybe thousands of years down the road, unless the planet is fully burned by then. We'll see.
Speaker 2:But yeah we'll see.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you, and thank you, alex, for writing in. We got like a little bio lesson in there on top of this like potentially game changing news, so very cool. All right, I'm up and I am going to read an email from listener Carrie, and I will interject at many points throughout this email. It's such a good email, but I want to provide additional context and I feel like I have prompts sort of baked into this by Carrie, which is wonderful. So we'll see. I will try to make it clear when it is me talking versus Carrie's email, and stop me if you are even confused, because I'm sure that our listeners are.
Speaker 1:All right, carrie writes. So a while back I was browsing old issues of chemical and engineering news and I do mean old, the archives go all the way back to the magazine's founding in 1923. And I found this recurring section in the magazine called emanations. This recurring section in the magazine called emanations, and the reason it stood out to me is that it had poems in all caps about chemistry, contributed by readers, I assume, and then carrie writes, but I did not independently verify this. I also did not independently verify this. Okay, continuing in the email, I attached a page from 1930. Please enjoy one poet's quote absent-minded expression of a fervent hope that chemists would soon invent a multipurpose paste that could serve as both toothpaste, shaving cream and shampoo. Honestly, that sounds pretty good. Why don't we have this? Okay, so I am going to read a little bit from that poem before I get back to Carrie's email. I'm loving this so far.
Speaker 1:It's so funny it's so funny.
Speaker 1:Okay, it's a long poem, I'm not going to read all of it, but it's very funny, amazing. Here's how it starts. Here is a plea for some chemical man to make a pink paste upon a new plan, one that will lather as shaving cream should, yet have a flavor that's pleasant and good, one that will soften the beard on one's face yet have a healing gum, hardening base which after shaving may safely remain, yet from the teeth remove any stain. In short, a compounding of qualities, rare, good, both for the teeth, the skin and the hair. Combining the best in Pepsodent, oh, ok, so some of these I don't know, but combining the best in Pepsodent, colgate's, palmolive and Iodant Williams, ipana and Listerine cream powder or paste that ever was seen.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's a mouthful. Yeah, it's a lot, and I don't. I recognize a bunch of those brands, but not all of them. Yeah, it goes on for a bit, but I'm going to read the final stanza, and so, for men of absent mind, I hope some chemist will shortly find a deliciously flavored paste of pink that will scour or lather quick as a wink. A single tube will much simpler be than this cream and paste multiplicity. Why the pink tinting? Why, surely, you'll see, that is the color most pleasing to me and it's written by Ray William Clough, c-l-o-u-g-h. Amazing. Thank you, ray William. I love this. It's so great. So, yeah, we could talk about that forever but back to Carrie's email.
Speaker 1:There's also this gem A chemist addresses the ocean and then, in parentheses, after imbibing three stiff drinks. And then Carrie writes. I tried to choose an excerpt to paste here, but I can't decide which part is the best part. You'll just have to read it wild. Oh my gosh, and it's. It really truly is so good and it's not super long, so I'm just gonna read it. It's so, it's so silly, okay? Thou saline and undulant aqueous solution of halides, carbonates, phosphates, sulfates and other soluble inorganic compounds. What mysterious colloids are dispersed within thy slightly alkaline bosom. What silent and unseen reactions vibrate in dynamic equilibrium, constantly destroyed and instantly restored among thy unnumbered oscillating molecules. And instantly restored among thy unnumbered oscillating molecules. What uncounted myriads of restless ions migrate perpetually throughout thy tentatively estimated volume. What unguessed phenomena of catalysis, metathesis and osmosis transpire in thy secret fluid profundities under excessively increased pressure Secret fluid, profund coaster profundities.
Speaker 2:What a phrase.
Speaker 1:Yes, I know what cosmic precipitates descend in countless kilograms upon the argillaceous gelatinous. So maybe he spelled it wrong yeah, I don Okay. Diatomaceous and totally unilluminated bottom. In short, most magnificent reservoir. What is thy flow chart and complete analysis. I have to say that was a real tongue twister. I'm pretty proud of myself for getting out most.
Speaker 2:Wow, yes.
Speaker 1:It is so funny. Thank you, carrie, for sending this along, and there's more on this page. It's wild. Ok, back to Carrie's email. She says and this is not even the main plot of my story yet, because then over to the right I spotted this little blurb describing a quote chemical map of North America. And so Sam here saying that this is all on one page in this issue of Chemical and Engineering News from 1930. And so in the bottom right of the page you have these like poems and the chemist addressing the ocean after imbibing three stiff drinks. And then you have this like blurb about some chemical map. And so then Kerry writes so remember, it's 1930. And what this says is that a group of pharmacists had put together a map showing where the quote ores, minerals and elements used in medicines were coming from at that time in North America. That's so cool. And what is even cooler, I think, is that this map was designed not for other professional chemists and pharmacists but for the general public, so that they could understand where their medicines were coming from. The blurb notes this particular map is the quote first of its kind to attempt this and this is still Carrie speaking.
Speaker 1:I would really like to see this map. I thought so I Googled and I could not find a picture of this map anywhere Devastating. But I did find an online record from the University of Chicago Library that suggested the library possessed a physical copy of this map in their collection. However, I live in Washington DC so it's not like I could take a quick afternoon jaunt over there to check it out. Devastated again, hopefully, but not really expecting anything, I sent an inquiry to the Ask a Librarian email address listed on the library's website Is there any way I might be able to view an image of this map? A bit more than a month later, I received a reply and literally screamed out loud when I read it, because it came with a in all caps gorgeous, high resolution scan of this incredible map. Because librarians are again all caps awesome they are, they are pretty awesome.
Speaker 1:They really are. They really are. And then Carrie writes, and then I got a little bit overwhelmed because this map is so detailed, so complex, so fascinating. The original was 64 inches, that's over five feet wide, and it is crammed full of information. There's even a bunch of sketches of what chemical factories look like. You could spend hours scrolling around and still have more to find. So, pausing from the email for a sec, carrie included a map for us, and so we're going to share it on our YouTube channel. I'm really excited for people to be able to see it. Right now, I'm just going to look at it real quick with Anne and point out a couple things. So if you want to, then look at, it.
Speaker 2:you can Opening now.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, look at that. Yeah, it's so big and detailed and beautiful and the scan is so good, you can see everything. So, for example, I mean we're in, let's go over to the East Coast. We are in Washington DC area, east Coast, we are in.
Speaker 2:Washington DC area. I'm seeing granite marble, silica, clay, kaolin chromium.
Speaker 1:When Carrie says it's detailed, it is so detailed it really feels like a true work of art and it does show on the sides. You know the different plants. So they show the Yukon hydraulic gold mining. They show zinc mining in Oklahoma. There's a bunch of stuff and I won't you know. I understand this is audio so I'm not going to drone on and on with this, but I do want to let you know that this will be available for you to look at. It's beautiful.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm being quiet because I'm just like scrolling around and looking to see what there is to see.
Speaker 1:Definitely, definitely go check it out. We will link to where you can see this in the episode description, for sure. So we're wrapping up Carrie's email, which is like an unbelievably wonderful, detailed email. She continues one thing that jumped out to me was that over in California they were apparently producing something called sug of milk, that's S-U-G of milk. There's some over on the East Coast too, in New York between Binghamton and Poughkeepsie. It caught my eye because milk seems out of place next to all the metals, minerals and petroleum products on the map. And that SUG abbreviation could it be sugar, sugar of milk, milk, sugar, lactose? Could that be right? What was lactose doing in medicines? What's going?
Speaker 2:on here.
Speaker 1:Back to Google. Best I can tell, lactose was used to triterate medicines. You could grind up your active substance with some lactose to dilute it and add volume to make it easier to handle. So yes, it absolutely belongs on this map which is so interesting.
Speaker 1:The old Chemical and Engineering News article says this map was used as part of window displays of medicinal chemicals back in 1930. I imagine most of the people passing by might have clocked the colorful window dressing but not spent much time poring over its details. I like to think there would have been a few who got pulled in the way I did, spent minutes or hours tracing the origins of essential substances through the glass, maybe even rescued one of these maps from the garbage after the window display was changed out for something new. If I was around in 1930, I think I would have. Thank you so much, carrie. This is so fun to get and I'm excited to be able to share this map with our listeners. We have gotten approval from the University of Chicago Library to do that, so I really truly am going to share it, which I'm excited about because it is. It is beautiful and so cool to just to look at. You could look at it forever.
Speaker 2:It is, and to just think about the supply chain of all of the things that we use all of the time and we don't really think about it. Yeah, I know it's amazing. Thanks for tuning in to Tiny Show and Tell Us a bonus episode from Tiny Matters, a production of the American Chemical Society.
Speaker 1:Send us an email to be featured in a future Tiny Show and Tell Us episode. Tinymatters at ACSorg. See you next time.
