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Elixir of life discovered – for yeast
THIS WEEK Insight
Will we cope if the rare earths live up to their name? to 71 – plus yttrium and scandium, and despite the name most of them were not considered rare at all. The elements hit the headlines a few weeks ago, when China appeared to be blocking exports to Japan and the US. The Chinese government, which has also been tightening its export quotas, claims that it needs to clean up mining procedures and support its own growing demand for rare earths. So what can the rest of the world
Heavy hydrogen keeps yeast looking good
hydrogen bonds and are a major source of the kind of oxidative cell damage that can occur in conditions such as coronary artery disease, neurological disorders and retinal ailments. Among the compounds most vulnerable to attack by free radicals are the polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) vital to the structure and function of cell membranes. In 2006 Mikhail Shchepinov of biotech firm Retrotope, based in Los Altos Hills, California, proposed that PUFAs containing deuterium should be less susceptible to free-radical damage, since deuterium forms
The Mountain Pass mine closed following a radioactive leak
David Becker/Reuters
FOR decades, the world has been busy incorporating the so-called rare earth elements into all manner of high-tech devices, including disc drives, wind turbines and hybrid cars. The messy business of mining the ore and extracting the elements was left to China, and few people in the west cared that the nation controlled 97 per cent of world supply. “Rare earth” is an alternative name for the lanthanides – elements 57
do about it? The most obvious course of action is to open mines elsewhere, since China accounts for little more than a third of known reserves. The biggest importer, Japan, is hoping to open a mine in Vietnam. And in the US, Molycorp Minerals plans to reopen its Mountain Pass mine in California, which has not been active since radioactive waste leaked from a pipe there in 2002. However, facilities to refine rare earths cannot be created overnight, and few US scientists know how to
IT COULD be a breakthrough in the hunt for an “elixir of life”. Organic molecules containing a heavy isotope of hydrogen seem to resist the kind of cell damage that happens with ageing. But hang on to your moisturiser for now: the effects have been demonstrated only in yeast cells. Free radicals attack weak carbon14 | NewScientist | 30 October 2010
stronger bonds than ordinary hydrogen. To test the idea, Shchepinov and colleagues substituted deuterium for regular hydrogen in two essential dietary fatty acids and introduced them into yeast cells. Yeast does not produce these fatty acids naturally, and when these compounds are present the cells become vulnerable to oxidative
“Deuterium-based fatty acids could be used in disease where oxidative damage is involved”
do it anyway. “Even if Molycorp can get material mined and concentrated right now… it would have to send that material to China to get it refined,” says Gareth Hatch of Technology Metals Research, a consultancy firm in Carpentersville, Illinois. Recycling is another option, but impurities sneak in during the process, so recycled materials are not always as good as the freshly refined equivalent. The neodymium magnets used in hybrid cars, for example, work less well at high temperatures when recycled neodymium is used. Some items containing rare earths are reusable. The neodymium magnets in computer disc drives, for example, usually outlast the computer they are in, but disc drive manufacturers have till now found it cheaper to use new magnets than to reuse old ones. The scarcity issue is being tackled in a different way by Kazuhiro Hono of Japan’s National Institute for Materials Science in Tsukuba. Dysprosium is one of the rarer rare earth elements, so Hono is reducing the amount of the element in the permanent magnets used in hybrid cars. Hono hopes the crisis will encourage more scientists into the field. “The important thing is to recognise the importance worldwide,” he says. With efforts focused on innovation, he adds, “the solution to this problem will come out in the future”. Katharine Comisso n
damage. The team found that y east cells dosed with the deuteriumbased fatty acids were up to 150 times as resistant to oxidative stress as cells treated with normal fatty acids (Free Radical Biology and Medicine, DOI: 10.1016/j. freeradbiomed.2010.10.690). Retrotope is now looking for ways to apply the technique in retinal cells, as well as in certain neurological diseases in which oxidative damage plays a part. “If we can down-regulate oxidative stress there will be a positive outcome,” Shchepinov says. Helen Thomson n
Will we cope if the rare earths live up to their name? to 71 – plus yttrium and scandium, and despite the name most of them were not considered rare at all. The elements hit the headlines a few weeks ago, when China appeared to be blocking exports to Japan and the US. The Chinese government, which has also been tightening its export quotas, claims that it needs to clean up mining procedures and support its own growing demand for rare earths. So what can the rest of the world
Heavy hydrogen keeps yeast looking good
hydrogen bonds and are a major source of the kind of oxidative cell damage that can occur in conditions such as coronary artery disease, neurological disorders and retinal ailments. Among the compounds most vulnerable to attack by free radicals are the polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) vital to the structure and function of cell membranes. In 2006 Mikhail Shchepinov of biotech firm Retrotope, based in Los Altos Hills, California, proposed that PUFAs containing deuterium should be less susceptible to free-radical damage, since deuterium forms
The Mountain Pass mine closed following a radioactive leak
David Becker/Reuters
FOR decades, the world has been busy incorporating the so-called rare earth elements into all manner of high-tech devices, including disc drives, wind turbines and hybrid cars. The messy business of mining the ore and extracting the elements was left to China, and few people in the west cared that the nation controlled 97 per cent of world supply. “Rare earth” is an alternative name for the lanthanides – elements 57
do about it? The most obvious course of action is to open mines elsewhere, since China accounts for little more than a third of known reserves. The biggest importer, Japan, is hoping to open a mine in Vietnam. And in the US, Molycorp Minerals plans to reopen its Mountain Pass mine in California, which has not been active since radioactive waste leaked from a pipe there in 2002. However, facilities to refine rare earths cannot be created overnight, and few US scientists know how to
IT COULD be a breakthrough in the hunt for an “elixir of life”. Organic molecules containing a heavy isotope of hydrogen seem to resist the kind of cell damage that happens with ageing. But hang on to your moisturiser for now: the effects have been demonstrated only in yeast cells. Free radicals attack weak carbon14 | NewScientist | 30 October 2010
stronger bonds than ordinary hydrogen. To test the idea, Shchepinov and colleagues substituted deuterium for regular hydrogen in two essential dietary fatty acids and introduced them into yeast cells. Yeast does not produce these fatty acids naturally, and when these compounds are present the cells become vulnerable to oxidative
“Deuterium-based fatty acids could be used in disease where oxidative damage is involved”
do it anyway. “Even if Molycorp can get material mined and concentrated right now… it would have to send that material to China to get it refined,” says Gareth Hatch of Technology Metals Research, a consultancy firm in Carpentersville, Illinois. Recycling is another option, but impurities sneak in during the process, so recycled materials are not always as good as the freshly refined equivalent. The neodymium magnets used in hybrid cars, for example, work less well at high temperatures when recycled neodymium is used. Some items containing rare earths are reusable. The neodymium magnets in computer disc drives, for example, usually outlast the computer they are in, but disc drive manufacturers have till now found it cheaper to use new magnets than to reuse old ones. The scarcity issue is being tackled in a different way by Kazuhiro Hono of Japan’s National Institute for Materials Science in Tsukuba. Dysprosium is one of the rarer rare earth elements, so Hono is reducing the amount of the element in the permanent magnets used in hybrid cars. Hono hopes the crisis will encourage more scientists into the field. “The important thing is to recognise the importance worldwide,” he says. With efforts focused on innovation, he adds, “the solution to this problem will come out in the future”. Katharine Comisso n
damage. The team found that y east cells dosed with the deuteriumbased fatty acids were up to 150 times as resistant to oxidative stress as cells treated with normal fatty acids (Free Radical Biology and Medicine, DOI: 10.1016/j. freeradbiomed.2010.10.690). Retrotope is now looking for ways to apply the technique in retinal cells, as well as in certain neurological diseases in which oxidative damage plays a part. “If we can down-regulate oxidative stress there will be a positive outcome,” Shchepinov says. Helen Thomson n