What a gas.It seems that one of the intriguing potential beneficial applications of hydrogen sulfide-induced torpor torpor /tor·por/ (tor´per) [L.] sluggishness.tor´pid torpor re´tinae sluggish response of the retina to the stimulus of light. tor·por n. 1. ("Frozen in Time: Gas puts mice metabolically on ice" SN: 4/23/05, p. 261) would emerge if it turns out that cancer cells are less sensitive to the gas than healthy cells are. If we could turn down the metabolic activity of normal tissue, reducing its sensitivity to chemotherapeutic drugs, while the cancer cells remained vulnerable, chemotherapy would simultaneously become less toxic and more effective. STARFINDER STANLEY, OAKLAND, CALIF. If this ability is indeed an ancient adaptation, it might explain how the precursors of small mammals, reptiles, and birds could have survived the Cretaceous and Permian extinctions. Hydrogen sulfide hydrogen sulfide, chemical compound, H2S, a colorless, extremely poisonous gas that has a very disagreeable odor, much like that of rotten eggs. It is slightly soluble in water and is soluble in carbon disulfide. would have been a fairly ubiquitous by-product by·prod·uct or by-prod·uct n. 1. Something produced in the making of something else. 2. A secondary result; a side effect. by-product Noun 1. of the massive die-off of vegetation. JAMES M. KELLY For other persons named James Kelly, see James Kelly (disambiguation). James McNeal "Vegas" Kelly (born May 14, 1964) is a NASA Astronaut and a former Lieutenant Colonel of the United States Air Force. , EAST SANDWICH, MASS. |
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