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NH, 3,4-Dimethoxyaniline Jk^ (4-Aminoveratrole) IQI ( 0CH3

OCK

4-Benzylpiperidine

C2H5

4-Nitroethylbenzene {As and 4 - Ethylan i I i ne Sjf^

NO,

CH 6,7-Dimethoxy-quinazoline - 2,4 - dione

υ

2,4-Xylidine and all other isomers

NHj, CH,

5-Nitroisophthalic acid and derivatives COOH

A.

1-Chloio-3,4-dinitrobenzene

CI

NO, NO,

US-Agents: HENLEY CHEMICALS, INC. 50, Chestnut Ridge Road Montvale, NJ 07645 Phone (201) 307-0422

Swiss Explosives Works Ltd. CH-5605 Dottikon/Switzerland Phone: 057/26 11 55 Telex: 827 923 ssf ch A privately owned Swiss enterprise

CIRCLE 37 ON READER SERVICE 92 May 18, 1987C&EN

NEWSCRIPTS

Bill of the platypus has electroreceptors Direct evidence for electroreceptors in the bill of the platypus has been developed by J. E. Gregory and his colleagues at Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia. The platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus) is a small aquatic mammal with a fleshy bill resembling a duck's bill, dense fur, webbed feet, and a broad, flattened tail. The animal lives in Australia and Tasmania, and the plu­ral is platypuses or platypi (Nature, March 26, page 386).

Gregory et al. say people have known since the 19th century that the bill of the platypus contains dense arrays of receptor organs and their associated, impulse-transmit­ting nerves. The receptors were long thought to be for mechanical stim­uli, but other workers recently found evidence that they include electroreceptors. These workers sug­gested that the platypus can find moving prey by detecting the elec­trical activity associated with mus­cle contractions.

The Monash scientists set out to provide direct physiological evi­dence for electroreceptors in the platypus's bill. They used a male and a female that were anesthetized and artificially ventilated and kept at their normal body temperature (32 °C). They stimulated the bill with a pair of wire electrodes and recorded discharges in a nerve that supplies the bill. Gregory and his associates worked out ways to tell whether discharges came from me-chanicoreceptors or electroreceptors in the bill.

Besides confirming the presence of electroreceptors in the bill of the platypus, the Australian workers briefly tested their use in hunting. The earlier investigators had sug­gested that the platypus could de­tect the electrical activity kicked up when a freshwater shrimp flicks its tail. They also recorded a waveform from a shrimp's tail flick. Gregory and his colleagues simulated the waveform and found that, with large enough pulses, it would always get a response from the pla typus ' s electroreceptors.

by Κ. Μ. Reese

The Australians say that platypi are found commonly in muddy streams and dive mostly with their eyes, ears, and nose shut. They think it probable that the animals rely almost entirely on electrodetection to find prey and assess obstacles on the bottom and changes in the depth of streams.

Lindbergh's famous flight It said here a couple of weeks ago that May 20 marks the 60th anni­versary of Charles Lindbergh's flight from New York to Paris. He was the first to do it solo and covered the 3600 miles in about 33V2 hours, making about 107 mph.

Besides giving commercial avia­tion a shot in the arm, Lindbergh (1902-74) "thoroughly captured the imagination of the American peo­ple," says Dominick Pisano of the Smithsonian Institution's National Air & Space Museum. His aircraft, Spirit of St. Louis, remains the mu­seum's most popular artifact.

Flotsam and jetsam Bill Catus sent from Columbus, Ohio, a copy of a U.S. patent that reads in part, "When iron and oth­er metals are placed in contact with electrolytes (water and dissolved salts), they take on a force that de­sires release. This force causes the metal to dissolve." Says Catus, "Pret­ty soon, patents will be published as Harlequin romances."

• · · Rustum Roy of University Park,

Pa., encountered a Navy/Air Force scientific bulletin that had a Bud­dha figure on the cover and, inside, a section titled "Theological Behav­ior of Ceramics."

• · · Norbert Baer of New York City

saw in the New York Post the fol­lowing intriguing dispatch datelined Clermont-Ferrand, France: "A man who tried to remove a stubborn stain from his clothes by putting gaso­line instead of detergent in his washing machine succeeded only in blowing up his house."

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