10% hydrochloric acid with very little change. The B-W chemists expect the polysulfonate esters to be most useful as copolymers, where the stability of the sulfonate linkage is combined with more favorable mechanical properties of other materials. An example is the sulfonate-carboxylate system—a series of polymers derived from bisphenol-A, biphenyldisulfonyl chloride, and either isophthalyl or terephthalyl chloride. These sulfonate-carboxylate copolymers generally are transparent, soluble thermoplastics, moldable at 250° to 300° C. They are tough—some have tensile strengths of 5000 p.s.i. at 175° C. Their thermal oxidative stability in air extends up to 350° C. Glass transition temperatures are between 170° and 200° C , and their hydrolytic and aminolytic stability is also good.
Particle theory disproved Physicists at Columbia University and the State University of New York at Stony Brook have shown that when an eta meson (a neutral nuclear particle) decays, the positive pi meson it produces is more energetic than the negative pi meson it produces [Physical Review Letters, 16, 1224 (1966)]. This disproves the theory that, in an interaction of intermediate strength, a particle and its antiparticle must be mirror images of each other and act symmetrically. The work also provides a way to tell whether a body is made of matter or of antimatter, according to Dr. Paolo Franzini of Columbia and his wife, Dr.
The Drs. Franzini Positive is more energetic
Juliet Lee-Franzini of Stony Brook, coleaders of the project. Since particles and an tip articles can annihilate (convert to energy) each other, these results could be useful for detecting antimeteorites or antiplanets. The disproved theory, known as the principle of charge conjugation invariance, held that for every state of a system of particles, there corresponds another state, identical except that antiparticles have replaced particles. This means that if there were some ultimate set of physical laws governing the world, that set of laws would work equally well for particles and for antiparticles (matter and antimatter). Until 1964, this principle seemed to apply to all four kinds of natural interactions—nuclear, electromagnetic, weak, and gravitational. Each kind of interaction operates on a different scale of time and space. A nuclear interaction operates in the shortest time and space and is the strongest interaction. Gravitational is the weakest. In 1964, Princeton University's Dr. Val Fitch and his associates, studying a weak interaction, observed a violation of an invariance intimately related to the charge conjugation principle. To explain this, a number of physicists theorized that such a violation could also occur in a stronger interaction. In particular, a group at Columbia led by Dr. Tsung-Dao Lee, cowinner of the 1957 Nobel Prize in Physics, suggested that the three-pi meson decay of the eta meson might involve asymmetry of charge, and be an example of an intermediate-strength violation. The Franzinis show this is true. With seven colleagues, the two Franzinis took 435,000 photographs showing various decay patterns of the eta meson in the Columbia-Brookhaven liquid-hydrogen bubble chamber at Brookhaven National Laboratory. Measurements of the tracks in 80,000 of these pinpointed 1441 clear examples of the decay, which produces three kinds of pi mesons—one positive, one negative, and one neutral (which leaves no track). The research team found that the positive pi meson travels away from the decomposed eta meson faster than the negative pi meson does. If systems of planets and stars composed of antimatter exist, this new knowledge could help determine whether a cosmic body is a world like ours, or an antiworld, Dr. Paolo Franzini says. This could be done by comparing an eta meson in the foreign world to any other substance in that world. If the more energetic decay particle from the eta meson has the same charge as the heavy particles that make up the other substance, the foreign world is made of matter as we know it. If not, it is antimatter.
Cystic fibrosis test speeded A new and simple method to measure chloride concentration in perspiration may help doctors diagnose cystic fibrosis quickly. The deadly childhood disease is characterized by abnormally high chloride content in the perspiration. The chloride method was developed by Dr. W. J. Warwick and L. Hansen of the University of Minnesota's medical school. In the technique, a controlled amount of heat is applied to a small area of the skin on the patient. Then a silver electrode is applied to the heated patch to measure the chloride concentration in the resulting perspiration. The test takes less than 10 minutes. But it is still in a development stage, Mr. Hansen cautioned a symposium on biomedical engineering in Milwaukee, Wis. Present test methods for chloride are slow and therefore not suited for large-scale screening tests. Measuring the chloride concentration of perspiration is the easiest way to detect cystic fibrosis. Cystic fibrosis is an inherited disease of the endocrine glands. About one newborn child per thousand is affected. It causes abnormalities in mucus and other secretions and leads to often fatal complications of the pancreas, liver, and lungs. Early diagnosis can bring a 10-fold reduction in infant mortality from the disease, Mr. Hansen says. In the new method, the skin area is first washed with distilled water and dried with gauze. An aluminum cylinder which has been warmed to 48° C. is held gently on the skin for five minutes. The cylinder is removed and the silver electrode placed on the reddened moist skin. A stable millivolt reading is obtained within 10 seconds on a p H meter attached to the electrode. The electrode and meter are standardized against known chloride solutions. The Minnesota workers have carried out clinical tests on 82 persons, including 24 normal children and 45 with cystic fibrosis. The normal children had between four and 30 milliequivalents of chloride per liter of perspiration. With the affected children the chloride content ranged from 69 to 108 milliequivalents per liter. The new method still has some drawbacks. The technician must have special training. Evaporation of the perspiration can present problems, and the pressure of the electrode on the skin can cause variations in the result. However, Dr. Warwick and Mr. Hansen feel that these problems can be overcome by such methods as varying the size and shape of the electrode. JULY 4, 1966 C&EN 15
