Iron
Iron is a chemical element with symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal, that belongs to group 8 of the periodic table, it is by mass the most common element on Earth, forming much of Earth's inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust. Pure iron is rare on the Earth's crust being limited to meteorites. Iron ores are quite abundant, but extracting usable metal from them requires kilns or furnaces capable of reaching 1500 °C or higher, about 500 °C higher than what is enough to smelt copper. Humans started to dominate that process in Eurasia only about 2000 BCE, iron began to displace copper alloys for tools and weapons, in some regions, only around 1200 BCE; that event is considered the transition from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age. Iron alloys, such as steel and special steels are now by far the most common industrial metals, because of their mechanical properties and their low cost. Pristine and smooth pure iron surfaces are mirror-like silvery-gray. However, iron reacts with oxygen and water to give brown to black hydrated iron oxides known as rust.
Unlike the oxides of some other metals, that form passivating layers, rust occupies more volume than the metal and thus flakes off, exposing fresh surfaces for corrosion. The body of an adult human contains about 3 to 5 grams of elemental iron in hemoglobin and myoglobin; these two proteins play essential roles in vertebrate metabolism oxygen transport by blood and oxygen storage in muscles. To maintain the necessary levels, human iron metabolism requires a minimum of iron in the diet. Iron is the metal at the active site of many important redox enzymes dealing with cellular respiration and oxidation and reduction in plants and animals. Chemically, the most common oxidation states of iron are +2 and +3. Iron shares many properties of other transition metals, including the other group 8 elements and osmium. Iron forms compounds in a wide range of oxidation states, −2 to +7. Iron forms many coordination compounds. At least four allotropes of iron are known, conventionally denoted α, γ, δ, ε; the first three forms are observed at ordinary pressures.
As molten iron cools past its freezing point of 1538 °C, it crystallizes into its δ allotrope, which has a body-centered cubic crystal structure. As it cools further to 1394 °C, it changes to its γ-iron allotrope, a face-centered cubic crystal structure, or austenite. At 912 °C and below, the crystal structure again becomes the bcc α-iron allotrope; the physical properties of iron at high pressures and temperatures have been studied extensively, because of their relevance to theories about the cores of the Earth and other planets. Above 10 GPa and temperatures of a few hundred kelvin or less, α-iron changes into another hexagonal close-packed structure, known as ε-iron; the higher-temperature γ-phase changes into ε-iron, but does so at higher pressure. Some controversial experimental evidence exists for a stable β phase at pressures above 50 GPa and temperatures of at least 1500 K, it is supposed to have a double hcp structure. The inner core of the Earth is presumed to consist of an iron-nickel alloy with ε structure.
The melting and boiling points of iron, along with its enthalpy of atomization, are lower than those of the earlier 3d elements from scandium to chromium, showing the lessened contribution of the 3d electrons to metallic bonding as they are attracted more and more into the inert core by the nucleus. This same trend appears for ruthenium but not osmium; the melting point of iron is experimentally well defined for pressures less than 50 GPa. For greater pressures, published data still varies by tens of gigapascals and over a thousand kelvin. Below its Curie point of 770 °C, α-iron changes from paramagnetic to ferromagnetic: the spins of the two unpaired electrons in each atom align with the spins of its neighbors, creating an overall magnetic field; this happens because the orbitals of those two electrons do not point toward neighboring atoms in the lattice, therefore are not involved in metallic bonding. In the absence of an external source of magnetic field, the atoms get spontaneously partitioned into magnetic domains, about 10 micrometres across, such that the atoms in each domain have parallel spins, but different domains have other orientations.
Thus a macroscopic piece of iron will have a nearly zero overall magnetic field. Application of an external magnetic field causes the domains that are magnetized in the same general direction to grow at the expense of adjacent ones that point in other directions, reinforcing the external field; this effect is exploited in devices that needs to channel magnetic fields, such as electrical transformers, magnetic recording heads, electric motors. Impurities, lattice defects, or grain and particle boundaries can "pin" the domains in the new positions, so that the effect persists after the external field is removed -- thus turning the iron object into a magnet. Similar behavior is exhibited by some iron compounds, such as the fer
Daptomycin
Daptomycin is a lipopeptide antibiotic used in the treatment of systemic and life-threatening infections caused by Gram-positive organisms. It is a occurring compound found in the soil saprotroph Streptomyces roseosporus, its distinct mechanism of action makes it useful in treating infections caused by multiple drug-resistant bacteria. It is marketed in the United States under the trade name Cubicin by Cubist Pharmaceuticals. Daptomycin designated as LY 146032, was discovered by researchers at Eli Lilly and Company in the late 1980s. LY 146032 showed promise in phase I/II clinical trials for treatment of infection caused by Gram-positive organisms. Lilly ceased development because high-dose therapy was associated with adverse effects on skeletal muscle, including myalgia and potential myositis; the rights to LY 146032 were acquired by Cubist Pharmaceuticals in 1997, which following U. S. Food and Drug Administration approval in September 2003 for use in people older than 18 years, began marketing the drug under the trade name Cubicin.
Cubicin is marketed in the EU and in several other countries by Novartis following its purchase of Chiron Corporation, the previous licensee. Daptomycin has a distinct mechanism of action, disrupting multiple aspects of bacterial cell membrane function, it inserts into the cell membrane in a phosphatidylglycerol-dependent fashion, where it aggregates. The aggregation of daptomycin alters the curvature of the membrane, which creates holes that leak ions; this causes rapid depolarization, resulting in a loss of membrane potential leading to inhibition of protein, DNA, RNA synthesis, which results in bacterial cell death. It has been proposed that the formation of spherical micelles by Daptomycin may affect the mode of action. Daptomycin is bactericidal against Gram-positive bacteria only, it has proven in vitro activity against enterococci, streptococci and stationary-phase Borrelia burgdorferi persisters. Daptomycin resistance is still uncommon, but has been reported in GRE, starting in Korea in 2005, in Europe in 2010, in Taiwan 2011, in the USA, where nine cases have been reported from 2007 to 2011.
Daptomycin resistance emerged in five of the six cases. The mechanism of resistance is unknown. A 4 million year-old strain of Paenibacillus isolated from soil samples in Lechuguilla Cave was found to be resistant to daptomycin. Daptomycin is approved for use in adults in the United States for skin and skin structure infections caused by Gram-positive infections, S. aureus bacteraemia, right-sided S. aureus endocarditis. It binds avidly to pulmonary surfactant. There seems to be a difference in working daptomycin on hematogenous pneumonia. Daptomycin has been shown to be non-inferior to standard therapies in the treatment of bacteraemia and right-sided endocarditis caused by S. aureus. A study in Detroit, Michigan compared 53 patients treated for suspected MRSA skin or soft tissue infection with daptomycin against vancomycin, showing faster recovery with daptomycin. In phase III clinical trials, limited data showed daptomycin to be associated with poor outcomes in patients with left-sided endocarditis.
Daptomycin has not been studied in patients with prosthetic valve meningitis. In skin and soft tissue infections, 4 mg/kg daptomycin is given intravenously once daily. For S. aureus bacteraemia or right-sided endocarditis, the approved dose is 6 mg/kg given intravenously once daily. Daptomycin is given every 48 hours in patients with renal impairment with a creatinine clearance of less than 30 ml/min. No information is available on dosing in people less than 18 years of age. Daptomycin is supplied as a sterile, preservative-free, pale yellow to light brown, lyophilised 500- or 350-mg cake that must be reconstituted with normal saline prior to use. Daptomycin is applicable as 2-min injection. Common adverse drug reactions associated with daptomycin therapy include: Cardiovascular: low blood pressure, high blood pressure, swelling Central nervous system: insomnia Dermatological: rash Gastrointestinal: diarrhea, abdominal pain Hematological: eosinophilia Respiratory: dyspnea Other: injection site reactions, hypersensitivityLess common, but serious adverse events reported in the literature include Hepatotoxicity: elevated transaminases Nephrotoxicity: acute kidney injury from rhabdomyolysisAlso and rhabdomyolysis have been reported in patients taking statins, but whether this is due to the statin or whether daptomycin potentiates this effect is unknown.
Due to the limited data available, the manufacturer recommends that statins be temporarily discontinued while the patient is receiving daptomycin therapy. Creatine kinase levels are checked while individuals undergo daptomycin therapy. In July 2010, the FDA issued a warning that daptomycin could cause life-threatening eosinophilic pneumonia; the FDA said it had identified seven confirmed cases of eosinophilic pneumonia between 2004 and 2010 and an additional 36 possible cases. The seven confirmed victims were all older than 60 and symptoms appeared within two weeks of initiation of therapy. Daptomycin is a cyclic lipopeptide antibiotic produced by Streptomyces roseosporus. Daptomycin consists of 13 amino acids, 10 of which are arranged in a cyclic fashion, three on an exocyclic tail. Two nonproteinogenic amino acids exist in the lipopeptide, the unusual amino acid L-kynurenine, only known to daptomycin, L-3-methylglutamic acid; the N-terminus of the exocycl
Carlsbad, New Mexico
Carlsbad is a city in and the county seat of Eddy County, New Mexico, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 26,138. Carlsbad is centered at the intersection of U. S. Routes 62/180 and 285, is the principal city of the Carlsbad-Artesia Micropolitan Statistical Area, which has a total population of 55,435. Located in the southeastern part of New Mexico, Carlsbad straddles the Pecos River and sits at the eastern edge of the Guadalupe Mountains. Carlsbad is a hub for potash mining, petroleum production, tourism. Carlsbad Caverns National Park is located 20 miles southwest of the city, Guadalupe Mountains National Park lies 54 miles southwest across the Texas border; the Lincoln National Forest is to the northwest of town. Development of southeastern New Mexico in the late 19th century was fueled by the arrival of colonies of immigrants from England, Switzerland and Italy. Located along the banks of the Pecos River, Carlsbad was christened the town of Eddy on September 15, 1888, organized as a municipal corporation in 1893.
Eddy, co-owner of the Eddy-Bissell Livestock Company. With the commercial development of local mineral springs near the flume for medicinal qualities, the town voted to change its name to Carlsbad after the famous European spa Carlsbad, Bohemia. On March 25, 1918, the growing town surpassed a population of 2,000, allowing then-governor of New Mexico Washington Ellsworth Lindsey to proclaim Carlsbad a city. Most of Carlsbad's development was due to irrigation water. Local cattleman recognized the value of diverting water from the Pecos River to the grazing lands on Eddy's Halagueno Ranch. Many construction projects were undertaken to establish an irrigation system within the town; the Avalon Dam was constructed upstream of town, canals diverted the water into town. Conflict arose. Key to the growth of the area were special excursion trains that brought visitors from the East at reduced fares. Before the railroad was completed from Pecos in 1891, travel parties met at the railroad station in Toyah and were driven by buggy 90 miles over a rough, dusty road to this small but growing settlement on the banks of the Pecos River.
Most of the early construction in Carlsbad was completed with locally manufactured bricks. The bricks were quite soft and of poor quality; the former First National Bank building at the corner of Canal and Fox streets is one of the few remaining buildings constructed with the local brick. The re-discovery of Carlsbad Caverns by local cowboys in 1901 and the subsequent establishment of Carlsbad Caverns National Park on May 14, 1930, gained the town of Carlsbad substantial recognition. In 1925, potash was discovered near Carlsbad, for many years Carlsbad dominated the American potash market. Following the decline of the potash market in the 1960s, the residents and leaders of Carlsbad lobbied for the establishment of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, a site where low-level nuclear waste would be stored thousands of feet underground in salt beds. Congress authorized the WIPP project in 1979, construction began in 1980; the DOE Carlsbad Area Office opened in 1993, the first waste shipment arrived in 1999.
Carlsbad has experienced a "boom". The city is leading in the production of oil and natural gases across the entire area, causing an increase in the employment rate. Due to this increase families and individuals have begun to migrate to Carlsbad. Carlsbad is located near the center of Eddy County at 34°24′43″N 104°14′11″W at an elevation of 3,295 feet. Carlsbad is situated in the northern reaches of the Chihuahuan Desert ecoregion, in the lower Pecos River Valley. Via US 285 it is 86 miles south to Pecos, Texas. US Routes 62 and 180 lead northeast 69 miles to Hobbs and southwest 169 miles to El Paso. According to the United States Census Bureau, Carlsbad has a total area of 29.2 square miles. Most of the water within city limits consists of the Pecos Lake Carlsbad recreation area; the river flows into the northern part of Carlsbad, downstream from Lake Avalon and Brantley Lake, passes east of downtown, exits in the southeast. Dark Canyon Draw runs through the southern part of town, but only drains during heavy rainfall.
Carlsbad is part of the Interior West climate zone. It is classified as semi-arid, meaning average annual precipitation is less than potential evapotranspiration, but more than half. A moderate amount of rain falls each year, with the maximum occurring during September. 53 tornadoes have been reported in Eddy County since 1950. As of the census of 2010, there are 26,138 people, 10,257 households, 6,898 families residing in the city; the population density is 920.4/mi². There are 11,421 housing units at an average density of 402.6 per square mile. The racial makeup of the city was: 77.4% White 1.9% Black or African American 1.3% Native American 1.0% Asian <0.1% Pacific Islander 15.28% from other races 3.1% Multiracial 42.5% of the population were Hispanics or Latinos There are 10,257 households out of which 29.2% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 46.0% are married couples living together, 14.0% have a female householder with no husband present, 32.7% are non-fami
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern region of the United States of America. It is one of the Mountain States and shares the Four Corners region with Utah and Arizona. With a population around two million, New Mexico is the 36th state by population. With a total area of 121,592 sq mi, it is the fifth-largest and sixth-least densely populated of the 50 states. Due to their geographic locations and eastern New Mexico exhibit a colder, alpine climate, while western and southern New Mexico exhibit a warmer, arid climate; the economy of New Mexico is dependent on oil drilling, mineral extraction, dryland farming, cattle ranching, lumber milling, retail trade. As of 2016–2017, its total gross domestic product was $95 billion with a GDP per capita of $45,465. New Mexico's status as a tax haven yields low to moderate personal income taxes on residents and military personnel, gives tax credits and exemptions to favorable industries; because of this, its film industry contributed $1.23 billion to its overall economy.
Due to its large area and economic climate, New Mexico has a large U. S. military presence marked notably with the White Sands Missile Range. Various U. S. national security agencies base their research and testing arms in New Mexico such as the Sandia and Los Alamos National Laboratories. During the 1940s, Project Y of the Manhattan Project developed and built the country's first atomic bomb and nuclear test, Trinity. Inhabited by Native Americans for many thousands of years before European exploration, it was colonized by the Spanish in 1598 as part of the Imperial Spanish viceroyalty of New Spain. In 1563, it was named Nuevo México after the Aztec Valley of Mexico by Spanish settlers, more than 250 years before the establishment and naming of the present-day country of Mexico. After Mexican independence in 1824, New Mexico became a Mexican territory with considerable autonomy; this autonomy was threatened, however, by the centralizing tendencies of the Mexican government from the 1830s onward, with rising tensions leading to the Revolt of 1837.
At the same time, the region became more economically dependent on the United States. At the conclusion of the Mexican–American War in 1848, the United States annexed New Mexico as the U. S. New Mexico Territory, it was admitted to the Union as the 47th state on January 6, 1912. Its history has given New Mexico the highest percentage of Hispanic and Latino Americans, the second-highest percentage of Native Americans as a population proportion. New Mexico is home to part of the Navajo Nation, 19 federally recognized Pueblo communities of Puebloan peoples, three different federally recognized Apache tribes. In prehistoric times, the area was home to Ancestral Puebloans and the modern extant Comanche and Utes inhabited the state; the largest Hispanic and Latino groups represented include the Hispanos of New Mexico and Mexican Americans. The flag of New Mexico features the state's Spanish origins with the same scarlet and gold coloration as Spain's Cross of Burgundy, along with the ancient sun symbol of the Zia, a Puebloan tribe.
These indigenous, Mexican and American frontier roots are reflected in the eponymous New Mexican cuisine and the New Mexico music genre. New Mexico received its name long before the present-day nation of Mexico won independence from Spain and adopted that name in 1821. Though the name “Mexico” itself derives from Nahuatl, in that language it referred to the heartland of the Empire of the Mexicas in the Valley of Mexico far from the area of New Mexico, Spanish explorers used the term “Mexico” to name the region of New Mexico in 1563. In 1581, the Chamuscado and Rodríguez Expedition named the region north of the Rio Grande "San Felipe del Nuevo México"; the Spaniards had hoped to find wealthy indigenous Mexica cultures there similar to those of the Aztec Empire of the Valley of Mexico. The indigenous cultures of New Mexico, proved to be unrelated to the Mexicas, they were not wealthy, but the name persisted. Before statehood, the name "New Mexico" was applied to various configurations of the U.
S. territory, to a Mexican state, to a province of New Spain, all in the same general area, but of varying extensions. With a total area of 121,699 square miles, the state is the fifth-largest state of the US, larger than British Isles. New Mexico's eastern border lies along 103°W longitude with the state of Oklahoma, 2.2 miles west of 103°W longitude with Texas. On the southern border, Texas makes up the eastern two-thirds, while the Mexican states of Chihuahua and Sonora make up the western third, with Chihuahua making up about 90% of that; the western border with Arizona runs along the 109° 03'W longitude. The southwestern corner of the state is known as the Bootheel; the 37°N parallel forms the northern boundary with Colorado. The states of New Mexico, Colorado and Utah come together at the Four Corners in New Mexico's northwestern corner. New Mexico has no natural water sources
National Park Service
The National Park Service is an agency of the United States federal government that manages all national parks, many national monuments, other conservation and historical properties with various title designations. It was created on August 25, 1916, by Congress through the National Park Service Organic Act and is an agency of the United States Department of the Interior; the NPS is charged with a dual role of preserving the ecological and historical integrity of the places entrusted to its management, while making them available and accessible for public use and enjoyment. As of 2018, the NPS employs 27,000 employees who oversee 419 units, of which 61 are designated national parks. National parks and national monuments in the United States were individually managed under the auspices of the Department of the Interior; the movement for an independent agency to oversee these federal lands was spearheaded by business magnate and conservationist Stephen Mather, as well as J. Horace McFarland. With the help of journalist Robert Sterling Yard, Mather ran a publicity campaign for the Department of the Interior.
They wrote numerous articles that praised the scenic and historic qualities of the parks and their possibilities for educational and recreational benefits. This campaign resulted in the creation of a National Park Service. On August 25, 1916, President Woodrow Wilson signed a bill that mandated the agency "to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and wildlife therein, to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations." Mather became the first director of the newly formed NPS. On March 3, 1933, President Herbert Hoover signed the Reorganization Act of 1933; the act would allow the President to reorganize the executive branch of the United States government. It wasn't until that summer when the new President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, made use of this power. Deputy Director Horace M. Albright had suggested to President Roosevelt that the historic sites from the American Civil War should be managed by the National Park Service, rather than the War Department.
President Roosevelt issued two Executive orders to make it happen. These two executive orders not only transferred to the National Park Service all the War Department historic sites, but the national monuments managed by the Department of Agriculture and the parks in and around the capital, run by an independent office. In 1951, Conrad Wirth became director of the National Park Service and went to work on bringing park facilities up to the standards that the public expected; the demand for parks after the end of the World War II had left the parks overburdened with demands that could not be met. In 1952, with the support of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, he began Mission 66, a ten-year effort to upgrade and expand park facilities for the 50th anniversary of the Park Service. New parks were added to preserve unique resources and existing park facilities were upgraded and expanded. In 1966, as the Park Service turned 50 years old, emphasis began to turn from just saving great and wonderful scenery and unique natural features to making parks accessible to the public.
Director George Hartzog began the process with the creation of the National Lakeshores and National Recreation Areas. Since its inception in 1916, the National Park Service has managed each of the United States' national parks, which have grown in number over the years to 60. Yellowstone National Park was the first national park in the United States. In 1872, there was no state government to manage it, so the federal government assumed direct control. Yosemite National Park began as a state park. Yosemite was returned to federal ownership. At first, each national park was managed independently, with varying degrees of success. In Yellowstone, the civilian staff was replaced by the U. S. Army in 1886. Due to the irregularities in managing these national treasures, Stephen Mather petitioned the federal government to improve the situation. In response, Secretary of the Interior Franklin K. Lane challenged him to lobby for creating a new agency, the National Park Service, to manage all national parks and some national monuments.
Mather was successful with the ratification of the National Park Service Organic Act in 1916. The agency was given authority over other protected areas, many with varying designations as Congress created them; the National Park System includes. The title or designation of a unit need not include the term park; the System as a whole is considered to be a national treasure of the United States, some of the more famous national parks and monuments are sometimes referred to metaphorically as "crown jewels". The system encompasses 84.4 million acres, of which more than 4.3 million acres remain in private ownership. The largest unit is Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska. At 13,200,000 acres, it is over 16 percent of the entire system; the smallest unit in the system is Thaddeus Kosciuszko National Memorial, Pennsylvania, at 0.02 acre. In addition to administering its units and other properties, the National Park Service provides technical and financial assistance to several "affiliated areas" authorized by Congress.
The largest affiliated area is New Jersey Pinelands National Reserve at 1,164,025 acres. The smallest is Benjamin Franklin National Memorial at less than 0.01 acres. Although all units of the Nat
Carlsbad Caverns National Park
Carlsbad Caverns National Park is an American national park in the Guadalupe Mountains of southeastern New Mexico. The primary attraction of the park is Carlsbad Cavern. Visitors to the cave can hike in on their own via the natural entrance or take an elevator from the visitor center; the park entrance is located on US Highway 62/180 18 miles southwest of Carlsbad, New Mexico. Carlsbad Caverns National Park participates in the Junior Ranger Program; the park has two entries on the National Register of Historic Places: The Caverns Historic District and the Rattlesnake Springs Historic District. Two thirds of the park has been set aside as a wilderness area, helping to ensure no future changes will be made to the habitat. Carlsbad Cavern includes a large limestone chamber, named the Big Room, 4,000 feet long, 625 feet wide, 255 feet high at its highest point; the Big Room is the fifth largest chamber in North America and the twenty-eighth largest in the world. An estimated 250 million years ago, the area surrounding Carlsbad Caverns National Park served as the coastline for an inland sea.
Present in the sea was a plethora of marine life. Unlike modern reef growths, the Permian reef contained bryozoans and other microorganisms. After the Permian Period, most of the water evaporated and the reef was buried by evaporites and other sediments. Tectonic movement occurred during the late Cenozoic. Susceptible to erosion, water sculpted the Guadalupe Mountain region into its present-day state. Carlsbad Caverns National Park is situated in a bed of limestone above groundwater level. During cavern development, it was within the groundwater zone. Deep below the limestones are petroleum reserves. At a time near the end of the Cenozoic, hydrogen sulfide began to seep upwards from the petroleum into the groundwater; the combination of hydrogen sulfide and oxygen from the water formed sulfuric acid: H2S + 2O2 → H2SO4. The sulfuric acid continued upward, aggressively dissolving the limestone deposits to form caverns; the presence of gypsum within the cave is a confirmation of the occurrence of this process, as it is a byproduct of the reaction between sulfuric acid and limestone.
Once the acidic groundwater drained from the caverns, speleothems began to be deposited within the cavern. Erosion above ground created the natural entrance to the Carlsbad Caverns within the last million years. Exposure to the surface has allowed for the influx of air into the cavern. Rainwater and snowmelt percolating downward into the ground pick up carbon dioxide. Growths from the roof downward formed through this process are known as stalactites. Additionally, water on the floor of the caverns can contain carbonic acid and generate mineral deposits by evaporation. Growths from the floor upward through this process are known as stalagmites. Different formations of speleothems include columns, soda straws, draperies and popcorn. Changes in the ambient air temperature and rainfall affect the rate of growth of speleothems, as higher temperatures increase carbon dioxide production rates within the overlying soil; the color of the speleothems is determined by the trace constituents in the minerals of the formation.
In 1898, a teenager named. He named many of the rooms, including the Big Room, New Mexico Room, Kings Palace, Queens Chamber, Papoose Room, Green Lake Room, he named many of the cave's more prominent formations, such as the Totem Pole, Witch's Finger, Giant Dome, Bottomless Pit, Iceberg Rock, Temple of the Sun, Rock of Ages. Max Frisch incorporates the story about White's discovery of the caves in his novel; the town of Carlsbad, which lends its name to the cavern and national park, is in turn named after the Czech town known by the German name Karlsbad and now known by the Czech name Karlovy Vary, both of which mean "Charles' Bath." Until 1932, visitors to the cavern had to walk down a switchback ramp that took them 750 feet below the surface. The walk back up was tiring for some. In 1932 the national park opened up a large visitor center building that contained two elevators that would take visitors in and out of the caverns below; the new center included a cafeteria, waiting room and first aid area.
October 25, 1923 – President Calvin Coolidge signed a proclamation establishing Carlsbad Cave National Monument.... A limestone cavern known as the Carlsbad Cave, of extraordinary proportions and of unusual beauty and variety of natural decoration. April 2, 1924 – President Calvin Coolidge issued an executive order for a possible national park or monument at the site. May 3, 1928 – a supplemental executive order was issued reserving additional land for the possible monument or park. May 14, 1930 – an act of the United States Congress established Carlsbad Caverns National Park to be directed by the Secretary of the Interior and administered by the National Park Service. June 17, 1930 – President Herbert Hoover signed Executive Order 5370 reserving additional land for
Paenibacillus
Paenibacillus is a genus of facultative anaerobic, endospore-forming bacteria included within the genus Bacillus and reclassified as a separate genus in 1993. Bacteria belonging to this genus have been detected in a variety of environments, such as: soil, rhizosphere, vegetable matter and insect larvae, as well as clinical samples; the name reflects: Latin paene means so the paenibacilli are "almost bacilli". The genus includes P. larvae, known to cause American foulbrood in honeybees, the P. polymyxa, capable of fixing nitrogen, so is used in agriculture and horticulture, the Paenibacillus sp. JDR-2, known to be a rich source of chemical agents for biotechnology applications, pattern-forming strains such as P. vortex and P. dendritiformis discovered in the early 90s, which are known to develop complex colonies with intricate architectures as shown in the pictures: Interest in Paenibacillus spp. has been growing since many were shown to be important for agriculture and horticulture and medical applications.
These bacteria produce various extracellular enzymes such as polysaccharide-degrading enzymes and proteases, which can catalyze a wide variety of synthetic reactions in fields ranging from cosmetics to biofuel production. Various Paenibacillus spp. produce antimicrobial substances that affect a wide spectrum of micro-organisms such as fungi, soil bacteria, plant pathogenic bacteria, important anaerobic pathogens such as Clostridium botulinum. More several Paenibacillus species serve as efficient plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria, which competitively colonize plant roots and can act as biofertilizers and as antagonists of recognized root pathogens, such as bacteria and nematodes, they enhance plant growth by several indirect mechanisms. Direct mechanisms include phosphate solubilization, nitrogen fixation, degradation of environmental pollutants, hormone production. Indirect mechanisms include controlling phytopathogens by competing for resources such as iron, amino acids and sugars, as well as by producing antibiotics or lytic enzymes.
Competition for iron serves as a strong selective force determining the microbial population in the rhizosphere. Several studies show that PGPR exert their plant growth-promoting activity by depriving native microflora of iron. Although iron is abundant in nature, the low solubility of Fe3+ at pH 7 means that most organisms face the problem of obtaining enough iron from their environments. To fulfill their requirements for iron, bacteria have developed several strategies, including the reduction of ferric to ferrous ions, the secretion of high-affinity iron-chelating compounds, called siderophores, the uptake of heterologous siderophores. P. vortex's genome, for example, harbors many genes which are employed in these strategies, in particular it has the potential to produce siderophores under iron-limiting conditions. Despite the increasing interest in Paenibacillus spp. genomic information of these bacteria is lacking. More extensive genome sequencing could provide fundamental insights into pathways involved in complex social behavior of bacteria, can discover a source of genes with biotechnological potential.
Candidatus Paenibacillus glabratella causes white nodules and high mortality of Biomphalaria glabrata freshwater snails. This is important because Biomphalaria glabrata is an intermediate host of schistosomiasis. Several Paenibacillus species can form complex patterns on semisolid surfaces. Development of such complex colonies require self-organization and cooperative behavior of individual cells while employing sophisticated chemical communication. Pattern formation and self-organization in microbial systems is an intriguing phenomenon and reflects social behaviors of bacteria that might provide insights into the evolutionary development of the collective action of cells in higher organisms. One of the most fascinating pattern forming Paenibacillus species is P. vortex, self-lubricating, flagella-driven bacteria. P. vortex organizes its colonies by generating modules, each consisting of many bacteria, which are used as building blocks for the colony as a whole. The modules are groups of bacteria.
An additional intriguing pattern forming Paenibacillus species is P. dendritiformis, known to be able to generate two different morphotypes – the branching morphotype and the chiral morphotype, marked by curly branches with well-defined handedness. These two pattern-forming Paenibacillus strains exhibit many distinct physiological and genetic traits, including β-galactosidase-like activity causing colonies to turn blue on X-gal plates and multiple drug resistance. Colonies that are grown on surfaces in Petri dishes exhibit several-fold higher drug resistance in comparison to growth in liquid media; this particular resistance is believed to be due to a surfactant-like liquid front that forms a particular pattern on the Petri plate. Paenibacillus Taxonomy Genome sequence of the pattern forming Paenibacillus vortex bacterium reveals potential for thriving in complex environments - manuscript Prof. Eshel Ben-Jacob home page Specific PCR for Paenibacillus genus based on rpoB gene Use of rpoB gene analysis for identification of nitrogen-fixing Paenibacillus species as an alternative to the 16S rRNA gene Paenibacillus at BacDive - the Bacterial Diversity Metadatabase
