Author: Kyle

Vanilla orchids are a genus of over 100 species within the orchid family.  The flat-leaved vanilla, Vanilla planifolia, is the source of natural vanilla flavoring, the key constituent of which is vanillin.

Vanillin (C₈H₈O₃) is a phenolic aldehyde, derivative of the aromatic organic compound phenol. It was first noticed from cultivation of Vanilla plants in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, and first isolated as a pure substance in 1858. The chemical structure of vanillin was identified in 1874 by German scientists, and was first synthesized from compounds typically found in wood. In the 1980s 60% of the world’s synthetic vanillin, derived from lignin wastes, was the result of a single paper mill. Today, most synthetic vanilla is synthesized from guaiacol and glyoxylic acid.

Vanilla extract in its natural form not only contains vanillin but also include several hundered other compounds that contribute to its aroma and flavor. Cured vanilla seed pods, which can only result from either natural or manually pollinating each orchid flower, are about 2% vanillin by dry weight, and can be visible on the surface of pods as a white crystalline dust on the exterior.  To cure the seed pods they are first blanched in hot water, then over the course of two weeks they are laid out in the sun during the day and then wrapped in cloth and stored in airtight boxes to sweat at night. This process leads to the pods becoming dark brown, and the enzymes in the pod breaking down non-aromatic β-D-glucoside of vanillin into free molecules of vanillin. The pods are then allowed to dry and age for several months to further develop the flavors. Natural vanilla extract is created by macerating and percolating vanilla pods with a solution of ethanol and water, and can only be called pure by FDA standards if the solution contains a minimum of 35% alcohol and 100 grams of vanilla beans per liter. Natural vanilla flavoring is also derived from vanilla beans, while containing <2-3% alcohol.

The labor intensive methods required to produce natural vanilla flavoring combined with the high demand for vanilla flavoring drives the synthesis of artificial vanilla, but other than the difference in source of raw materials, the natural vs. industrial chemical process, and the lack of complexity that the numerous other compounds in vanilla beans would normally impart, both are chemically identical.

References:

Wikipedia: Vanilla (genus)

Wikipedia: Vanillin

As part of the investigation into the biological effects of space travel on humans in the early to mid 20th century, primates such as monkeys and apes were launched into space due in part to their similarities with human anatomy.  The bulk of the U.S. spaceflights with primates took place from 1948 to 1961, with two other flights occurring in 1969 and 1985, using rhesus monkeys, cynomolgus monkeys (crab-eating macaque), squirrel monkeys, a pig-tailed macaque, and several chimpanzees.

The first group of these flights in 1948 and 1949 carried individual rhesus and cynomolgus monkeys named Albert I, II, II and IV on V-2 rockets. Each of these Alberts died, the first of suffocation, the second and fourth (both of which reached space) on impact after parachute failure, and the third from an explosion at 35,000 feet.

The first monkey to survive the landing was Albert VI in 1951, which flew in an Aerobee rocket, though it unfortunately died on the ground from overheating and stress while waiting two hours for recovery in New Mexico. The first to survive spaceflight and any followup procedures was Miss Baker, a squirrel monkey,  in 1959.  Miss Baker flew on the JUPITER AM-18 with Able, a rhesus monkey, and withstood 38 g. Able survived the landing but not the surgery to remove an infected electrode.

As part of the Mercury program, several test flights took place in 1959 and 1960 on “boilerplate” test rockets from Wallops Flight Facility on Virginia’s Eastern Shore. One carried the rhesus monkey Sam, who reached an altitude of 55 miles and was recovered intact from the Atlantic ocean. Another carried Miss Sam, a female rhesus monkey, up to 9 miles and 12 miles out to sea during a test of the launch escape system. Miss Sam survived and her capsule was recovered and returned to Wallops Island within 45 minutes by a Marine helicopter.

Probably the most famous primates launched into space were Ham and Enos, chimpanzees that were part of Project Mercury missions in 1961. Ham was launched aboard a Mercury Redstone rocket into suborbital spaceflight for 16 minutes and 39 seconds, trained to perform lever pushing exercises to demonstrate the ability to perform tasks in space. He survived his flight and was recovered from the Atlantic Ocean with only a bruised nose. The success of this mission directly led to the first U.S. manned spaceflight by Alan Shepard.  Enos was the first chimpanzee, and the third hominid after two cosmonauts, to achieve Earth orbit, launching on a Mercury Atlas rocket. This flight followed an unmanned “crewman simulator” mission and preceded John Glenn’s mission to become the first American to orbit the Earth.

The last primate flights took place in 1969 and 1985. The Biosatellite 3 mission in 1969 was the first multi-day flight by a monkey (a pig-tailed macaque), though at a time when humans had already flown longer missions. The last occurred on Space Shuttle flight STS-51-B in 1985, with two squirrel monkeys (and 24 rats) included as part of Spacelab 3 experiments.

References:

Wikipedia: Monkeys and apes in space

Mint, collectively the genus of plants belonging to the Mentha genus, has around 13-18 distinct species in addition to a number of hybrids of cultivars. The leaves of this herb are harvested for use in food and drinks to add an aromatic and sweet flavor with a cool aftertaste, and can also be used as a natural medicine for easing digestive irritation and nausea.

Two of the most common and popular mints are peppermint and spearmint, both of which have a somewhat similar aroma and taste but are distinct enough that you probably wouldn’t want to substitute one for the other.  So how are they different?

Spearmint, Mentha spicata, contains an abundance of L-carvone, one of the enantiomers of the carvone molecule, that lends a sweet and minty smell. The essential oil of spearmint is composed of 50-80% L-carvone and also contains limonene (found in citrus peels), dihydrocarvone, and 1,8-cineol (eucalyptol), but minimal amounts (<1%) of menthol and menthone.

Peppermint, Mentha x piperita, is a hybrid between spearmint and watermint. Peppermint oil is noted for its high menthol content, as well as menthone and menthyl acetate, contributing to the aroma and cooling sensation. Menthol causes this cooling sensation by chemically triggering the cold-sensitive receptors in the skin known as TRPM8 (transient receptor potential cation channel subfamily M member 8). The breakdown of peppermint oil is approximately 7-48% menthol, 20-46% menthone, 3-10%, menthyl acetate, 1-17% menthofuran, and 3-6% eucalyptol, with small amounts of limonene, pulegone, caryophyllene, and pinene.

References:

Wikipedia: Mentha

Yellow fever is a virus found in tropical and subtropical regions of South America and Africa that is transmitted by the bite of an infected mosquito.  The majority of people who become infected present little to no symptoms of illness. In those that do develop symptoms, which typically occurs 3 to 6 days after infection, initial symptoms can include fever, chills, severe headache, back pain, body aches, nausea, vomiting, fatigue, and weakness. Of these, 15% of the cases may develop into a more severe form with high fever, jaundice, bleeding, shock, and organ failure, with some cases being fatal.

If traveling to a country where yellow fever is endemic, it is recommended that you receive the yellow fever vaccine, in fact some countries may not allow you to enter without proof of inoculation – usually recorded in a yellow World Health Organization International Certificate of Vaccination travel card.

In the U.S. it normally would not be an issue to find a doctor or local pharmacy that carried the FDA approved YF-VAX yellow fever vaccine. However Sanofi Pasteur, the manufacturer of the vaccine, had “manufacturing complications resulting in the loss of a large number of doses” in the fall of 2016, and this paired with the halt in production in the U.S. to transition to a new facility in mid-2018 resulted in a total depletion of YF-VAX in mid-2017.

The remedy for this was that Sanofi Pasteur received approval from the FDA to make Stamaril, a comparable vaccine in terms of safety and efficacy to YF-VAX manufactured by Sanofi Pasteur in France, available under an investigational new drug (IND) program. As stated by the CDC, the IND program only had to be used as the mechanism of the FDA to approve the import of Stamaril, and that it is not actually investigational or experimental as it has been used in European and other countries for decades, just not licensed in the United States.

A stipulation of the IND program is that Stamaril can only be provided to a limited number of clinics, identified in the link below.  Although not as numerous as typical YF-VAX providers, they are fairly spread out across the nation. My county’s public health services clinic had Stamaril available, and I received my vaccine two days after setting my appointment.  Of note, I had to meet several requirements to receive the vaccine beyond just being in the appropriate age range and being in good health, I also had to identify my need for the vaccine (as in visiting an endemic country, and requiring the vaccination for entry into several countries) as well as having this travel occur no longer than 30 days from the time of the appointment.  It’s also worth noting that it takes about 10 days for the vaccine to be effective, so there is a limited window for receiving the vaccine before travel.

References:

CDC: Yellow Fever

CDC: Yellow Fever Vaccine

CDC: Stamaril yellow fever vaccination clinics

CDC: Temporary Total Depletion of U.S. licensed Yellow Fever Vaccine Addressed by Availability of Stamaril Vaccine at Selected Clinics

Sanofi Pasteur: Yellow Fever Vaccine Access

A unique set of wild Citrus species native to Australia and Papua New Guinea that are commonly known as Australian limes were, up until fairly recently, considered distinct enough to be part of the separate Microcitrus and Eremocitrus genera.  The various Australian lime species are noted for their small lime-like fruits with a wide variety of colors and shapes, and have only recently been cultivated.

Before European settlers arrived, the Australian lime was used as bushfood, a food source by Aboriginal Australians. Certain species and hybrids like the Australian finger lime (Citrus australasica) have juice vesicles, the flesh of the citrus fruit, that are spherical and loosely connected and lends a caviar-like appearance that can be used as a unique and colorful garnish that will release a burst of lime flavored juice when chewed.  Other food uses include the making of marmalade, pickles, as well as flavoring spice from the peels.

Various cultivars and hybrids, with other citrus species, have been developed and selected that have colors that range from light pink, blood red, lime green, and deep green or blue.  The variety of species and their wide genetic diversity has brought a lot of interest in discovering new selections from wild stock for eventual development for commercial growing, due to its high demand.

References:

Wikipedia: Australian lime

The first and second countries that I’ll be visiting during my upcoming trip to Africa will be Kenya and Tanzania where as a U.S. citizen, not only will I need a passport that will be valid for 6 months with blank pages, as well as a yellow fever vaccine, I will also need tourist visas in order to enter both.

Kenyan Immigration has a strict visa policy, and encourages visitors to use their online system to obtain one (though at this exact time all Kenya government websites are down). Only for a short while longer will single-entry visas be available upon arrival at Kenya’s ports of entry such as the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi. It is important that your passport is valid for at least six months from the end of the trip, as some airlines may not even let you board as in the linked Reddit post, and has two blank pages. You will also need proof of Yellow Fever immunization, typically in the form of an international certificate filled out when you get the vaccination, with the immunization being good for 10 years.

Tanzania also requires visas for U.S. citizens, which can be obtained before travel, but are also available at ports of entry upon arrival. As with Kenya, and most other countries really, Tanzania requires a passport that is valid for a minimum of six months and one blank page. You will also need to present a round-trip ticket and demonstrate that you have sufficient funds for your stay. Proof of yellow fever immunization is also required if arriving from or transiting through yellow fever endemic countries, with Kenya as one example. The Embassy of Tanzania for the U.S. has an information page on obtaining a visa, and is linked below. Signing up for a visa requires providing your actual passport, two recent passport size photos, your flight itinerary, a completed application form, a return envelope, and a fee of $100 for U.S. citizens. Regular processing takes five business days, and can be expedited to 3 days or 1 day by paying additional fees. This process can ultimately take about one to two weeks plus mailing time.

References:

Department of State, Travel: Kenya

Kenya eVisa (presently down)

Reddit: TIFU by not properly checking the passport rules of travelling to Kenya, throwing $30,000 dollars down the drain.

Department of State, Travel: Tanzania

How to Apply for your Tanzanian (Business) Visa (pdf)

The trifoliate orange, Citrus trifoliata or Poncirus trifoliata, is a member of the Rutaceae family and described as a distant relative of the other well known Citrus species. Believed to be native to central or northern China, this plant has a rough passing resemblance to other Citrus but plays an important role in cultivation as a rootstock.

The trifoliate orange tends to grow into a large shrub or small tree, with large 1-2 inch thorns. It has deciduous leaves with typically three leaflets as its name implies, and this can be contrasted with the largely unifoliate leaves of cultivated Citrus. Like true citrus the leaves give off a distinctive, almost spicy or zesty scent when crushed. The flowers roughly resemble citrus blooms, being white, slightly larger, and with a less pronounced scent. The round fruits tend to reach about 1.5 inches in diameter, ripen to a dull lemon yellow, have a soft downy surface, and tends to be filled with large amounts of seeds and a slimy pulp with an unpleasant bitter flavor that is nearly inedible. However with a bit of processing the fruits can be made into marmalade, the juice into flavoring syrup, the peel candied, used as a source of pectin, or used medicinally in China.

What makes the trifoliate orange especially important is its cold hardiness and tolerance to frost and snow, unlike many cultivated Citrus it can survive winter temperatures well below freezing to −22 °F (−30 °C). This, combined with its resistance to many Citrus diseases, and tolerance to waterlogged soil, exemplifies its value as a rootstock.

By grafting budwood of a desired Citrus fruit variety to the roots of trifoliate orange, the resulting tree can benefit from these resistances and can likely lead to healthier trees and better fruit yields than if it were grown on its own roots. Certain varieties of the trifoliate orange can impart a different habit to the plant, such as “Flying Dragon” which can be used to maintain the plant in a smaller “dwarf” state for container growing at home.

Given its relation to true Citrus, the trifoliate orange has been hybridized with other species, in particular by the citrus breeding program of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. These hybrids, known by their portmanteaus (e.g. citranges, citrumelos) were hoped to gain frost tolerance while still producing edible and commercially viable fruit. That could not be achieved, with the fruits still possessing an unpleasant flavor. Some of these hybrids still had some potential use as important rootstocks and decorative plants kept as interesting specimens.

References:

Wikipedia: Trifoliate orange

Citrus ID Morphology, Leaves

Trifoliate orange and rootstock

Dwarfing and Freeze Hardiness Potential of Trifoliate Orange Rootstocks

Use of Flying Dragon Trifoliate Orange As Dwarfing Rootstock for Citrus Under Tropical Climatic Conditions

In order to use a model file for 3D printing, steps need to be taken to correct for errors, the file needs to be processed by a slicer, produce G-code, which in turn can be used to command the 3D printer. Ultimaker Cura is one such application, and is recommended for use with the Monoprice Maker Select Plus. It’s free, open source and available under the LGPLv3 license, and version 3.1 was release December 5, 2017.

Cura needs to start with an existing 3D model in STL, 3MF, or OBJ format. Modeling software will be needed to otherwise create a new or modified model. After importing the 3D model, Cura will provide a preview of the print and allow for changes in scale and other adjustments when preparing for slicing into layers in preparation for printing.

An installer can be downloaded from the Ultimaker website, with Cura supporting Windows, Mac, and Ubuntu operating systems. When opening the application for the first time it will ask for the model of 3D printer. For the Maker Select Plus the option “i3/Plus” is recommended in the manual, but not present in the available options in Cura. I’ll have to check to see if anything else was included in the box, but for now an acceptable approach seems to be to select “Prusa i3” and afterwards go into the printer machine settings to adjust the volume to 200mm (width) x 200 mm (depth) x 180 mm (height).

Once I have my printer setup, I’ll be ready to start making some test prints with sample models.

References:

Ultimaker Cura

Best settings for Cura?

Whisky or whiskey is taken from the anglicization of the Gaelic word for water, uisce or uisge. This word became applied to distilled spirits as it was known is Latin as aqua vitae, literally water of life.

Now on the spelling difference, there doesn’t seem to be too much behind it beyond a regional preference, and that it also tended to correlate with origins and local styles of spirits. The spelling of whiskey is most common in the United States and Ireland, with the spelling whisky used for spirits produced in the rest of the world. Certain whiskeys common to America tend to use this style, such as bourbon whiskey, while Scotch and Japanese whiskys use the other spelling.

References:

Whisky

With the influx of different mail-in genetic tests for ancestry and health information, I thought it would be helpful to provide a brief overview of the most prevalent, autosomal DNA testing. The human genome is made up of 23 pairs of chromosomes (22 pairs of autosomes and one pair of sex chromosomes) and the DNA located in mitochondria. Testing of autosomal DNA (atDNA) specifically looks at those 22 pairs.

Basically all of the commercial offerings will take either a saliva sample or cheek swab. The most common options at around the $100 price point, give or take, conduct single-nucleodite polymorphism (SNP) genotyping with a DNA microarray or chip. Unlike more expensive and detailed whole genome sequencing, SNP genotyping only looks at a relatively small fraction of the genome (about 0.02%) but will look at the genetic code of most interest. For certain health and trait tests, this can include testing certain genes known to correlated with medical conditions, for those that affect hair color, or the ability to detect a soapy taste in cilantro. Other variations in portions of the genome can be used for admixture analysis and discovering genetic relatives.

Some examples of the available direct-to-consumer offerings include 23andMe, AncestryDNA, FamilyTreeDNA, MyHeritage, Living DNA, and Geno 2.0 Next Generation. Of these, only 23andMe provides some health information, while all of them provide some level of ancestral breakdown and relative matching.  It is also worth noting that some of the sites allow for raw data downloads that in turn can be processed on another site for a transfer fee less than the cost of a new test.

References:

ISOGG: Autosomal DNA

What’s New in Autosomal DNA Transfers