Sentences with phrase «methyl isocyanate»
"Methyl isocyanate" is a chemical compound that is used in various industries to make products like plastics and pesticides. It can be harmful if someone is exposed to it, so it is important to handle it safely. Full definition
More than 40 tons of methyl isocyanate spilled from a Union Carbide - owned pesticide factory in Bhopal, India, in 1984, killing more than 20,000 people in the world's worst chemical disaster.
discovermagazine.com
-- Charlene Colchester, via e-mail Bhopal should have been a wake up call, but it is unclear whether chemical plants around the world are any safer a quarter century after the December 1984 disaster — during which some 40 tons of toxic methyl isocyanate gas leaked from a pesticide plant owned by Union Carbide (now part of Dow Chemical), killing 2,259 people immediately and causing lifelong health problems and premature death for tens of thousands more.
Its plant in Bhopal, India, was making aldicarb when a pesticide called methyl isocyanate leaked, killing several thousand people in 1984.
Recently, two teams of astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter / submillimeter Array (ALMA) have found traces of the organic molecule methyl isocyanate around a multiple star system about 400 light - years from Earth known as IRAS 16293 - 2422.
Ligterink's team combed through data they had collected from IRAS 16293 - 2422 using ALMA in 2014 and 2015 and found 43 clearly identifiable lines from methyl isocyanate.
Using the awesome power of the Atacama Large Millimeter / submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile, an international team of astronomers discovered the presence of methyl isocyanate in the triple star system IRAS 16293 - 2422, located around 400 light - years away in the constellation of Ophiuchus.
On the morning of Dec. 3, 1984, a pesticide plant run by Union Carbide leaked about 40 tons of deadly methyl isocyanate gas into the air in Bhopal, quickly killing about 4,000 people.
More than 3000 people died one winter night in 1984 in the Indian city of Bhopal, poisoned by methyl isocyanate gas belching from an agrochemicals factory owned by US - based Union Carbide.
The only way to obtain accurate figures, it says, is to find markers that link conditions to methyl isocyanate exposure.
When Union Carbide's pesticides plant sprang a leak and spewed a toxic cloud of methyl isocyanate over Bhopal, some 2500 people died and hundreds of thousands were injured.
We don't know if methyl isocyanate is crucial and we don't know how peptides form,» she says.
So a molecule such as methyl isocyanate will emit a characteristic fingerprint of photons that will appear as spikes or lines in the spectrum detected from the gas cloud.
«We thought, «Why not look [for methyl isocyanate] in our source?»»
Oberg says that although methyl isocyanate is not the most complex organic molecule that's been detected in star - forming clouds, it's interesting because it is so similar to a key part of proteins.
Comets are thought to have survived unchanged since the early days of the solar system, so the discovery of methyl isocyanate suggested it had been present on the comet since then and didn't form on a planet.
Both teams then tried to figure out how methyl isocyanate might have formed in such a very cold and inhospitable environment.
This image shows the spectacular region of star formation where methyl isocyanate was found.
Composed of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen atoms (forming the CH3NCO molecule) a tragic methyl isocyanate gas leak caused thousands of deaths and injuries during what is considered to be the deadliest industrial accident in history — the Indian 1984 Bhopal disaster.
In space, however, when methyl isocyanate pops up in a star - forming region, the organic compound's life - giving potential becomes very interesting.
The prebiotic molecule methyl isocyanate (inset) and the planet - forming cloud where it has been found.
On the evening of December 2, 1984, methyl isocyanate gas escaped from the former Union Carbide pesticide factory in Bhopal, killing at least 3,000 people immediately.
This research was presented in two papers: «First Detection of Methyl Isocyanate (CH3NCO) in a solar - type Protostar» by R. Martín - Doménech et al. and «The ALMA - PILS survey: Detection of CH3NCO toward the low - mass protostar IRAS 16293 - 2422 and laboratory constraints on its formation», by N. F. W. Ligterink et al..
He says problems such as memory loss and confusion are directly related to methyl isocyanate.
The molecule, methyl isocyanate, has a structure that is chemically similar to a peptide bond, which is what holds amino acids together in proteins.
Methyl isocyanate has become a target for astrochemists ever since the European Space Agency's Rosetta mission detected the molecule on the comet 67P / Churyumov - Gerasimenko 2 years ago.
The infrared spectrum of the resulting gas, as well as mass spectrometry, showed clear signs of methyl isocyanate.
Although the detection on 67P / Churyumov - Gerasimenko is now questioned by some, methyl isocyanate was also detected in two star - forming clouds, Orion KL and Sagittarius B2 (N), in 2015 and 2016, but these are hot environments full of very massive stars, very unlike the situation of the early sun.
Amino acids, the building blocks of proteins, are more complex than the likes of methyl isocyanate and likely to exist in smaller quantities that would be harder to detect.
Our laboratory experiments show that methyl isocyanate can indeed be produced on icy particles under very cold conditions that are similar to those in interstellar space This implies that this molecule — and thus the basis for peptide bonds — is indeed likely to be present near most new young solar - type stars,» said Niels Ligterink at the Leiden Observatory in the Netherlands.
Previously, methyl isocyanate has been found in comets in our own solar system, which means that it was around when Earth and the other planets coalesced out of a massive cloud of dust and gas some 4.6 billion years ago.
To life on Earth, methyl isocyanate is highly toxic.
Here on Earth, methyl isocyanate is known as a very toxic compound and is used in a range of industrial processes.
Astronomers figured out that methyl isocyanate was present by analyzing the light that the protostar emitted.
この観測成果は 、 Martín - Doménech et al. «First Detection of Methyl Isocyanate (CH3NCO) in a solar - type Protostar» と 、 Ligterink et al. «The ALMA - PILS survey: Detection of CH3NCO toward the low - mass protostar IRAS 16293 - 2422 and laboratory constraints on its formation» として 、 イギリスの 「 英国王立天文学会誌 」 に掲載されます 。
On the morning of December 3, 1984 a holding tank of stored MIC (methyl isocyanate) at the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, overheated and released over 40 tonnes of the noxious gas.
Studies have suggested serious insufficiencies in the safety measures at the installation, including lack of safety valves to prevent the mixing of water into the Methyl isocyanate tanks which started the evolution of the toxic gas, and the failure of scrubbers to treat the gas leak — apparently they were out of service for repair.