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. 2020 Aug 11:2020:2175296.
doi: 10.1155/2020/2175296. eCollection 2020.

Possible Mechanisms of Relations between the Thermal Neutrons Field and Biosphere

Anton V Syroeshkin  1 , Irina V Tarabrina  1 , Mariya A Morozova  1 , Alla V Marukhlenko  1 , Igor A Zlatskiy  1   2 , Mariya P Makarova  1
Affiliations

Possible Mechanisms of Relations between the Thermal Neutrons Field and Biosphere

Anton V Syroeshkin et al. ScientificWorldJournal. .

Abstract

This paper proposes some results concerning the interaction of living matter of different organization levels (prokaryotes and eukaryotes) with the flux of thermal neutrons. The phenomenon of the virtual neutron trap was tested during the passage of thermalized neutrons from the Pu-Be couple through a flat layer of E. coli suspension. We have studied the metabolic characteristics of A. salina cysts before and after artificial neutron flux exposure. It has been demonstrated that the concentrations of some metals in samples of alive and dead cysts irradiated with an artificial flow of thermal neutrons are not equal. The content of Mn in alive A. salina samples has increased more than ten-fold after their interaction with neutron flux, while the amount of As decreased by a factor of two after exposure. Levels of other elements (Al, Cr, Ni, Cu, Cd, and Pb) did not show any significant difference. Trace element composition of cysts was assessed using the method of atomic absorption spectroscopy with electrothermal atomization and the Zeeman background correction.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Scheme of the installation for the study of the neutron flux impact on the cell culture.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The kinetics of the formation of a virtual neutron trap when a suspension of E. coli is introduced into the neutron flux (the moment of introduction is indicated by the arrow). The concentration of cells in the suspension was 109 cm−3. Neutron flux was measured using two 3He counters installed on the path of the channeled thermalized neutron flux before (counter down) and after (counter up) falcons with the suspension along the normal to the flux. (DNP) = 1 mM.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Changes in the elemental profile of A. salina cysts with neutron irradiation and thermal death (1—test of living cysts; 2—test of living cysts, which were exposed with neutrons for an hour; 3—test of dead cysts). The content of elements in the test of dead cysts is averaged for unirradiated and irradiated samples. All data on the content of elements have the dimension of μg element per g of cyst mass; the error bars represent the standard deviation of measurements for 15 runs in 3 parallel experiments (n = 45).
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