Leaf and fruit necroses associated with vanadium-rich ash emitted from a power plant burning fossil fuel

Necrotic brown lesions developing on leaves and fruits of lemon, and other plants, near fossil-fuel-burning power plants emitting vanadium-rich ash, were reproduced experimentally by inoculating leaves with this type of ash, which is strongly acidic. Comparable lesions were formed when drops of vanadium oxide, dissolved in NaOH, were put on leaves and fruits. Neutralizing, or adding excess H₂SO₄ (to pH 3), did not alter lesion formation. The histology of these lesions was similar to that of lesions attributed to vanadium-rich ash.     

Evolution and longevity-assurance processes

The role of the development of information fidelity systems in evolution is explored, with evidence that the loss in the ability to maintain the integrity of homeostasis in organisms over time, aging, is correlated with the loss in the ability to maintain integrity at the molecular biological level. Evolutionary-comparative analysis places an upper limit on the number of these systems important to the evolution of longevity in the primates, and suggests the importance of insuring the stability of information bearing macromolecules in evolution and the role of modulators of damage to these moieties in the expression of the senescent state