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Subject:
From:
Robt Mann <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Fri, 22 Mar 2002 08:51:23 +1300
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>>         BTW the thymol molecule has 14 not 140 hydrogen atoms.

to which Murray rightly commented
>??????
>
>Not being a chemist at all I cannot dispute these formulae, however, I read
>the disputed formula as having 14 hydrogen.  Not 140.  The last digit is
>actually an O for Oxygen.

        I apologise for being on that occasion somewhat indirect & ironic
rather than straightforward.
Murray is of course correct.  I should have added what he now says.
        Thymol is in the class   phenols   i.e. the quintessential aromatic
molecule benzene (6 carbons in a regular hexagon) with an -OH group (an
oxygen atom and a hydrogen) at one position.  The further substitutions on
that benzene ring in thymol are a one-C and a 3-C hydrocarbon group; and in
a particular geometry in common with many other natural molecules, ancient
in evolution and widely metabolisable.  We therefore don't expect such
molecules to bioaccumulate as do exotic polychlorinated or polyfluorinated
molecules such as DDT & its derivatives which enzymes can metabolise little
if at all.


Murray further feels:
>Robt. Mann, who has in the past called himself a 'neutral ecologist' has
>firmly nailed his colours to the mast by declaring as he did in his last post.

        This term 'neutral ecologist' is news to me; I've not heard of it,
let alone used it of myself.  My attitudes in applied ecology have been   -
I had thought  -  quite clear previously.  They are v similar to those of
Paul & Ann Ehrlich and other activist ecologists.  For details, see their
textbook (with John Holdren) 'Ecoscience' (Freeman).  The briefest summary
might be: scientific ecology applied to conservation politics.  That has
been my stance for 3 decades; I'm disappointed if it was ever unclear to
anyone.  The main difference is that I, unlike the Ehrlichs, embrace as a
maxim within scientific ethics the last verse of Mrs C F Alexander's
magnificent hymn 'All Things Bright & Beautiful':

        He gave us eyes to see them
        And lips that we might tell
        How great is God Almighty
        Who hath made all things well.

R

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