Before it was discovered, Dmitri Mendeleev predicted this element would have properties similar to manganese and thus gave it the provisional name “eka-manganese.” For 10 points each:
[10h] Name this first synthetic element, created in 1937 by Carlo Perrier and Emilio Segrè. This element’s “99m” isotope was discovered after bombarding molybdenum in a cyclotron.
ANSWER: technetium [or Tc; accept technetium-99m or 99mTc]
[10m] Name this most abundant enzyme on Earth. This enzyme fixes carbon dioxide to a ribulose derivative during the Calvin cycle.
ANSWER: RuBisCO (“roo-BISS-ko”) [or ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase-oxygenase or RuBPCase or RuBPco]
[10e] Technetium’s “99m” isotope is used as a tracer in medical imaging because it has this property, allowing it to emit detectable gamma rays. Isotopes with this property are unstable and decay with a defined half-life.
ANSWER: radioactive [accept word forms like radioactivity; accept radioactive decay; accept radioactive isotopes or radioisotopes or radioactive nuclides or radionuclides; accept radioactive tracers]
[10h] To mitigate oxygen inhibition, some plants use this pathway in which the Calvin cycle is sequestered in bundle-sheath cells. In this pathway, carbon dioxide is fixed to produce malate or aspartate in mesophyll cells.
ANSWER: C4 photosynthesis [or C4 carbon fixation or Hatch-Slack pathway; reject “C3 photosynthesis”]
[10m] Technetium dissolves in this fuming mixture of nitric acid and hydrochloric acid, whose Latin name was derived from its ability to dissolve noble metals like gold and platinum.
ANSWER: aqua regia (Aqua regia is Latin for “royal water.”)
[10e] RuBisCO is tethered by carboxysomes in photosynthetic organisms from this taxonomical domain that may have caused the Great Oxygenation Event. The three-domain system includes Archaea, Eukarya, and this domain.
ANSWER: Bacteria [accept cyanobacteria; reject “algae”]
<Edinburgh B, Chemistry>