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The National Association of Pharmacy Regulatory Authorities (NAPRA) Model Standards for non-hazardous sterile preparations and the model standards for pharmacy compounding of hazardous sterile preparations, calls for partially used single dose vials to be used or discarded within six hours of first access. This may lead to significant wastage, particularly with less utilized and expensive medications like oncology treatments. If demonstrated that sterility of these partially used vials can be maintained through a compounding procedure, there may be an opportunity to consider their re-uses. The primary objective is to determine the ability of a compounding procedure, including a closed system transfer device (CSTD), to maintain sterility for partially used vials at two compounding centres at Trillium Health Partners. A secondary objective was to evaluate a novel method for verifying sterility. A CSTD was incorporated into the standard compounding methods at two hazardous compounding centres. Using growth media to detect any bacterial or fungal contamination that might have occurred during compounding, storage, and repeated access, the vials were tested in various growth conditions. There was no growth noted in all compounded samples. The CSTD, when used in our environment with certified personnel, maintained sterility for 14 days, even with repeated access. This study demonstrates that under our local compounding procedure using CSTD we were able to maintain vial sterility when stored under typical conditions and accessed several times for up to 14 days. This method may be considered to assess a facility’s local compounding procedures and provide valuable information regarding storage and utilization of partial vials, which may result in reduced waste and cost avoidance for the health care system.

Results from particle-size distribution analyses of the lunar regolith (less than 1 mm) as sampled by Apollos 11, 12, 14, 15 and 16 have been tested to see if they conform to Rosin's law, which has been found to describe crushed products of many kinds and sizes. In all the lunar examples the law appears to be followed closely. It is concluded that the lunar regolith is probably the result of crushing forces, most likely impacts on the lunar surface.

Measurements performed by a thermoluminescence sensitivity technique of the degree of metamorphism experienced by unequilibrated ordinary chondrites are reported. Samples of type 3 chondrites were ground and heated to 500 C to remove their natural thermoluminescence, then irradiated with either 50 krad from a Co-60 gamma ray source or 25 krad from a Sr-90 beta source. The resulting thermoluminescence measured as a function of temperature is found to differ as much among some type 3 chondrites as between type 3 and other types, leading to the proposal of scheme for subdividing type 3 ordinary chondrites based on their thermoluminescence sensitivity.

THE thermoluminescence (TL) properties of meteorites1–4 may be applicable to the determination of exposure age, terrestrial age, thermal gradients, radiation history and preatmospheric shape. In an attempt to apply TL to the determination of terrestrial age we have discovered that meteorites can be divided into two groups, the existence of which is relevant to several of the applications.

IT is more than a century since oriented fabrics were first noted in chondrites (see ref. 1), but since then little work has been done on the topic2,3, the most extensive being that by Dodd4. He found that most of his H- and L-group chondrites possessed foliation, together with lineation in the most strongly foliated specimens. The preferential orientation of elongated olivine phenocrysts in porphyritic chondrules has also been observed5.

IN recent correspondence on ball lightning, Altschuler, House and Hildner1 suggested a nuclear source for the necessary energy. Hill and Sowby2 drew attention to the associated dose rate of several hundred rad s−1 and suggested that the thermoluminescent properties of appropriate masonry in the vicinity of a ball lightning strike should be examined. If a ball lasts for 1 to 10 s (refs. 3 and 4) it is evident that, on this hypothesis, doses of the order of 100 to 1,000 rad will have been received by nearby objects.

WE have been studying the fusion crust of the Barwell meteorite (an olivine-hypersthene chondrite1) in order to quantify the way meteorites behave in the atmosphere. We have found that systematic differences occur in the temperature gradients associated with specimens derived from various faces of the original stone. We have also determined the corresponding ablation rates (which seem to be the first to be reported for any stony meteorite), the mass loss and the effective heating time for this meteorite.

BORON is remarkable in that its compounds are common and inexpensive although the element occurs quite low on the cosmic abundance scale, alongside lithium and beryllium. The cosmic scarcity of these three light elements is related to the ease with which their nuclei are disintegrated during nucleogenesis, whereas the terrestrial familiarity of borates can be traced to the mobility of boric acid in water, steam and “volcanic emanations”.

TRANSIENT lunar phenomena (TLPs) are evanescent localized glows and obscurations on the Moon; Aristarchus, Alphonsus and Schroeter's Valley are well known areas of activity1. The emitted light is usually described as reddish or pinkish, sometimes with a “sparkling” or “flowing” appearance2,3. The coloration may extend for a distance of 10 miles or more on the lunar surface, with brighter spots 2–3 miles across, and is commonly associated with veiling of the surface features. The average duration of an event is some twenty minutes, but it may persist intermittently for a few hours. No permanent alteration has been detected at the site of any TLP. These phenomena are regarded as distinct from the possible low-level general luminescence most easily detected during total lunar eclipse1.

A REMARKABLE characteristic of those samples of the martian soil which have so far been analysed is the absence of carbonaceous matter down to the parts per billion (109) level1. As well as a lack of endogenous organic material there is no sign of the component expected from infalling carbonaceous meteorites. The inorganic particles constituting the fine martian soil seem to be extremely ‘clean’—far cleaner than terrestrial desert or Antarctic analogues. I suggest here that glow discharges generated by friction within dust clouds might explain this apparent absence of carbonaceous matter. In addition glow discharges might account for some reactions noted in the Viking biological experiments.

CARBONATITES are igneous rocks1 but the exact nature of carbonatite magma has not been established. Silicate magmas, both extrusive and intrusive, are molten and normally carry a low-pressure gas phase. Carbonatite magmas appear also to be molten when extrusive2 but there is evidence, in the form of brecciation and fenitization, that a gaseous phase plays a dominant role in carbonatite intrusions (see also ref. 3). We now report that a fluid medium capable of transporting carbonatitic material can exist, not as a molten liquid but as a gaseous and mobile supercritical fluid from which carbonatites can crystallize directly. Such a system is a strong contrast with the usual notion of an igneous magma.