Word: altmans
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Biology students used to be taught that there was a strict division of labor within living cells. The nucleic acids, DNA and RNA, served as repositories of genetic information, and certain proteins, called enzymes, did all the work. But research conducted in the past decade by Sidney Altman of Yale University and Thomas Cech of the University of Colorado at Boulder has forced scientists to alter completely their ideas not only of how cells function but also of how life on earth began. Last week the Nobel Prize for Chemistry went to Altman and Cech, with the citation that "many...
Working with a bacterium and a pond-dwelling protozoan, Altman, 50, and Cech, 41, independently discovered that RNA can act as an enzyme, a molecule that accelerates chemical reactions a millionfold or more and makes it possible for life to exist. Plants, for example, depend on enzymes to convert carbon dioxide in the air to sugar and starch. An enzyme in human saliva helps transform starch into glucose, the body's energy source. Until RNA enzymes were identified, all enzymes were thought to be proteins...
...retailing empire and put the 17-store Bloomingdale's chain up for sale. In August Australian raider George Herscu put his U.S. retailing subsidiary into bankruptcy after becoming overwhelmed by its $1.2 billion takeover debt. Herscu may well have to sell Bonwit Teller (stores: 16) and B. Altman (7), which he acquired...
...Altman and Bonwit Teller are not the sort of stores that stiff their suppliers. But since the spring, several fashion houses have withheld shipments to the swank Manhattan department stores because of late payments. The stores have been caught in the enormous debt problems of their current owner, Australia's Hooker Corp., which is controlled by investor George Herscu. Last week Hooker's U.S. holding company sought protection from its creditors under Chapter 11 bankruptcy...
...into trouble last year. Hooker, Australia's second largest home builder, has been hit by rising interest rates and sagging home sales in Australia, as well as lukewarm retail sales in the U.S. Herscu is now trying to sell off $750 million in assets, from Manhattan to Melbourne. Altman and Bonwit, meanwhile, are hoping to satisfy their creditors in time to sell some fall fashions...