Word: molecular
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...this disease, common among African peoples (and their U.S. descendants), was inherited in some fashion, but that was all they knew. Pauling showed that the abnormal, short-lived, sickle-shaped red blood cells, characteristic of the disease, contained Hemoglobin S, a hitherto unknown form of hemoglobin that differs in molecular structure from the normal Hemoglobin A. More important, Pauling & Co. showed that a defective gene determined the production of this type of hemoglobin. If both parents had the defective gene, even without the overt disease, the chances that their offspring would have full-fledged anemia were (by Mendelian...
Pauling's argument: molecular disease arises when defective genes cause the body to manufacture abnormal molecules. Up to i% of the 2,000,000 mental defectives in the U.S. suffer from phenylketo-nuria-a mental disease accompanied by the body's failure to oxidize an amino acid, phenylalanine, to tyrosine. Probable cause of the failure is a defective enzyme. The Pauling project: to find out the connection between the molecular and men tal defects, and also whether the other 99% or more of mental defectives owe their handicap to a similar molecular abnormality caused by a combination...
Nevertheless, the companies that have delved most deeply into fundamentals have in most cases come up with the richest booty. Du Pont's nylon came from basic research into molecular structures started in 1927 by Du Pont's late famed Scientist Wallace Carothers. When Dr. Carothers found a way to simulate the long-chain molecules found in natural silk, Du Pont applied his findings to the development of nylon, which reached mass production in 1939, after five years and $27 million for applied research. European scientists were quick to capitalize on Carothers' findings, developed other synthetic fibers...
ACTH, expensively extracted from the pituitary glands of cattle, also helps many a disease, such as arthritis, but the magic compound, unfortunately, is anything but simple. It is a polypeptide, a large molecule (molecular weight 4,500) made up of many amino-acid units arranged in a long chain. Chemists have puzzled over its structure for years, but have learned only bits and scraps about it. Polypeptides (related to proteins) are baffling things to deal with...
Last week the University of California announced that a team led by China-born Dr. C. H. Li has determined the complete molecular structure of ACTH. It turns out to be a straight chain of 39 amino acids arranged in a definite order. After satisfying themselves about the position of each link in the chain, Dr. Li and his teammates broke the chain in two, separating 28 of the links from the remaining eleven. The larger section proved to have all the desirable biological effects of the whole natural molecule. Better still, it lacks certain bad side effects...