Sandwalk: Monday's Molecule #161

Monday, March 12, 2012

Monday's Molecule #161

Some species make this molecule for a very special reason. Identify the molecule using the common name and the IUPAC name. You must also say why it's important for some species.

Post your answer in the comments. I'll hold off releasing any comments for 24 hours. The first one with the correct answer wins. I will only post correct answers to avoid embarrassment. The winner will be treated to a free lunch with a famous Nobel Laureate, or with me if the Nobel Laureate isn't available.

There could be two winners. If the first correct answer isn't from an undergraduate student then I'll select a second winner from those undergraduates who post the correct answer. You will need to identify yourself as an undergraduate in order to win. (Put "undergraduate" at the bottom of your comment.)

Some past winners are from distant lands so their chances of taking up my offer of a free lunch are slim. (That's why I can afford to do this!)

In order to win you must post your correct name. Anonymous and pseudoanonymous commenters can't win the free lunch.

Winners will have to contact me by email to arrange a lunch date.

~~Comments are invisible for 24 hours.~~ Comments are now open.

UPDATE: The molecule is taurocholate (2-{[(3α,5β,7α,12α)-3,7,12-trihydroxy-24-oxocholan-24-yl]amino}ethanesulfonate). Taurocholate is a bile salt in mammals. This week's winners are Bill Chaney and Raul A. Félix de Sousa.

Winners
Nov. 2009: Jason Oakley, Alex Ling
Oct. 17: Bill Chaney, Roger Fan
Oct. 24: DK
Oct. 31: Joseph C. Somody
Nov. 7: Jason Oakley
Nov. 15: Thomas Ferraro, Vipulan Vigneswaran
Nov. 21: Vipulan Vigneswaran (honorary mention to Raul A. Félix de Sousa)
Nov. 28: Philip Rodger
Dec. 5: 凌嘉誠 (Alex Ling)
Dec. 12: Bill Chaney
Dec. 19: Joseph C. Somody
Jan. 9: Dima Klenchin
Jan. 23: David Schuller
Jan. 30: Peter Monaghan
Feb. 7: Thomas Ferraro, Charles Motraghi
Feb. 13: Joseph C. Somody
March 5: Albi Celaj

8 comments :

Bill Chaney said...: taurocholate, or 2-{[(3α,5β,7α,12α)-3,7,12-trihydroxy-24-oxocholan-24-yl]amino}ethanesulfonate

It is a bile salt in mammals, synthesized by the liver, stored in the gall bladder, and secreted into the duodenum to act as a detergent to aid in the solubilization of dietary fats for lipolysis.; Monday, March 12, 2012 4:15:00 PM
Ryan Grannell said...: Taurocholic acid, a bile acid which emulsifies fats in mammals :); Monday, March 12, 2012 5:39:00 PM
Ryan Grannell said...: Oh, and the IUPAC name is 2-{[(3α,5β,7α,12α)-3,7,12-trihydroxy-24-oxocholan-24-yl]amino}ethanesulfonic acid; Monday, March 12, 2012 5:51:00 PM
Starbuck said...: Taurocholic acid

2-{[(3α,5β,7α,12α)-3,7,12-trihydroxy-24-oxocholan-24-yl]amino}ethanesulfonic acid

Helps in the solubilization of fats.; Monday, March 12, 2012 6:15:00 PM
Raul A. Félix de Sousa said...: Molecule # 161 is taurocholic acid, or 2-{[(3α,5β,7α,12α)-3,7,12-trihydroxy-24-oxocholan-24-yl]amino}ethanesulfonic acid. As a bile acid, it is used by mammals to emulsify fats.; Monday, March 12, 2012 6:30:00 PM
Nostranoodle said...: Taurocholic acid, a bile salt to aid in absorption of dietary fats. IUPAC name (copied from Wikipedia) 2-{[(3α,5β,7α,12α)-3,7,12-trihydroxy-24-oxocholan-24-yl]amino}ethanesulfonic acid.; Monday, March 12, 2012 7:12:00 PM
Sean Ridout said...: 2-{[(3α,5β,7α,12α)-3,7,12-trihydroxy-24-oxocholan-24-yl]amino}ethanesulfonic acid, or taurocholic acid. It is a bile acid, although I'm doubtful that this is interesting enogh to be the answer you want.; Monday, March 12, 2012 8:48:00 PM
adult onset atheist said...: CAS Number 81-24-3
Each of the bile salts has many names. Here are some for this molecule:Taurine,N-choloyl- (8CI); Cholane, ethanesulfonic acid deriv.; 3a,7a,12a-Trihydroxy-5b-cholanic acid-24-taurine; Cholaic acid; Cholic acid taurine conjugate;Cholyltaurine; N-Choloyltaurine; NSC 25505; Taurocholic acid;

This has general use as a Bile salt where it is an emulsifier for dietary fats. This particular molecule is also externally "made" by humans as a food additive (it is an emulsifying agent there also); Monday, March 12, 2012 11:43:00 PM

Quotations

The old argument of design in nature, as given by Paley, which formerly seemed to me to be so conclusive, fails, now that the law of natural selection has been discovered. We can no longer argue that, for instance, the beautiful hinge of a bivalve shell must have been made by an intelligent being, like the hinge of a door by man. There seems to be no more design in the variability of organic beings and in the action of natural selection, than in the course which the wind blows.Charles Darwin (c1880)

Although I am fully convinced of the truth of the views given in this volume, I by no means expect to convince experienced naturalists whose minds are stocked with a multitude of facts all viewed, during a long course of years, from a point of view directly opposite to mine. It is so easy to hide our ignorance under such expressions as "plan of creation," "unity of design," etc., and to think that we give an explanation when we only restate a fact. Any one whose disposition leads him to attach more weight to unexplained difficulties than to the explanation of a certain number of facts will certainly reject the theory.

Charles Darwin (1859)

Science reveals where religion conceals. Where religion purports to explain, it actually resorts to tautology. To assert that "God did it" is no more than an admission of ignorance dressed deceitfully as an explanation...

Peter Atkins

Quotations

The world is not inhabited exclusively by fools, and when a subject arouses intense interest, as this one has, something other than semantics is usually at stake. Stephen Jay Gould (1982)
I have championed contingency, and will continue to do so, because its large realm and legitimate claims have been so poorly attended by evolutionary scientists who cannot discern the beat of this different drummer while their brains and ears remain tuned to only the sounds of general theory. Stephen Jay Gould (2002) p.1339
The essence of Darwinism lies in its claim that natural selection creates the fit. Variation is ubiquitous and random in direction. It supplies raw material only. Natural selection directs the course of evolutionary change. Stephen Jay Gould (1977)
Rudyard Kipling asked how the leopard got its spots, the rhino its wrinkled skin. He called his answers "just-so stories." When evolutionists try to explain form and behavior, they also tell just-so stories—and the agent is natural selection. Virtuosity in invention replaces testability as the criterion for acceptance. Stephen Jay Gould (1980)
Since 'change of gene frequencies in populations' is the 'official' definition of evolution, randomness has transgressed Darwin's border and asserted itself as an agent of evolutionary change. Stephen Jay Gould (1983) p.335
The first commandment for all versions of NOMA might be summarized by stating: "Thou shalt not mix the magisteria by claiming that God directly ordains important events in the history of nature by special interference knowable only through revelation and not accessible to science." In common parlance, we refer to such special interference as "miracle"—operationally defined as a unique and temporary suspension of natural law to reorder the facts of nature by divine fiat. Stephen Jay Gould (1999) p.84

Quotations

My own view is that conclusions about the evolution of human behavior should be based on research at least as rigorous as that used in studying nonhuman animals. And if you read the animal behavior journals, you'll see that this requirement sets the bar pretty high, so that many assertions about evolutionary psychology sink without a trace.

Jerry Coyne
Why Evolution Is True

I once made the remark that two things disappeared in 1990: one was communism, the other was biochemistry and that only one of them should be allowed to come back.

Sydney Brenner
TIBS Dec. 2000

It is naïve to think that if a species' environment changes the species must adapt or else become extinct.... Just as a changed environment need not set in motion selection for new adaptations, new adaptations may evolve in an unchanging environment if new mutations arise that are superior to any pre-existing variations

Douglas Futuyma

One of the most frightening things in the Western world, and in this country in particular, is the number of people who believe in things that are scientifically false. If someone tells me that the earth is less than 10,000 years old, in my opinion he should see a psychiatrist.

Francis Crick

There will be no difficulty in computers being adapted to biology. There will be luddites. But they will be buried.

Sydney Brenner

An atheist before Darwin could have said, following Hume: 'I have no explanation for complex biological design. All I know is that God isn't a good explanation, so we must wait and hope that somebody comes up with a better one.' I can't help feeling that such a position, though logically sound, would have left one feeling pretty unsatisfied, and that although atheism might have been logically tenable before Darwin, Darwin made it possible to be an intellectually fulfilled atheist

Richard Dawkins

Another curious aspect of the theory of evolution is that everybody thinks he understand it. I mean philosophers, social scientists, and so on. While in fact very few people understand it, actually as it stands, even as it stood when Darwin expressed it, and even less as we now may be able to understand it in biology.

Jacques Monod

The false view of evolution as a process of global optimizing has been applied literally by engineers who, taken in by a mistaken metaphor, have attempted to find globally optimal solutions to design problems by writing programs that model evolution by natural selection.

Richard Lewontin

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Monday, March 12, 2012

Monday's Molecule #161

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