Stanford Moore (1913 - 1983) and William Stein (1911 - 1980) were awarded the 1972 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for working out the role of amino acid side chains in the mechanism of catalysis by bovine ribonuclease A [see How Enzymes Work]. Your Royal Highnesses, Ladies and Gentlemen,
The key substances of life are called enzymes. Everything we humans undertake - if we sit here enjoying the splendour of a Nobel ceremony, if we perform work, or even if we simply feel joy or sorrow - occurs by means of enzyme reactions. The phenomenon described as life is a network of coupled enzymatic processes. In chemical terminology the enzymes are catalysts, i.e. substances which accelerate chemical reactions without being consumed themselves. The concept of catalysis was introduced about 150 years ago by the great Swedish chemist Jöns Jacob Berzelius, who also, with astonishing intuition, suggested that the tissues of a living organism have catalytic activity. Around the turn of the century scientists started to associate this catalytic effect with specific substances, enzymes. This year's three Nobel Prize winners in Chemistry, Christian B. Anfinsen, Stanford Moore and William H. Stein, have performed fundamental studies with the enzyme ribonuclease making it possible for us now to approach the problem of enzymatic activity on a molecular level.
From a chemical point of view enzymes are proteins. These are built up of 20 different amino acids which are linked together into long chains. Despite the fact that proteins have only 20 building blocks, there are thousands of enzymes, each with its specific properties. This large degree of variation becomes possible because the number and sequence of the amino acids in the chain can be varied. Ribonuclease was the first enzyme for which the complete amino acid sequence was determined thanks to contributions from Anfinsen and from Moore and Stein.
Every living organism has its own characteristic pattern of enzymes. It can also produce a copy of itself, and this progeny has the same enzymes. An important question concerns the source of the information which has to be passed on from generation to generation for the enzyme pattern to be preserved. We know, thanks to contributions which have led to earlier Nobel Prize awards, that a specific molecule, called DNA, serves as the carrier of the traits of inheritance. These traits are expressed by DNA controlling the synthesis of enzymes. DNA accomplishes this by determining the sequence of the amino acids making up a particular protein molecule. An active enzyme does not, however, consist just of a long chain of amino acids linked together, but the chain is folded in space in a way which gives the molecule a globular form. What is the source of the information responsible for this specific folding of the peptide chain? It is this question in particular which has been the concern of Anfinsen's investigations. In a series of elegant experiments he showed that the necessary information is inherent in the linear sequence of amino acids in the peptide chain, so that no further genetic information than that found in DNA is necessary.
The contributions of Moore and Stein concern another fundamental question regarding ribonuclease, namely the basis for its catalytic activity. The reacting substances, the substrates, are bound to an enzyme in what is generally called its active site. In the complex so formed there is an interaction between enzyme and substrate leading to a changed reactivity of the substrate. Knowledge about the structure of an enzyme is of little help in understanding this interaction if it is not possible to find the active site and to determine the chemical groups in it. Moore and Stein discovered as an important principle that the active site contains amino acids with an anomalously high reactivity compared to the same amino acids in free form. This high reactivity is of direct importance for the catalytic activity of the enzyme, but Moore and Stein also found it possible to utilize it to label two amino acids in the active site by chemical modification. In this way the position of these amino acids in the long peptide chain could be unambigously determined. Through these investigations Moore and Stein were able to provide a detailed picture of the active site of ribonuclease long before the three-dimensional structure of the enzyme had been determined.
Dr. Anfinsen,
I have tried to explain your pioneering investigations showing that the linear sequence of amino acids in the enzyme ribonuclease determines the biologically active conformation of this enzyme. This finding has profound implications for our understanding of the way in which active enzyme molecules are formed in living cells.
Drs. Moore and Stein,
I have attempted to summarize your fundamental contributions to our understanding of the relationship between chemical structure and catalytic activity in the enzyme ribonuclease. In particular, I have stressed your studies leading to the localization of two specific histidine residues in the active site of the enzyme. It is for these pioneering experiments that the Royal Academy of Sciences has decided to award this year's Nobel Prize in Chemistry to you together with Dr. Anfinsen.
Drs. Anfinsen, Moore and Stein,
On behalf of the Royal Academy of Sciences I wish to convey to you our warmest congratulations, and I now ask you to receive your Prizes from the hands of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince.
Transition state stabilization is one of the most important mechanisms of enzyme catalysis. There are very few direct proofs of this in the scientific literature because the hypothetical transition state is so unstable and transient. However, there is a huge number of indirect experiments that confirm the importance of this mechanism. They include the binding of more stable transition state analogues and the modeling of hypothetical transition states into the active site of an enzyme. 
In addition to transition state stabilization, and substrate binding effects, enzymes also exhibit catalytic effects on acceleration of reactions. There are many different kinds of catalytic effects but the main ones are ionization effects, acid-base catalysis, and covalent catalysis. In all cases, the effect is mediated by the side chains of amino acid at the active site.1. A transition state is not an intermediate. The difference is too technical for this posting. I just want to make sure we don't get any quibbles in the comments section.
John Brockman runs a website called The Edge. Most (all?) of the contributers are authors and many of them are clients of Brockman. He is, among other things, a literary agent for prominent authors (Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Jared Diamond). If you want to understand what The Edge is all about, read Brockman's essay on The Third Culture.
It is well documented that Christianity has withered dramatically in Europe, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Japan. The failure of the faith in the west is regularly denounced by Popes and Protestant leaders. Churches are being converted into libraries, laundromats and pubs. Those who disbelieve in deities typically make up large portions of the population, according to some surveys they make up the majority of citizens in Scandinavia, France and Japan. Evolution is accepted by the majority in all secular nations, up to four in five in some.
......
Nor is it all that surprising that faith has imploded in most of the west. Every single 1st world nation that is irreligious shares a set of distinctive attributes. These include handgun control, anti-corporal punishment and anti-bullying policies, rehabilitative rather than punitive incarceration, intensive sex education that emphasizes condom use, reduced socio-economic disparity via tax and welfare systems combined with comprehensive health care, increased leisure time that can be dedicated to family needs and stress reduction, and so forth.
As a result the great majority enjoy long, safe, comfortable, middle class lives that they can be confident will not be lost due to factors beyond their control. It is hard to lose one's middle class status in Europe, Canada and so forth, and modern medicine is always accessible regardless of income. Nor do these egalitarians culture emphasize the attainment of immense wealth and luxury, so most folks are reasonably satisfied with what they have got. Such circumstances dramatically reduces peoples' need to believe in supernatural forces that protect them from life's calamities, help them get what they don't have, or at least make up for them with the ultimate Club Med of heaven. One of us (Zuckerman) interviewed secular Europeans and verified that the process of secularization is casual; most hardly think about the issue of God, not finding the concept relevant to their contented lives.
The result is plain to see. Not a single advanced democracy that enjoys benign, progressive socio-economic conditions retains a high level of popular religiosity. They all go material.
[Hat Tip: Brian Larnder at Primordial Blog]
It’s my pleasure to host the 3rd edition of the Molecular and Cell Biology Carnival. This is the first time I host a non medicine-related carnival, so I really hope you will like the posts I found.Submit your articles here.
Department of Biochemistry Special Seminar
"Beyond The Signal Sequence Hypothesis: Nuclear Export and Endoplasmic
Reticulum Targeting of mRNAs."
Dr. Alexander Palazzo Ph.D.
Department of Cell Biology
Harvard Medical School
Thursday, June 12th
Room 4171 MSB
11:00 a.m.
Dr. Palazzo is a candidate for a Faculty position in the Department
of Biochemistry.
1. I wonder if there's a direct correlation between the number of readers and the number of postings per day? Some blogs put up lots of articles every day even though many of those articles don't take much effort. Does this build readership so that when you post something important it's more likely to get attention? That doesn't work for me as a reader. There are quite a few excellent blogs that I scan every day even though the postings are infrequent. On the other hand, when I've tried posting several times a day over a period of a few weeks, the number of visits does increase significantly.
Some readers have been complaining that Monday's Molecule is too easy.1 That's why I've chosen a more difficult task for you today.1. Okay, maybe not "some" readers. Maybe it's only one reader. In fact, maybe I'm the reader.
The 33rd edition of Gene Genie has been posted at Neurophilosophy [Gene Genie 33]. Welcome to the 33rd edition of Gene Genie, the blog carnival devoted to genes and genetic diseases.The beautiful logo was created by Ricardo at My Biotech Life.
In this edition, there is a strong emphasis on cancer. There's also a focus on leukodystrophy, and a special section on personalized genetics.
[Hat Tip: Canadian Cynic]
I suppose it was inevitable. Sooner or later a private company would figure out how to activate your junk DNA and turn you into a super being. At a price, of course.Most people know that DNA is the 'blueprint of life' and is located in every cell of the body. In addition to each chromosome's 2 strand double helix of DNA, there are an additional 10 etheric strands of DNA available to each human, which have been dormant since the beginning of recorded history. Each additional strand possesses attributes that permit the individual to perform greater human accomplishments. Scientists acknowledge that we currently only use 3% of our current 2 strand DNA. Thus we live in a society where people are sick, unhappy, stressed out, create wars, have difficulty experiencing love, and are totally disconnected with the universe. Most people have to meditate for many years just to have a so-called 'mystical' experience, that's how disconnected we are now. Imagine activating 100% of your 2 strand DNA, PLUS 10 additional strands! You will go from using 10% of your brain to becoming a multi-dimensional being with psychic, telepathic, and manifestation abilities beyond anything you've ever dreamed of. Plus, you will stop the aging process and actually start to rejuvenate to look and feel YOUNGER. This is the Original Divine Blueprint, what man USED to be. It has been written that Jesus had 12 strands of DNA activated. There have been children born throughout the history of humanity to raise the frequency of the planet that have more than 2 strands of DNA active - they are known as Indigo children. These are the incredibly intelligent, loving, and amazing children that are being mistakenly diagnosed as having A.D.D. because they are too smart to pay attention in class. Your DNA is your blueprint of life and is what controls every single function inside each of your cells. If you change your DNA, you really will change your life.I strongly believe that
[Hat Tip: New Scientist, Feedback, My 17-23, 2008 p. 64]
Today marks the 64th anniversary of the invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944. British, Canadian and American forces opened the second front against Germany. On the eve of the invasion, General Dwight D. Eisenhower issued the following Order of the Day.Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force!
You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of liberty loving people everywhere march with you. In company with our brave Allies and brothers in arms on other Fronts, you will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world.
Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well trained, well equipped and battle hardened. He will fight savagely.
But this is the year 1944! Much has happened since the Nazi triumphs of 1940-41. The United Nations have inflicted upon the Germans great defeats, in open battle, man to man. Our air offensive has seriously reduced their strength in the air and their capacity to wage war on the ground. Our Home Fronts have given us an overwhelming superiority in weapons and munitions of war, and placed at our disposal great reserves of trained fighting men. The tide has turned! The free men of the world are marching together to Victory!
I have full confidence in your courage and devotion to duty and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full Victory! Good luck! And let us beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking.
For baby boomers it means a day of special significance for our parents. In my case, it was my father who took part in the invasions. He was an RAF pilot flying rocket firing typhoons in close support of the ground troops. During the initial days his missions were limited to quick strikes and reconnaissance since Normandy was at the limit of their range from southern England. During the second week of the invasion his squadron landed in Normandy and things became very hectic from then on with several close support missions every day.Intelligence information from ULTRA set up a particularly effective air strike on June 10. German message traffic had given away the location of the headquarters of Panzergruppe West on June 9, and the next evening a mixed force of forty rocket-armed Typhoons and sixty-one Mitchells from 2 TAF struck at the headquarters, located in the Chateau of La Caine, killing the unit's chief of staff and many of its personnel and destroying fully 75 percent of its communications equipment as well as numerous vehicles. At a most critical point in the Normandy battle, then, the Panzer group, which served as a vital nexus between operating armored forces, was knocked out of the command, control, and communications loop; indeed, it had to return to Paris to be reconstituted before resuming its duties a month later.
Profit, competition and excess have spawned the open-access movement. Academics, librarians and administrators think it is the answer to monopolistic journals. But there are several problems with it. Chief among them is that peer review is eliminated - all knowledge becomes equal. There is no quality control on the internet, and a Wikipedia article has the same value as an essay by a distinguished researcher....This is dead wrong, of course, and the comments on the website make it very clear that Professor Altbach has goofed.
Essentially, open access means there is no objective way of measuring research quality. If the traditional journals and their peer-review systems are no longer operating, anarchy rules. Researchers will have no accurate way of assessing quality in a scholarly publication.
Ah, sweet irony. If this article had undergone "peer review", or some other accuracy or quality checking critera, then it would never had seen the light of day...Bora Zivkovic at A Blog Around the Clock is all over it 'cause he's the Online Community Manager at PLoS-ONE (Public Library of Science) [A really, truly bad article about Open Access]. The question is ... why would a Professor of higher education at Boston University write an article about Open Access without doing a little bit of investigation to find out about it?
First,
Jewish people are the most intelligent. They win almost 40% of the Nobel Prize's and they have a small population of only 14 million. So by far they exceed the other races in intelligence. The other races having huge numbers and such small contributions.
Second,
IQ tests, test intellectual conformity, not creativity and originality. This would explain the Asian high IQ's. They as a people are the ultimate conformists.
In IQ tests there is typically only one answer to the problem. That problem being a social conformity to reason. But everyone knows that Genius's and all of the greatest developments in the world are not the product of conformity. Conformity never breeds creativity. We can see this in the lack of influence the Asian population has had on Science. China used to be called the "sick man" of Asia. Their population is massive and their contribution to innovation is almost nil. We can see this lack of originality in their adoptation of European philosophies, I.e. Communism.
Friedrich Nietzsche and other Philosophers have critized Asians. Nietsche used the words "Pallid osification" to describe Orientals.
Pallid: lacking sparkle or liveliness.
Osification: The process of becoming set and inflexible in behavior, attitudes, and actions. Inflexible conformity, rigid unthinking acceptance of social conventions.
The reality is Asian people have yet to understand that laws and rules are arbitrary. Europeans make the rules and Asian's follow them.
It also doesn't make sense that Asian's are considered smart because of the fact that they have destroyed their own countries. This is due to over-population and their basic lack of enviromental understanding.
It is also common scientific fact that women who have many children are ignorant, and those who have less children are more intelligent. This has already been proven in studies. So it seems strange to say that Asians are smart when the obviousness of their backwards countries, and medieval lifestyle makes them contrary to that premise.
Europeans have the most advanced civilizations and every other race has yet to meet these levels other than the Japanese. The Japanese only being good at copying other people's inventions and making them better. Other than that their original creativity is lacking as well. They took American cars and made them better. They took the German camera and made it better. And they took German steel and made it better. Otherwise the greatest advances still come from Europeans and Jews. Other than that the Orientals have yet to produce an Einstein or a Thomas Edison.
When it comes to Black people. It makes sense that they have low intellectual comformity, I.e. IQ tests. They are far too creative to be trapped in this unoriginal form of conditioning. You can tell their creative capacity in their athletics, music, dance, and the way they talk. They by far exceed the Asiatic races in these areas. Being better singers, musicians ect. Blacks far exceed Asians in emotive expression. In all of North America there is only one or two famous high-paid Asian actors.
Reality, Europeans rule the world and they have allowed others to exist only out of desire for economic bennifet. They, (Europeans) are also the physically strongest, winning the Strongest Man competitions again and again.
The greater the conformity, the weaker the race. Thus we see the races as they are today. The wild animal being bred out of man, and the physically impotent, conformist thriving.
Otherwise "Group psychology" is the most destructive thing in the world. All these stereotypes are false when it comes to the individual. Individualism is the most important thing for this time. All countries, Religions, groups need to dissolve for man to live in peace.