Molecular Architecture and Biological Reactions

Answers to many basic problems of biology—nature of growth, mechanism of duplication of viruses and genes , action of enzymes, mechanism, of physiological activity of drugs, hormones, and vitamins, structure and action of nerve and brain tissue—may lie in knowledge of molecular structure and intermolecular reactions

Superoxide Dismutase Activity within Caribou Serum as an Indicator of Copper Status

Copper concentrations measured in liver are the gold standard for evaluating the copper status of ruminants. For live ruminants, measuring copper status is problematic because serum copper concentrations fluctuate and are not consistently correlated to liver copper values. In an attempt to establish an accurate evaluation of copper status from serum in caribou, we examined the correlation between liver copper concentrations and superoxide dismutase (SOD), which uses the oxidation and reduction reactions of a bound copper ion in order to catalyze superoxide radicals. Our study focuses on SOD activity in the serum of 16 individual adult female caribou and compares that to known copper levels within the liver. Determining copper levels in ruminants has proven difficult and currently a true proxy to determine liver copper levels in a live animal is unknown

Resonance in the Hydrogen Molecule

In a recent paper (1) Mueller and Eyring have discussed the normal state of the hydrogen molecule with use of a variation function constructed in the usual Heitler-London manner, except with replacement, for each electron, of the hydrogen-atom function about atom a, exp(-Z'ra/ao), byt the more complex function φa = exp(-Z'ra/ao)exp(-Z''rb/a0). The authors call one-electron functions of this sort semilocalized orbitals. They have compared the value of the bond energy calculated for the wave function [...], with those given by the simple atomic orbital method and the molecular orbital method, and have pointed out that there is an improvement to 4.20 ev, from the values 3.76 ev and 3.60 ev, respectivel

Interatomic Distances in Covalent Molecules and Resonance between Two or More Lewis Electronic Structures

In a paper to be published in the Zeitschrift für Kristallographie, Professor M. L. Huggins and I have formulated tables of radii for use in crystals containing electron-pair bonds. With the aid of these tables, we have also constructed a table of radii (table 1) for non-metallic atoms in covalent molecules. These radii are designed especially for purely covalent compounds, in which fluorine forms one electron-pair bond, oxygen two, nitrogen three, etc., but they are applicable also to other compounds, such as (CH3)3N:O:, with the following exception. The radii given for As, Se, Br, Sb, Te and I are to be used for these atoms with a covalence of one, two or three; for a covalence of four slightly smaller values ("tetrahedral radii") are to be used. The change is probably due to a change in the nature of the bond eigenfunctions involved

Analogies between Antibodies and Simpler Chemical Substances

Because of his contributions in the study of antibodies, Linus Pauling was chosen as the first Harrison Howe lecturer. His talk, given below, was delivered before the Rochester Section of the American Chemical Society, Feb. 4, in Rochester, Ν. Υ

Priestley Medal Address: Chemistry and the World of Tomorrow

This article is based on the Priestley Medal Address presented by Linus C. Pauling on April 9, during the ACS spring meeting in St. Louis. Still active at 83, Pauling is director of the Linus Pauling Institute of Science & Medicine, Palo Alto, Calif., where he continues his scientific research. Much of his work has dealt with the nature of the chemical bond. The Priestley Medal, ACS's highest award, recognizes his contributions in this and other areas, and is the latest in a long list of honors and awards Pauling has received, including the 1954 Nobel Prize in Chemistry and the 1962 Nobel Peace Prize

Unsolved Problems of Structural Chemistry

Linus Pauling, Theodore William Richards Medalist for 1947, has made notable contributions to quantum mechanics, valence theory, crystal structure, and also to electron diffraction

Academic Research as a Career

The real student in science — with a consuming curiosity into the laws of nature and with top scholastic status — may be of the caliber required to become the recognized authority in some fiel

The Nature of the Chemical Bond. VII. The Calculation of Resonance Energy in Conjugated Systems

The quantum‐mechanical treatment previously applied to benzene, naphthalene, and the hydrocarbon free radicals is used in the calculation of extra resonance energy of conjugation in systems of double bonds, the dihydronaphthalenes and dihydroanthracenes, phenylethylene, stilbene, isostilbene, triphenylethylene, tetraphenylethylene, biphenyl, o, m, and p‐diphenylbenzene, and 1,3,5‐triphenylbenzene. The calculated values, which are in approximate agreement with empirical values from thermochemical data, are used in the discussion of chemical properties and in the formulation of rules regarding conjugation in overlapping systems

The effects of strontium-90 on mice

On Sept. 19, 1958 there was published in Science a paper by Dr. Miriam P. Finkel of Argonne National Laboratory in which she communicated her observations on the effects of strontium-90 injected into mice on life expectancy and on incidence of tumors of bone and blood-forming tissues.(1) She discussed the question of whether or not the effects are proportional to the amount of injected strontium-90 at low doses, and reached the conclusion that it is likely that there is a threshold with value for man between 5 and 15 μc. (as compared with the present average value from fallout, about 0.0002 μc., and the predicted steady-state value from fallout for testing of nuclear weapons at the average rate for the past five years, about 0.02 μc.). Her paper ends with the sentence "In any case, the present contamination with strontium-90 from fallout is so very much lower than any of these levels that it is extremely unlikely to induce even one bone tumor or one case of leukemia.