Category Biochemistry

What is the study of astrobiology?

Astrobiology is the study of the origins, evolution, distribution, and future of life in the universe. This interdisciplinary field requires a comprehensive, integrated understanding of biological, planetary, and cosmic phenomena.

Astrobiology makes use of molecular biology, biophysics, biochemistry, chemistry, astronomy, physical cosmology, exoplanetology and geology to investigate the possibility of life on other worlds and help recognize biospheres that might be different from that on Earth. The origin and early evolution of life is an inseparable part of the discipline of astrobiology. Astrobiology concerns itself with interpretation of existing scientific data, and although speculation is entertained to give context, astrobiology concerns itself primarily with hypotheses that fit firmly into existing scientific theories.

According to research published in August 2015, very large galaxies may be more favorable to the creation and development of habitable planets than such smaller galaxies as the Milky Way. Nonetheless, Earth is the only place in the universe humans know to harbor life. Estimates of habitable zones around other stars, sometimes referred to as “Goldilocks zones,” along with the discovery of hundreds of extrasolar planets and new insights into extreme habitats here on Earth, suggest that there may be many more habitable places in the universe than considered possible until very recently.

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What is the study of molecular biology?

Molecular biology, field of science concerned with studying the chemical structures and processes of biological phenomena that involve the basic units of life, molecules. Molecular biology emerged in the 1930s, having developed out of the related fields of biochemistry, genetics, and biophysics; today it remains closely associated with those fields.

Various techniques have been developed for molecular biology, though researchers in the field may also employ methods and techniques native to genetics and other closely associated fields. 

Molecular biology remained a pure science with few practical applications until the 1970s, when certain types of enzymes were discovered that could cut and recombine segments of DNA in the chromosomes of certain bacteria. The resulting recombinant DNA technology became one of the most active branches of molecular biology because it allows the manipulation of the genetic sequences that determine the basic characters of organisms.

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What is mycology?

Essentially, mycology is the study of fungi. Here, mycologists directly focus on the taxonomy, genetics, application as well as many other characteristics of this group of organisms.

Fungi are eukaryotic organism which belong to their own kingdom. Until advances in DNA technology, it was assumed that fungi were an offshoot of the plant kingdom. DNA and biochemical analysis has revealed that fungi are a separate lineage of eukaryotes, distinguished by their unique cell wall made of chitin and glucans which often surrounds multinucleated cells. 

A specialized field of mycology is mycotoxicology, or the study of the toxins produced by mushrooms. Typically, a mycotoxicologist has a doctorate degree in biochemistry or organic chemistry, or a medical doctorate with concentrations in mycology and toxins. Fungi produce a variety of chemicals which have toxic effects on all kinds of organisms. Humans have eaten mushrooms since the earliest hunter-gatherers, but many mushrooms remain highly toxic. Other compounds found in mushrooms have potentially beneficial properties which could be used in medicine. Many mycotoxicologists work for pharmaceutical companies, trying to develop new drugs based on these compounds.

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Who was Gertrude B. Elion?

Gertrude B. Elion was an American pharmacologist, who won the 1988 Nobel Prize in Medicine, along with George H. Hitchings and Sir James W. Black, for pioneering work in drug development.

Gertrude B. Elion was born in New York City in 1918. She graduated from Hunter College in New York City with the degree in biochemistry in 1937. Unable to obtain graduate research position, she took up jobs as a secretary, a chemistry teacher, and an assistant in a lab. During this time, she pursued graduate studies at night school in the New York University. As she could not devote herself to full-time studies, Elion never received a PhD.

In 1944, she started to work as an assistant (and later became a colleague) to George H. Hitchings at the Burroughs-Wellcome pharmaceutical company (now GlaxoSmithKline). Elion and Hitchings developed an array of new drugs that were effective against leukemia, auto immune disorders, urinary tract infection, gout, malaria, and viral herpes. They revolutionised the way drugs were being developed. Their unique method involved studying the chemical composition of diseased cells. Rather than relying on trial and error methods, they used the differences in biochemistry between normal human cells and pathogens (disease causing agents) to design drugs that block viral infections. Elion also discovered treatments to reduce the body’s rejection of foreign tissue in kidney transplants between unrelated donors. In all, Elion developed 45 patents in medicine. In 1991 she was awarded a National Medal of Science and was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame.

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What does the Ramachandran plot help understand?

In biochemistry, a Ramachandran plot (also known as a Rama plot, a Ramachandran diagram or a [?,?] plot), originally developed in 1963 by G. N. Ramachandran, C. Ramakrishnan, and V. Sasisekharan, is a way to visualize energetically allowed regions for backbone dihedral angles ? against ? of amino acid residues in protein structure. The figure on the left illustrates the definition of the ? and ? backbone dihedral angles (called ? and ?’ by Ramachandran). The ? angle at the peptide bond is normally 180°, since the partial-double-bond character keeps the peptide planar.

A Ramachandran plot can be used in two somewhat different ways. One is to show in theory which values, or conformations, of the ? and ? angles are possible for an amino-acid residue in a protein (as at top right). A second is to show the empirical distribution of datapoints observed in a single structure in usage for structure validation, or else in a database of many structures. Either case is usually shown against outlines for the theoretically favored regions.

 

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What is advanced animal science?

To establish how effective a drug is it must be tested carefully and accurately and its effect on a living organism meticulously studied and noted. This is the task 0- pharmacology, a science -which has made tremendous advances in less than a century.

The work of pharmacologists is often related to biochemistry, since they study the effects of foreign substances on cells or chemical systems of the body; and to psychiatry, for they also study the effects of drugs on the brain and behaviour.

The most significant stage in the discovery of a new drug is when the active substance that has curative properties is isolated. These substances are then checked for the effect they have on living tissues. This could be dangerous on a human being and even the curative properties of an) drug can prove fatal if they are administered in wrong doses.

To overcome these difficulties scientists carry out their experiments on animals such as dogs, cats, mice, guinea pigs, rabbits and monkeys. Many such animals an sacrificed daily in the laboratories of the world, although most countries have strict laws which forbid the infliction of unnecessary pain on them.

One of the most common experiments is to infect these operations that can be carried out only by skilled craftsmen who pass on their art from one generation to the next.

Not all diamonds can be cut and transformed into elegant stones, The more impure ones and fragments obtained from cutting gems are used in industry, Diamonds are extremely hard and are valuable in cutting or polishing the hardest of metallic alloys.

Another precious stone that is extremely rare and very valuable is the emerald which is a beautiful green colour. Emeralds are usually small. When one is larger than ten carats and free from impurities and faults it is much more valuable than a diamond of the same size. Much of the value of these gems depends on the way they have been cut. The usual way is to cut surfaces or facets on them so that they will refract or break up the light that passes through the stone, The effect is La produce a number of small prisms which breakup me light into the rainbow, Great skill is necessary at every stage of diamond cutting, but especially during faceting, as the angles of the facets must be exact to give the maximum amount of brilliance and to preserve symmetry of the stone.

There are the various ways in which gem stones can be cut: (1) marquise; (2) drop or pendeloque; (3) briolette; (4a) resecut, seen from above; (4b) resecut seen from the side; (5a) flat cabochon, seen from the side; (5b) double cabochon, seen from the side; (6a) brilliant cut, seen from above; (6b) brilliant seen from bottom; (6c) brilliant, side view; (7a) step cut, seen from above; (7b) step cut, seen from bottom; (7c) step cut, side view.

The upper part of the faceted gem is called the crown and the lower is called the base or pavilion.

 

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