Chemists in Ohio have discovered that half of all of the known chemical compounds in the world have an amazing similarity in sharing only 143 basic molecular shapes. That sharply limits the number of molecular building blocks that chemists often deploy in efforts to develop new drugs and other products, the researchers say in a study scheduled for the June 20 issue of the bi-weekly ACS’ Journal of Organic Chemistry. Alan H. Lipkus and colleagues note that researchers have known for years that certain features of molecules, such as rings of atoms and the bonds than link them together, appear time after time in hundreds of life-saving medications, food additives, and other widely used products. Scientists often tend to focus on these well-known types of molecular scaffolding in their quest to select the most promising rings, linkers, and other components for building new drugs while overlooking less familiar structures, the researchers say. In the new study, they analyzed the chemical frameworks of more than 24 million organic substances found in the ACS’ Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) Registry, the world’s most comprehensive database of disclosed molecules. They found that half of the substances could be described by […]
An archaeological excavation at a site near Pulborough, West Sussex, has thrown remarkable new light on the life of northern Europe’s last Neanderthals. It provides a snapshot of a thriving, developing population – rather than communities on the verge of extinction. ‘The tools we’ve found at the site are technologically advanced and potentially older than tools in Britain belonging to our own species, Homo sapiens,’ says Dr Matthew Pope of Archaeology South East based at the UCL Institute of Archaeology. ‘It’s exciting to think that there’s a real possibility these were left by some of the last Neanderthal hunting groups to occupy northern Europe. The impression they give is of a population in complete command of both landscape and natural raw materials with a flourishing technology – not a people on the edge of extinction.’ The team, led by Dr Pope and funded by English Heritage, is undertaking the first modern, scientific investigation of the site since its original discovery in 1900. During the construction of a monumental house known as ‘Beedings’ some 2,300 perfectly preserved stone tools were removed from fissures encountered in the foundation trenches. Only recently were the tools recognised for their importance. Research […]
Driving Green: 10 Ways to Be More Eco-Friendly on the Road 1. The Right Tool for the Task 2. Route and Speed 3. Tires 4. Junk in the Trunk 5. Aerodynamics 6. Idling 7. Fuel 8. Air-Conditioning 9. Oil Changes 10. Disposing of Waste Every year the largest glacier in North America, the 120-mile long Bering Glacier, sheds seven times the water volume of Lake St. Clair near Detroit. It’s melting at a rate of 30 cubic kilometers per year, according to the Michigan Tech Research Institute. Many scientists believe that accelerated glacier melting is only one part of an alarming global-warming trend, part of which can be traced to the 140 million automobiles we drive 1.7 trillion miles yearly. There are simple techniques every motorist can apply to reduce a vehicle’s negative impact on the environment and […]
WAPELLO, Iowa — Wayne Gerst’s farm has been in his family for 62 years; now it’s under eight feet of water. The farm, in tiny Oakville, Iowa, is one of many places submerged in a town that’s still under water 1-1/2 weeks after its levee was overtopped. ‘The water’s going down slowly,’ says Mr. Gerst’s wife, Joleen, after doing a flyover of the region Tuesday. She shows photos taken last week by boat: Water is up to the garage roof, and roses – ‘my best year ever for flowers’ – peek out of the very top of the otherwise submerged arbor. The Gersts plan to return when the water recedes. Many of their neighbors don’t. What the future holds for the town of about 400 on the edge of the Iowa River is anyone’s guess. As swollen rivers burst over levees in the upper Midwest this month, many of the areas hardest hit are farm towns like Oakville. These hamlets now face particular challenges: the likelihood that some residents won’t move back to already-dwindling towns, farm-dependent economies that may be hurt by crop loss, and a lack of resources or experienced town officials to navigate the […]
ELIZABETH, Colorado — Suddenly, the economics of American suburban life are under assault as skyrocketing energy prices inflate the costs of reaching, heating and cooling homes on the outer edges of metropolitan areas. Just off Singing Hills Road, in one of hundreds of two-story homes dotting a former cattle ranch beyond the southern fringes of Denver, Phil Boyle and his family openly wonder if they will have to move close to town to get some relief. They still revel in the space and quiet that has drawn a steady exodus from U.S. cities toward places like this for more than half a century. Their living room ceiling soars two stories high. A swing-set sways in the breeze in their backyard. Their wrap-around porch looks out over the flat scrub of the high plains to the snow-capped peaks of the Rocky Mountains. But life on the distant fringes of suburbia is beginning to feel untenable. Boyle and his wife must drive nearly an hour to their jobs in the high-tech corridor of southern Denver. With gasoline at more than $4 a gallon, Boyle recently paid $121 to fill his pickup truck with diesel. The price of propane to […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
