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THE CHINA MAIL, MONDAY, DECEMBER 12, 1986.
SCIENCE A
ENGINEERING
TRIUMPHS OF BRITISH CHEMISTRY
By A. L. Bacharach. Until twenty-five years ago two diseases -diabetes and pernicious anaemia wore
Then the crystallo
APPLYING ATOMIC ENERGY TO TRANSPORT
By John D. Hillaby
European Science Editor of the "New York Times".
cost Britain
probably
incurable and fatal. Today they can still Sanger and his team have them now two papa in all but a where the mathematics came States. At the British · 24lbs. (108 kilograms) of atomic
final solution of
and
in
with the molecule of
Their very novelty
nécessitate conclusive proof be-
ת!
on
of atomic- is ultimately the effectiveners the to- uctor. All reactors give off
which the order of the different. "Apart from ita
N specialised phoresis.
atomic ship is of anting trotore. The first Is aiready afloat. The build an atomic, merchant, ship bends could be ascertained by function of stimulating the pro- graphers photographed the pat further gradual breaking up. cenes whereby red blood cells torns reflected by the molecutes submarine Nautilus, nowy, but the cost of Installation
are formed in the bone marrow, of the immor cora
when these The newer techniques, usod at
and fuel would not make aclicacy the various stages, are for at it appears to have intimate con- were hit by carefully controlled nowered by the world's commercially compatiitve
nections wiệt, the synthosia
with and require the most issue proteins generally.
of X-rays. The photographs were And converted into a kind of mole first nuclear engine, has conventional forms, even though. expert handling.
Indeed, Dr
describing its cular ground-plan-this
an average cargo linee could was been built in the United probably run for 1 year not be cured or prevented but they are no sales improved and added
structure preciou to tow trivial dotalis,
core was behold, the longer a menace to life. Insulin treatment them. But inboratory technique of August, 1985.
these two techniques while using peared within this sand month
fuel But with the rapid im round to contain
four of the atomic research station provement to be expected' in permits the diabetic to lead a normal life by its would not have been
carbon and nitrogen ring-system. familiar to the biochemist be at Harwell, England, & ing cheapness
reactor design and the increas- enough. The
and availability for a normal span; vitamin B12 does the the problem has been reached this problem was recruited from bin, In
The assault team engaged on cause they occur in haemoglo- team of scientists are of fuel, this stogo should soon
and in a chlorophyll, not only beentale they are fra selentists at the Universities of mundor of other vitally in studying nuclear reac- countries may well hrye atomic same for the pernicious-anaemia subject. cta
be passed, and Britain and other experimentalists but at Cambridge and Oxford at portant tissue components. Neither effects a cure, and each has to be lost as much because they are the research laberatosion of an
tors for merchant ships, merchant ships operating clear and
fogical thinkers, able industriad Arra, Glaxo Labora
contenierily with ten to 20 -continued regularly throughout the life of to devise methods of breaking tories, of Grechford, Middlesex, of these rings and their relations their own development All the same, the arrangomont While private firms have the necklace so as to down the patient. But each has, replaced what me
to give
Experts on
electronic
The employment computers with the outer groups and still projects in this field, powered venletes mequivocal answers to the at
and Princeton more
dependent on was a tragedy by something that is little question: in what order do what Angeles
in the U.S.A. niso called
were
cobalt residing right in the Norway, too, is concen- of the shielding round Chemists and biochemists middle of the core were new and trating its atomic re- radiation that is highly danger- beads occur in ech fragment? in more than an inconvenience.
It was matter of arguing at Cambridge and Greenford and striking. backwards from individual unit X-ray crystallographers at Ox- and unusualness increased the search programme main ow to human beings. To protect It is not unnatural that there should be to stand fragments, from ford achieved their goal because difculties of the work and ly on ship propulsion.
smaller to larger fragments, and, the basic chemical
Chery and passengers of an have been intense scientific interest in the naily, from large fragments to
knowledge nece
atomle vehicle from a toThe the whole arrangement.
acquired by the former could fore they can be accepted. But
kilowatt reactor sanid take six nature of these two remarkable substances
be made to fit in with the X-ray there is no doubt at all that A number of leading aircraft feet (nearly two metres) of
companies
Britain and specially donee concrete. This and in the way in which they act. It has practical and theoretical attacks done with speed and precision those who have worked on this, powered
As a result of combining the crystal phoWKUNGE taken by the they will be accepted as soci
latter. But could only
be 09 "They
America have been studied by an
are also carrying out might be all right on a largo development work now been known for some time that each this problem the investiga- when electronic-computing de- in some ways the most intriga
on nuclear ship. but is hardly practicable aircraft. Recently 0 for at Cambridge
in an aircraft, have been vices
Obviously less has properties
"technical break-through' were available to cope ing of all the vitamint
but was bolky
equally efficient important able to present us a picture of with the formidable mathema- second
announced for
in atomic triumph
aircraft materials are needed. British the whole insulin molecule. I tical than its ability to alleviate the symptoms contains
analyses required in this chemistry,
United States, jongines in the alded this time by an one arm has stated that it seventcon different
United States cybernetics, has is confident of having an atomic and alter the course of a disease previously amino-acids, five of them turn-ind of work.
been scored and recorded within turbojet ing only once each,
նր
the rest
plane in the ur by incurable and fatal Both insulin and from two to Roven times Two A KIND OF MOLECULAR
a single month. vitamin B12 have essential functions to
more commonly occurring -tryptophan and
☆ ☆ ☆
possibilities it may be ad- COFFERPLATE Draw: perform in the healthy bodies of man and
entirely absent.
visable to answer the question: knowing how many times
The outer groupings attached the other higher animals.
THER countries are reported exactly what is radiation? It is each of the seventeen unita is to the tough inner kernel of this
TH
A number of to be interested in atomic
things. Fissile present, the formula of insulin unique molecule were nest re-
material in a reactor disinte- ¡tanks,
and locomotives insulin was ist diS-
and identifica be moved
oven and its molecular weight can be
and gries
Lives covered to be extract.ble from this purpose are mainly those of quickly and precisely calculated: mind of research t
off bits of All these projects nuclear matter nettrons and chemists. One of the problems
motor cats. #re undoubtedly possible
in to the so- chrvinatography and
First, knowing how a sub- turn elegiro- he latter
out turns
to
alpha and beta perikles. It di of cattle, 'sweetbrend
principle. While tle was sald em Both of these tech- 3,7884.
may well By to other than this know by what methods to break stance is constituted
emite highly dangerous gamEINU pigs great
off efforts niques arrange the beads—that is,
Genova Atomic Energy devious
in these molecular chips white suggest improvements
the at the and immanuely difficult
rays which can seriously damage Conference about the detailed have gone into its
the cells of the human body. tho Individuel amino-acids in process could that gure have still leaving their structure sub method of its large-scale produc-Con This
Job of known order as bonds
been exactly established.
tho 7 stentially and
Alpha particles, the phycologist,
has wiken pharmaco- i strip of paper or other mult
was during it help us discus power Dr Sanger and his some
their to understand not only how it transport, the discussions showed
dangerous is built
radiation, and bota logist, and the pa.hologist who abl
solid material. With Uiese colleagues ten years to do it, and attachment to the original is up in the organism but that quite compact designa
suitable
particles are fortunately for reactor, studied its role in health and
aiso This is particularly been built techniques
how it works when it as nuclear
Thirdly, the Propulsion units, can already be stopped by thin sheets of metal praise and congratulations of so when the investigator has not
or even protective clothing. But made. Sir John Cockcroft, Brk- lessons learned in unravelling tair's atomic who sought to establish not only
their scentific peers the world much Idea as to the nature of
energy director, trons and gamma rays are the ploeca; these pieces may have the structure and the improved has polated out that how it works but also what it
another a reactor
matter.
and each re- Ая in how it works, its
structures previously not known, techniques designed for and indeed often do.
different kind of shield- quires designed in a two- purpose will be available when gallon (nine litres) drum. casential role is in controlling
ing to stop them. the use by the tissues of the
more difficult problems come to be tackled. (Broadcast The use of atomic power to in the BBC's General Overseas prope! my sort of manned vehicle, however, has a number
WANUBA KNOWN
ayuy Hulling
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04
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Since
the pancreas--that callod sheep, and
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was the Cvestigation
the
others.
able
more
The techniques used for
the
along
of
the
GROUND PLAN
disease, and of the biochemist aclentists took the bridge they will certainly receive the molecule.
SUNAN KILICONE
nected for energy to maintalu body tom- perature and muscular effort,
A
INSULIN-A COMPLEX
PROTEIN
substance affecting such vital processes could not fail to arouse curiosity as to its nature. It did not. In fact, take long i after Abel had arst prepared
a crystalline substance In 1926 to confirm that it belonged 1u the great class of proteins in bulk the most important constituent of the solid matter in all living cells, fram microbes to man. Proteins are of complexity and
variety.
Breat
immense
The more complex a
proteins, the more difficult
is to discover how its constituent units, the amino-acids, are
Zars Ladies Purses, Belts urrunged and linked together in
•
& Pouches
It. About some of the meast complicated proteins we know
• Cotton & Woollen Hosiery Lttle more than which of the
To ADVERTISERS
for
amino-acids occur in them and in what proportions.
Över twenty-five different amino-acids are known to occur in animal and vegtable proteins, and about twenty of them are relatively com So it is no
BUNDAY POST-HERALD Врасо
sommerolat
common. advertising should be mean
mean task over booked not
these intor than
simple noon on Wednesdayı
For the 8OUTH CHINA MORNING POST and the CHINA MAIL, 48 hours before date of publication.
@paolal Announɑsmonta and Classified Advertise- mente da imal.
Oriente Comercial
Importers, Exporters and General Merchanta
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When in Macau
stay at the POUSADA INN, Praia Grande,
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Against
skin disease and itching,
Miligal
EDENDINE, MAYEN FRÖDUCT, MANUFACTURED IN, LEVERKUSEN OEKAKING/
nad
ven to establish qualitative quantitative
facts about sub- stances whose molecular weights can easily run into tena, perhaps hundreds, of thousands. Remem- ber that the molecular weight of water is only
com
mon $271
and a half, and of
of cane-sugar
300, many naturally-occu substance whose complexity is of the kind indiented by molecular weights between 600 and 2,000 about which we all cannot say just how Ita
constituent atoms are joined together.
Insulin is more complex than this. Even though insulin is one of the smaller proteins, with a molecular weight of only a few thousand, it would not have been possible twenty years ago so much as to think of a way to establish which amino- acids are prestat in it, let alone in what proportion, and still less | their arrangement.
However, towards the end of the war Dr Fred Sanger of the Blochemistry School at Cam bridge set out will his col- leagues to investigate this very problem. Just ten years
the
in August, 1905, they their final paper in a Beries on subject In it they have shown how the coventoen dif- forent amino-acids in insully are exactly arranged;
In so doing they have achieved a triumph. for British chemistry.
We can perhaps best get an ided on what they have come,
and how they have done it, by Thinking of the theulín, xolacuifé
赋 and of falnutes, necklace.
DE
bunds
pendent, strings attached fúrónt points, each alat made of mixed beads. The trouble about Citer bondial la that hot, one of them can be recognised untowa it is first separafod froën all tha
*
to
20
bits and counted the number of beads of different kinds. Then they had to apply less drastic processes, so that not only the pendant strings but also the main circlet itself were broken up to analler tragments in
over.
it was
by the
Thus
To those who may ask what practical results will follow the successful conclusion of these two researches perhaps I could answer in some such terms as these.
von
A similar though in many ways entirely different story can be told of vitamin B12, It also The work on vitamin B12 was fuifls an essential function in also done largely with the help the body's, normo) physiology, et chromatography and electro- Service).
MANDRAKE THE MAGICIAN
TOOK DICTATION TYPING PERFECTLY --A ROBOT/ I'LL, BUY--I'LL BUY--!
FERDINAND
NANCY
AW---1 DONT BELIEVE
j upor
I TELL
YOU
IT'S
TRUE
JOHNNY HAZARD
WE LEAVE SALZULRO ON THE, EVENING TRAIN, GABY, PHARMA FUNTIL THEN YOU MAY UTKLIŽE YOUR) TIME FOR ANY PERSONAL MATTERS!)
I'LL ABTURN HER TO THE TENT
AND THEN WE'LL DISCUSS TERMS, MA. ROCKS.
I STILL DON'T
I CAN
BELIEVE PROVE
IT
IT
THANK YOU
HUBY,
THEY ALL THINK I'M THE DUMMY, 101015~-
urp
By Les Falk and Phil Davis
SHALL I EXPOSE
THEM NOW? NO.
I WANT TO SEE
HOW THE WHOLE SWINDLE WORKS.
By MIL
By Eräle Bushuffler
SEE?--I TOLD YOU 1 HAVE CURLY HAIR
By Frank Robbins.
LATA U LANG NA KOOŐHIR HAS THE DOOR CLOSED BEHIND
İTER UPGRITING BANYUSU
1960.
(can be
TALK
ABOUT
MAGIC!
Have you seen
Admiral
AIR CONDITIONERS
AND REFRIGERATORS
Couldn't be fresher!
Libby's
try
FROZEN PRAS TODAY
DAIRY BOX
MILK
CHOCOLATE
to
BEFORE
considering
the
moet
both
Gamma rays are stopped by the electrons in an atom so tho most effective shielding materials ore dense and have a high atomic number that is have a lot of electrons per atóm. Lead I about the mout eddiem common substance. Ukrihm itself gives oven better protec
lor for less weight
and Bulk and its und is being explored In both Britain and América.
Slow "thermal" neutrons are effectively absorbed by rela- tively thin layers of substances like boron, but the dangerous fast neutrons have, to be slowed down before they can be cap tured. A material with a high hydrogen content is needed for this and the best and cheapest la wator. An effective shielding therofore must contain a mix- ture of two materials.
element
OPECIAL concretes have been developed for stationary rom octors. Their cement has a high hydrogen or water content and the Aller is rich in iron, lead, barium
of, some other nezvý Such concrete enfelde could probably be used in large ships, especially with the saving in bunker space, whats'. Uslig atomic fuel, but are för toa bulky for aircraft
small vehicles. Easter shielding. Ja fact, is probably the inala rea-·
why the application of atomic energy to ships will come first.
an
Just as the flist atomic re- octors in ships will, as in the Nautilus, rajse steam for don ventional turbinos, so the first alomic reactors hi aircraft. provide the heat to operate turbojet or turboprop engines. To convert an aircraft of the size of the Britannia to storie power would need about 800,000-KEOWatt vencion present thermal effionele the crow and passengers, wäre placed in the nose and the re actor, towards the tail, it would need an intervening shield some foot of Idad, and five felt (1.5 metres) of water to protect them from the radiation, The weight of this and the reacto combined would probably Se over 40 tons, more than weight saved in fuel.
So to begin with designers of atomic aircraft will be working to pretty strict margins. Their aija will be to incromes Therrial efficiencies, runs the roneties higher
femperatceras, desigs more compact remtors, and Im prove shielding materials,
ITCHENS have been, kinta of *) nerkable materiais, but nothing spe has been published, about There are only a limi
San Miguel
therefore,
!