The letter,the dictionary and the laboratory: translating chemistry and mineralogy in eighteenth-century France

SUMMARY

Eighteenth-century scientific translation was not just a linguistic or intellectual affair. It included numerous material aspects requiring a social organization to marshal the indispensable human and non-human actors. Paratexts and actors' correspondences provide a good observatory to get information about aspects such as shipments and routes, processes of translation and language acquisition (dictionaries, grammars and other helpful materials, such as translated works in both languages), texts acquisition and dissemination (including author's additions and corrections, oral presentations in academic meetings and announcements of forthcoming translations).

The nature of scientific translation changed in France during the second half of the eighteenth century. Beside solitary translators, it also happened to become a collective enterprise, dedicated to providing abridgements (Collection académique, 1755–79) or enriching the learned journals with full translations of the most recent foreign texts (Guyton de Morveau's ‘Bureau de traduction de Dijon’, devoted to chemistry and mineralogy, 1781–90). That new trend clearly had a decisive influence on the nature of the scientific press itself. A way to set up science as a social activity in the provincial capital of Dijon, translation required a local and international network for acquiring the linguistic and scientific expertise, along with the original texts, as quickly as possible. Laboratory results and mineralogical observations were used to compare material facts (colour, odour, shape of crystals, etc.) with those described in the original text. By providing a double kind of validation – with both the experiments and the translations – the laboratory thus happened to play a major role in translation.     

Oxidative damage to RNA: mechanisms, consequences, and diseases

Overproduction of free radicals can damage cellular components resulting in progressive physiological dysfunction, which has been implicated in many human diseases. Oxidative damage to RNA received little attention until the past decade. Recent studies indicate that RNA, such as messenger RNA and ribosomal RNA, is very vulnerable to oxidative damage. RNA oxidation is not a consequence of dying cells but an early event involved in pathogenesis. Oxidative modification to RNA results in disturbance of the translational process and impairment of protein synthesis, which can cause cell deterioration or even cell death. In this review, we discuss the mechanisms of oxidative damage to RNA and the possible biological consequences of damaged RNA. Furthermore, we review recent evidence suggesting that oxidative damage to RNA may contribute to progression of many human diseases.     

II. Effect of a steroidal antagonist of aldosterone (SC 9420) on sodium and potassium transfer

Riassunto Nonostante l'affinità strutturale con l'uabaina, lo spirolattone antialdosteronico SC 9420 non esercita la stessa azione del glicoside cardiocinetico sugli scambi attivi che si manifestanoin vitro attraverso la membrana di eritrociti umani incubati a 37°C dopo 6 giorni di conservazione a 4°C. Non trova quindi conferma sperimentale l'ipotesi che entrambe queste sostanze competano con l'aldosterone in qualche fase del processo enzimatico di trasporto degli elettroliti a livello di tutte le membrane cellulari dell'organismo.     

Inhibition of in vitro RNA synthesis by hycanthone, oxamniquine and praziquantel.

The schistosomicides, hycanthone, oxamniquine and praziquantel, were found to inhibit the in vitro RNA synthesis using isolated hamster liver nuclei. Preincubation of the nuclei with these drugs revealed that the inhibitory effect of oxamniquine was irreversible and progressed with time, whereas that of hycanthone and praziquantel was reversible. On the other hand, hycanthone and praziquantel have a high affinity for DNA but oxamniquine does not. The data indicate that the mechanism of inhibition by oxamniquine is different from that of hycanthone and praziquantel.     

The Newton letters (Vols. I and II)

The metaphysical commitment to the circle as the essential element in the analysis of celestial motion has long been recognized as the hallmark of classical astronomy. What has not always been clear, however, is that the circle continued to serve Kepler as a central element in his astronomy after the discovery of the elliptical orbit of Mars. Moreover, the circle also functioned for Kepler in geometry to select the basic polygons, in music to select the basic harmonies, and in astrology to select the basic aspects. His basic set of polygons consisted of those figures that could be constructed using only a compass and a rule; the set of fundamental harmonies consisted of the consonances of the just intonation; and the traditional set of astrological aspects were enlarged by Kepler to include three new aspects in order to make the astrological set consistent with geometry and music. And as the circle served to unify these three areas, so also did it serve to supply the fundamental answers to astronomical problems well after the discovery of his new astronomy—a topic to be discussed in Part II of this paper.     

Murine primitive neuroectodermal tumor: nucleolar isolation and RNA polymerase inhibition.

A nucleolar isolation procedure was developed for the murine primitive neuroectodermal tumor originally induced with methylcholanthrene. This procedure utilizes sonication for breakage of the nuclei at a magnesium concentration which disperses the extranucleolar chromatin. The nucleoli retain RNA synthetic activity which is inhibited to about 90% by actinomycin D and the chemotherapeutic drug adriamycin.     

The effects of intracerebrally administered RNA,tubercidin and histones on learning in rats

Zusammenfassung RNA aus Hefe, RNA-Hydrolysat, Tubercidin und mit Lysin angereichertes Histon, i.c. oder i.p. injiziert, hatten keine Wirkung auf die Lernfähigkeit von Ratten. Intracerebral injiziertes¹⁴C-RNA verbreitete sich schnell über das ganze Gehirn und verschwand relativ schnell wieder. Nach i.p. Injection von¹⁴C-RNA konnte jedoch ein geringer Betrag von¹⁴C im cerebralen RNA gefunden werden.     

RNA editing in plant organelles: machinery, physiological function and evolution

In plants, RNA editing is a process for converting a specific nucleotide of RNA from C to U and less frequently from U to C in mitochondria and plastids. To specify the site of editing, the cis-element adjacent to the editing site functions as a binding site for the trans-acting factor. Genetic approaches using Arabidopsis thaliana have clarified that a member of the protein family with pentatricopeptide repeat (PPR) motifs is essential for RNA editing to generate a translational initiation codon of the chloroplast ndhD gene. The PPR motif is a highly degenerate unit of 35 amino acids and appears as tandem repeats in proteins that are involved in RNA maturation steps in mitochondria and plastids. The Arabidopsis genome encodes approximately 450 members of the PPR family, some of which possibly function as trans-acting factors binding the cis-elements of the RNA editing sites to facilitate access of an unidentified RNA editing enzyme. Based on this breakthrough in the research on plant RNA editing, I would like to discuss the possible steps of co-evolution of RNA editing events and PPR proteins. Received 30 September 2005; received after revision 5 November 2005; accepted 28 November 2005