The pre-history of hemocyanin. The discovery of copper in the blood of molluscs

The presence of copper in molluscs was discovered in 1833 by Bartolomeo Bizio, a Venetian chemist, who found copper in marine gastropods of the family Muricidae during his studies on the purple dye he had isolated from these animals. Bizio was so surprised by this finding that he extended his analysis to several other invertebrate species in which he identified the metal.     

重庆四面山根系及土壤特性对优先路径分布的影响

通过分析不同土地利用状况(林地,灌草地和农地)下优先路径分布特征、土壤特性、及根系状况,探讨根系和土壤特性时优先路径的影响.采用染色法分析了三种不同土地利用状况下6块样地的优先路径分布,并分析了优先路径与根长密度、根孔和根面积之间的关系.结果表明,所有土地利用状况下0～10 cm土壤染色面积超过50％,在20 cm以下...     

Lime in the Early Bleaching Industry of Britain 1633-1828: Its Prohibition and Repeal

This essay describes the background and possible reasons for legal intervention in the use of lime in the early bleaching industry and draws on the Statutes at Large and other Acts of Parliament as primary sources. The developing chemical knowledge that may have contributed to the later Acts of repeal is also considered in some detail. The earliest noted prohibition was in 1633 and the years 1823, 1825, and 1828 were important repeal dates. No related legislation later than 1828 has been found. During the period from 1633 to 1828 there were many renewals and modifications to existing laws concerning linen and hempen manufacture; several of these contained subsections regarding bleaching. The considerable number of such Acts may account for the apparent confusion shown by earlier authors on this subject. Furthermore, the various Acts passed by the Irish House of Commons over its lifetime from 1400 to 1800, with its many interruptions, were published in a limited number of editions and are consequently held by few libraries. Ireland instituted its own laws and it was only after the Act of Union in 1800 that matters were dealt with by Westminster. Indeed, earlier historians have not always appreciated that, at certain periods of the history of the United Kingdom, Ireland and Scotland (as well as England) had their own separate parliaments.     

Visualization of the mitochondria ofToxoplasma gondii-infected mouse fibroblasts by the cationic permeant fluorescent dye rhodamine 123

Summary The mitochondria of living mouse fibroblasts infected withToxoplasma gondii were monitored with the cationic permeant fluorescent dye rhodamine 123. Fluorescence microscopy revealed that host cell mitochondria accumulated at the cytoplasmic surface of parasitophorous vacuoles and increased the dye uptake in the periparasitophorous vacuole asT. gondii multiplied.The author wishes gratefully to acknowledge the work of Miss Mayumi Kato and Mr. Isao Kimata in preparing the photographs. The publication cost was supported by a grant of the Ohyama Health Foundation.     

Activated protein C binds directly to Tie2: possible beneficial effects on endothelial barrier function

Activated protein C (APC) is a natural anticoagulant with strong anti-inflammatory, anti-apoptotic, and barrier stabilizing properties. These cytoprotective properties of APC are thought to be exerted through its pathway involving the binding of APC to endothelial protein C receptor and cleavage of protease-activated receptors. In this study, we found that APC enhanced endothelial barrier integrity via a novel pathway, by binding directly to and activating Tie2, a transmembrane endothelial tyrosine kinase receptor. Binding assays demonstrated that APC competed with the only known ligands of Tie2, the angiopoietins (Angs). APC bound directly to Tie2 (Kd ~3 nM), with markedly stronger binding affinity than Ang2. After binding, APC rapidly activated Tie2 to enhance endothelial barrier function as shown by Evan’s blue dye transfer across confluent cell monolayers and in vivo studies. Blocking Tie2 restricted endothelial barrier integrity. This study highlights a novel mechanism by which APC binds directly to Tie2 to enhance endothelial barrier integrity, which helps to explain APC’s protective effects in vascular leakage-related pathologies.     

Visualization of the mitochondria of Toxoplasma gondii-infected mouse fibroblasts by the cationic permeant fluorescent dye rhodamine 123

The mitochondria of living mouse fibroblasts infected with Toxoplasma gondii were monitored with the cationic permeant fluorescent dye rhodamine 123. Fluorescence microscopy revealed that host cell mitochondria accumulated at the cytoplasmic surface of parasitophorous vacuoles and increased the dye uptake in the periparasitophorous vacuole as T. gondii multiplied.     

Physiological effects of the meteorologically abnormal year 1974 observed in healthy males in the Netherlands and southern Norway.

Convincing evidence of biological effects during long-term abnormal weather conditions is very rare because usually no continuous series of physiological data from the same animals or humans (either single or in groups) have been collected over many years during the period preceding the meteorological event. Since 1955, at the Biometeorological Research centre, Leiden, about 220,000 blood data were collected from healthy male blood donors at Leiden, The Netherlands, and about 110,000 data at Oslo, Norway, since 1966. It was found that during the meteorologically abnormal year of 1974, which was abnormal in many parts of the world, both in Leiden and Oslo abnormal biological patterns occurred in blood sedimentation rate, haemoglobin, diastolic blood pressure, gamma-globulin levels, Piccardi p-test percentages and a few other biological parameters. A more complete monograph will be published at a later date.     

The modulus of elasticity of lobster aorta microfibrils

The presence of elastic fibres in the extracellular matrix (ECM) provides physiologically important elastic properties for many tissues. Until recently, microfibrils, one component of the ECM, were thought primarily to serve as a scaffolding on which elastin is deposited during development to form elaunin fibres [1]. The most prominent protein that forms mammalian microfibrils is fibrillin. It is known that mutations in the fibrillin gene cause a heterogenous connective tissue disease called marfan syndrome [2], so information on mechanical properties of microfibrils or their role in tissue function would be useful. Microfibrils are also found in the ECM of some invertebrate tissues, and there is growing evidence that the protein forming the structure is homologous to mammalian fibrillin [3, 4]. It has been shown that the microfibril-based arterial wall of the lobster has viscoelastic properties [5], and we have now utilized this primitive artery to measure the modulus of elasticity of microfibrils. It is similar to that of the rubber-like protein elastin.     

土壤有机质及其研究方法综述

土壤有机质为森林生态系统生产力构成的重要部分，是森林生态系统生物循环中的重要环节之一.综述土壤有机质的来源及其与土壤肥力的关系，分析了土壤有机质研究方法的历史、存在的问题及进展情况.森林凋落物、土壤生物及环境因素对土壤有机质含量有直接或间接的影响，同时，土壤有机质又与土壤物理、化学和生物性质密不可分.近年来，科研学者在沿用经典测定方法的基础上，采用了红外光谱、核磁共振和同位素示踪等一些先进方法对土壤有机质性质进行研究，取得了引人注目的进展.但由于土壤有机质结构复杂，长期以来对土壤有机质的结构、反应及其转化仍未能完全认识清楚。     

Books received

R. P. de Lamanon was trained in theology and philosophy, but he chose the career of a self-taught geologist/naturalist, later adding experimental physics to his skills. Recommended by Condorcet, Secretary to the Académie Royale des Sciences, for the post of ‘Naturaliste’ on La Pérouse's expedition, he carried out delicate measurements at sea requested by the Académie and made two important discoveries: the barometric tide at the equator, and the variation of magnetic intensity with latitude. Killed by natives of Samoa in 1787, his reports were long delayed in publication, inadequately presented, and some even lost. Except for brief recognition by von Humboldt many years later, Lamanon's pioneering measurements have been largely ignored or forgotten. This paper revives his memory.     

Interaction of extrinsic fluorescent probes with E. coli glutamine synthetase.

Binding of 2-p-toluidinylnaphthalene-6-sulfonate (TNS) to adenylylated (E--11) glutamine synthetase is cooperative and time-dependent, with 3 dye sites per subunit. In fluorescence polarization experiments TNS and pyrene butyrate give normalized Perrin plots that indicate a symmetrical arrangement of dye excited state dipoles, relative to the rotational axis of the oblate ellipsoid of the dodecameric native enzyme.     

John case on art and nature

John Case (d. 1600), the most important English Aristotelian of the Renaissance period, has not yet received the attention he deserves. In his Lapis philosophicus (Oxford, 1599), an exposition of Aristotle's Physics, is found a discussion of the relation of nature to art which parallels in many ways that formulated a few years later in the writings of Francis Bacon. Case argues, in a way more reminiscent of the works of Giambattista della Porta than of those of Aristotle, that the natural philosopher can legitimately apply the productive arts in helping nature to fulfill her function. Moreover, while rejecting the excessive claims of the Paracelsians, Case does accept the transmutational claims of the alchemists. In the final analysis, his ‘Aristotelianism’ has been tempered by the tradition of Renaissance natural magic. Like many other Peripatetic thinkers of the period, Case shows himself to be an eclectic, drawing materials from a wide variety of sources and open to many of the new scientific tendencies then developing.     

Purification of diphtheria toxin by chromatography on Cibacron Blue-Sepharose

Diphtheria toxin binds to Cibacron Blue-Agarose and may be eluted by increasing the ionic strength of the elution buffer. Experiments using difference spectroscopy showed that the interaction between toxin and dye is ionic rather than hydrophobic, and therefore it is of a different nature with respect to that usually found in nucleotide-requiring enzymes.     

Skeletal muscle capillary densities during reactive hyperemia

Reactive hyperemia was induced in hindlimbs of rats by occlusion of the femoral artery. Using fluorescein dye as a peripheral vascular marker, we observed that there was an increase in the number of flowing capillaries supplying the muscle fibres following release of the occlusion. The results indicate that the number of flowing capillaries is not dependent on the duration of occlusion (2-10 min).     

Scientific Governance in Britain 1914–79

John Harrison (1693–1776) is regarded as the father of chronometry. During his lifetime, he relentlessly pursued one of humankind's greatest and oldest challenges—that of finding the longitude at sea. In succeeding (according to the rules dictated by an Act of Parliament), he bequeathed to humankind the most accurate portable timekeeper the world had ever seen. It is a remarkable fact that his timekeeper, known today as H4, remains more accurate than the majority of expensive mechanical wristwatches manufactured today. Such accuracy required novel approaches to address the various difficulties that befall all mechanical watches, and Harrison overcame many of these with his own innovations. The reduction or elimination of friction is one such problem with clocks and watches, and from an early age Harrison demonstrated his mastery in this subject. This is typified by his choice of woods in his early clocks, and in later clocks by his ‘grasshopper’ escapement. In the 1750s, Harrison's attention switched from clocks to watches, necessitating a hardwearing, low friction material to be found for the pallets in the escapement of his timekeepers. He found these properties in diamond, and in utilizing this to great effect in H4's escapement, he became one of the first people to use diamond as a high-tech material. This paper describes a scientific investigation into the diamond pallets of H4 using Raman microscopy, X-ray diffraction and optical microscopy, to elucidate why diamond was used rather than a more conventional jewel such as ruby, and to gain some insight into how Harrison might have achieved their unconventional morphology. From the evidence presented here, together with evidence collected from primary sources, it is shown that his use of diamond as a hard, low friction material was nothing other than extraordinary, and should be regarded in the same high esteem as his other technological gifts to the world.     

Arte rates reguntur: Nautical handbooks in antiquity?

Given the huge number of technical handbooks on multifarious subjects, ranging from astronomy and music to rhetoric, horticulture, and cooking, the absence of ancient nautical handbooks comes as a surprise. Such handbooks did exist in antiquity in some form, likely having been written in the period of the Hellenistic boom of technical texts, but disappearing at some later point, perhaps around the third or fourth century AD. This disappearance could be due to a number of reasons, suggesting that the tastes and needs of the audience(s) for nautical technai were changing. These nautical handbooks may have been superseded by more specialized works, such as treatises on astronomy and mathematics, geography and periploi, and naval tactics, which may have been regarded as being of greater use than an interdisciplinary book on sailing. From a purely aesthetic perspective, many readers will probably not feel inclined to bemoan the loss of all ancient handbooks on navigation, as they will have looked similar to the periploi, containing many imperatives, short main clauses in hypotaxis, and many numerals.     

Skeletal muscle capillary densities during reactive hyperemia

Summary Reactive hyperemia was induced in hindlimbs of rats by occlusion of the femoral artery. Using fluorescein dye as a peripheral vascular marker, we observed that there was an increase in the number of flowing capillaries supplying the muscle fibres following release of the occlusion. The results indicate that the number of flowing capillaries is not dependent on the duration of occlusion (2–10 min).     

Linderazulene,a new naturally occurring pigment from the gorgonianParamuricea chamaeleon

Summary The purple pigment of the gorgonianParamuricea chamaeleon has been isolated and identified as linderazulene (I).We thank Dr K. Takeda for linderazulene spectra, and NATO for a grant (to S.I. and R.H.T.) in support of this work.     

Ecology and physiology of phototrophic bacteria and sulfate-reducing bacteria in marine salterns

Marine salterns are habitats for a large variety of halophilic bacteria. In the anoxic zones, halophilic sulfur bacteria develop mainly at the sediment surface, but only a few of them have so far been isolated from such environments. Among the phototrophic sulfur bacteria that sometimes form purple layers underneath the green cyanobacterial layers, members of the generaEctothiodhodospira, Chromatium (C. salexigens), Thiocapsa (T. halophila) were isolated. They grow by using sulfide as an electron donor. In the marine salterns, sulfide originates from active sulfate reduction. Among the halophilic sulfate-reducing bacteria, onlyDesulfovibrio halophilus andDesulfohalobium retbaense have so far been isolated. The ecology and physiology of both kinds of bacteria are discussed in this paper.