The celestial mechanics of Leibniz in the light of Newtonian criticism

By the middle of the nineteenth century science was developing into a profession demanding advanced training and devotion to research. American institutions, however, were still better suited to an earlier stage of popular science. Many of the difficulties and frustrations for would-be scientists created by the time lag in institutional change are illustrated in the career of Cleveland Abbe. In the fifteen years between 1856 and 1871 his attempts to become an astronomer touched upon many significant aspects of American science as a profession, including the American observatory movement, the creation of graduate education, government support for science, and the tension between the joint goals of the increase and the diffusion of knowledge.     

On Joseph Fourier: the man,the mathematician and the physicist

In 1793 Lord Macartney arrived in China as ambassador of King George III. The aims of his embassy were largely directed towards the enlargement of British trade with the far east, and especially with China. The embassy also had a diplomatic and cultural mission, to impress the Chinese with British achievements. They were to do so largely by distributing presents of British manufactures, chief among them being scientific instruments. The Chinese refused the embassy's requests, and clearly regarded the gifts of instruments as merely ingenious toys. This paper describes the role of instruments in the embassy, and contrasts British expectations with Chinese attitudes to scientific instruments. The embassy's failure is shown to reveal fundamental differences in British and Chinese eighteenth-century responses to science, and has wide cultural implications.     

Na+,K+-ATPase as a docking station: protein–protein complexes of the Na+,K+-ATPase

The Na⁺,K⁺-ATPase, or sodium pump, is well known for its role in ion transport across the plasma membrane of animal cells. It carries out the transport of Na⁺ ions out of the cell and of K⁺ ions into the cell and thus maintains electrolyte and fluid balance. In addition to the fundamental ion-pumping function of the Na⁺,K⁺-ATPase, recent work has suggested additional roles for Na⁺,K⁺-ATPase in signal transduction and biomembrane structure. Several signaling pathways have been found to involve Na⁺,K⁺-ATPase, which serves as a docking station for a fast-growing number of protein interaction partners. In this review, we focus on Na⁺,K⁺-ATPase as a signal transducer, but also briefly discuss other Na⁺,K⁺-ATPase protein–protein interactions, providing a comprehensive overview of the diverse signaling functions ascribed to this well-known enzyme.     

Molecular mechanisms of melatonin’s inhibitory actions on breast cancers

Melatonin is involved in many physiological functions and it plays an important role in many pathological processes as well. Melatonin has been shown to reduce the incidence of experimentally induced cancers and can significantly inhibit the growth of some human tumors, namely hormone-dependent cancers. The anticancer effects of melatonin have been observed in breast cancer, both in in vivo with models of chemically induced rat mammary tumors, and in vitro studies on human breast cancer cell lines. Melatonin acts at different physiological levels and its antitumoral properties are supported by a set of complex, different mechanisms of action, involving apoptosis activation, inhibition of proliferation, and cell differentiation.