1.
Enzyme
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Enzymes /ˈɛnzaɪmz/ are macromolecular biological catalysts. Enzymes accelerate, or catalyze, chemical reactions, the molecules at the beginning of the process upon which enzymes may act are called substrates and the enzyme converts these into different molecules, called products. Almost all metabolic processes in the cell need enzymes in order to occur at rates fast enough to sustain life, the set of enzymes made in a cell determines which metabolic pathways occur in that cell. The study of enzymes is called enzymology, enzymes are known to catalyze more than 5,000 biochemical reaction types. Most enzymes are proteins, although a few are catalytic RNA molecules, enzymes specificity comes from their unique three-dimensional structures. Like all catalysts, enzymes increase the rate of a reaction by lowering its activation energy, some enzymes can make their conversion of substrate to product occur many millions of times faster. An extreme example is orotidine 5-phosphate decarboxylase, which allows a reaction that would take millions of years to occur in milliseconds. Chemically, enzymes are like any catalyst and are not consumed in chemical reactions, enzymes differ from most other catalysts by being much more specific. Enzyme activity can be affected by other molecules, inhibitors are molecules that decrease enzyme activity, many drugs and poisons are enzyme inhibitors. An enzymes activity decreases markedly outside its optimal temperature and pH, some enzymes are used commercially, for example, in the synthesis of antibiotics. French chemist Anselme Payen was the first to discover an enzyme, diastase and he wrote that alcoholic fermentation is an act correlated with the life and organization of the yeast cells, not with the death or putrefaction of the cells. In 1877, German physiologist Wilhelm Kühne first used the term enzyme, the word enzyme was used later to refer to nonliving substances such as pepsin, and the word ferment was used to refer to chemical activity produced by living organisms. Eduard Buchner submitted his first paper on the study of yeast extracts in 1897, in a series of experiments at the University of Berlin, he found that sugar was fermented by yeast extracts even when there were no living yeast cells in the mixture. He named the enzyme that brought about the fermentation of sucrose zymase, in 1907, he received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his discovery of cell-free fermentation. Following Buchners example, enzymes are usually named according to the reaction they carry out, the biochemical identity of enzymes was still unknown in the early 1900s. Sumner showed that the enzyme urease was a protein and crystallized it. These three scientists were awarded the 1946 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, the discovery that enzymes could be crystallized eventually allowed their structures to be solved by x-ray crystallography. This high-resolution structure of lysozyme marked the beginning of the field of structural biology, an enzymes name is often derived from its substrate or the chemical reaction it catalyzes, with the word ending in -ase
2.
Anaerobic bacteria
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An anaerobic organism or anaerobe is any organism that does not require oxygen for growth. It may react negatively or even die if oxygen is present, an anaerobic organism may be unicellular or multicellular. Van Leeuwenhoek sealed one of the tubes by using a flame. In 1913 Martinus Beijerinck repeated Van Leeuwenhoeks experiment and identified Clostridium butyricum as a prominent anaerobic bacterium in the sealed pepper infusion tube liquid. That Leeuwenhoek, one hundred years before the discovery of oxygen, for practical purposes, there are three categories of anaerobe, Obligate anaerobes, which are harmed by the presence of oxygen. Aerotolerant organisms, which use oxygen for growth, but tolerate its presence. Facultative anaerobes, which can grow without oxygen but use oxygen if it is present, some obligate anaerobes use fermentation, while others use anaerobic respiration. In the presence of oxygen, facultative anaerobes use aerobic respiration, without oxygen, some of them ferment, there are many anaerobic fermentative reactions. This is only 5% of the energy per molecule that the typical aerobic reaction generates. Since normal microbial culturing occurs in air, which is an aerobic environment. Hydrogen then reacts with oxygen gas on a palladium catalyst to more water. The issue with the Gaspak method is that a reaction can take place where the bacteria may die. The thioglycollate supplies a medium mimicking that of a dicot, thus providing not only an anaerobic environment, complex multicellular life that does not need oxygen is said to be rare, however there are examples of such organisms. Some organisms metabolise primarily using glycogen, for example the Nereid s and some polychaetes, or the juvenile Trichinella spiralis parasites. )
3.
National Medal of Science
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The twelve member presidential Committee on the National Medal of Science is responsible for selecting award recipients and is administered by the National Science Foundation. The National Medal of Science was established on August 25,1959, the medal was originally to honor scientists in the fields of the physical, biological, mathematical, or engineering sciences. The Committee on the National Medal of Science was established on August 23,1961, on January 7,1979, the American Association for the Advancement of Science passed a resolution proposing that the medal be expanded to include the social and behavioral sciences. In response, Senator Ted Kennedy introduced the Science and Technology Equal Opportunities Act into the Senate on March 7,1979, President Jimmy Carters signature enacted this change as Public Law 96-516 on December 12,1980. The first National Medal of Science was awarded on February 18,1963, the first woman to receive a National Medal of Science was Barbara McClintock, who was awarded for her work on plant genetics in 1970. Although Public Law 86-209 provides for 20 recipients of the medal per year, it is typical for approximately 8–15 accomplished scientists, there have been a number of years where no National Medals of Science were awarded. Those years include,1985,1984,1980,1978,1977,1972 and 1971, the awards ceremony is organized by the Office of Science and Technology Policy. It takes place at the White House and is presided by the sitting United States president, each year the National Science Foundation sends out a call to the scientific community for the nomination of new candidates for the National Medal of Science. Individuals are nominated by their peers with each nomination requiring three letters of support from individuals in science and technology, the nomination of a candidate is effective for three years, at the end of three years, the candidates peers are allowed to renominate the candidate. The Committee makes their recommendations to the President for the final awarding decision, the National Medal of Science depicts Man, surrounded by earth, sea, and sky, contemplating and struggling to understand Nature. The crystal in his hand represents the order and also suggests the basic unit of living things. The formula being outlined in the sand symbolizes scientific abstraction
4.
Jimmy Carter
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James Earl Jimmy Carter Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States from 1977 to 1981. In 2002, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work with the Carter Center, Carter was a Democrat who was raised in rural Georgia. He was a farmer who served two terms as a Georgia State Senator from 1963 to 1967, and one as the Governor of Georgia from 1971 to 1975. He was elected President in 1976, defeating incumbent President Gerald Ford in a close election. On his second day in office, Carter pardoned all evaders of the Vietnam War drafts, during Carters term as President, two new cabinet-level departments, the Department of Energy and the Department of Education, were established. He established an energy policy that included conservation, price control. In foreign affairs, Carter pursued the Camp David Accords, the Panama Canal Treaties, the round of Strategic Arms Limitation Talks. On the economic front he confronted persistent stagflation, a combination of inflation, high unemployment. The end of his tenure was marked by the 1979–1981 Iran hostage crisis, the 1979 energy crisis, the Three Mile Island nuclear accident. In response to the Soviet move he ended détente, escalated the Cold War, Carter won the 1980 primary with 51. 13% of the vote but lost the general election in an electoral landslide to Republican nominee Ronald Reagan, who won 44 of 50 states. His presidency has drawn medium-low responses from historians, with many considering him to have accomplished more with his post-presidency work and he set up the Carter Center in 1982 as his base for advancing human rights. He has also traveled extensively to conduct negotiations, observe elections. Additionally, Carter is a key figure in the Habitat for Humanity project, since surpassing Herbert Hoover in September 2012, he has been the longest-retired president in American history. He is also the first president to mark the 40th anniversary of his election and inauguration, in reference to current political views, he has criticized some of Israels actions and policies in regards to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and has advocated for a two-state solution. James Earl Carter, Jr. was born on October 1,1924, at the Wise Sanitarium in Plains and he is a descendant of English immigrant Thomas Carter, who settled in Virginia in 1635. Numerous generations of Carters lived as farmers in Georgia. Carter is also a descendant of Thomas Cornell, an ancestor of Cornell Universitys founder and of Richard Nixon, Plains was a boomtown of 600 people at the time of Carters birth. His father, James Earl Carter, Sr. was a local businessman who ran a general store and had begun to invest in farmland
5.
National Heart Institute
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The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute is the third largest Institute of the National Institutes of Health, located in Bethesda, Maryland, United States. It is tasked with allocating about $3, nHLBIs Director is Gary H. Gibbons. Research is related to the causes, prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of heart, blood vessel, lung, and blood diseases and it also supports research on clinical use of blood and all aspects of the management of blood resources. For health professionals and the public, the NHLBI conducts educational activities, including development and dissemination of materials in the above areas, the NHLBI coordinates relevant activities in the above areas, including the related causes of stroke, with other research institutes and federal health programs. There are 60 investigators, each of whom runs their own research program and they are supported by a group of core services that implement state-of-the-art techniques available to all NHLBI investigators. The NHLBI was home to Marshall Nirenberg, Nobel laureate for his part in the discovery of the genetic code, the DIR also has a large training component, with opportunities for undergraduate, graduate, and medical students as well as post-doctoral training. The NHLBI sponsors National Wear Red Day and the Heart Truth campaign, a national awareness campaign for women about heart disease
6.
National Academy of Sciences
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The National Academy of Sciences is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering, as a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research. Election to the National Academies is one of the highest honors in the scientific field, members serve pro bono as advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine. The group holds a congressional charter under Title 36 of the United States Code, … to provide scientific advice to the government whenever called upon by any government department. The Academy receives no compensation from the government for its services, as of 2016, the National Academy of Sciences includes about 2,350 members and 450 foreign associates. It employed about 1,100 staff in 2005, the current members annually elect new members for life. Approximately 200 members have won a Nobel Prize, the National Academy of Sciences is a member of the International Council for Science. Although there is no relationship with state and local academies of science. The National Academies is governed by a 17-member Council, made up of five officers and 12 Councilors, the National Academy of Sciences meets annually in Washington, D. C. which is documented in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, its scholarly journal. The National Academies Press is the publisher for the National Academies, since 2004, the National Academy of Sciences has administered the Marian Koshland Science Museum to provide public exhibits and programming related to its policy work. The museums current exhibits focus on change and infectious disease. The National Academy of Sciences maintains multiple buildings around the United States, the building has a neoclassical architectural style and was built by architect Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue. The building was dedicated in 1924 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the building is used for lectures, symposia, exhibitions, and concerts, in addition to annual meetings of the NAS, NAE, and NAM. The 2012 Presidential Award for Math and Science Teaching ceremony was held here on March 5,2014, approximately 150 staff members work at the NAS Building. More than 1,000 National Academies staff members work at The Keck Center of the National Academies at 500 Fifth Street in northwest Washington, the Keck Center provides meeting space and houses the National Academies Press Bookstore. The NAS also maintains conference centers in California and Massachusetts, the J. Erik Jonsson Conference Center located at 314 Quissett Avenue in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, is another conference facility. The Act of Incorporation, signed by President Abraham Lincoln on March 3,1863, created the National Academy of Sciences, many of the original NAS members came from the so-called Scientific Lazzaroni, an informal network of mostly physical scientists working in the vicinity of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Senator Henry Wilson of Massachusetts was to name Agassiz to the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, Agassiz was to come to Washington at the governments expense to plan the organization with the others
7.
The Washington Post
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The Washington Post is an American daily newspaper. It is the most widely circulated newspaper published in Washington, D. C. and was founded on December 6,1877 and its current slogan is Democracy Dies in Darkness. Located in the city of the United States, the newspaper has a particular emphasis on national politics. Daily editions are printed for the District of Columbia, Maryland, the newspaper is published as a broadsheet, with photographs printed both in color and in black and white. The newspaper has won 47 Pulitzer Prizes and this includes six separate Pulitzers awarded in 2008, the second-highest number ever awarded to a single newspaper in one year, second only to The New York Times seven awards in 2002. Post journalists have also received 18 Nieman Fellowships and 368 White House News Photographers Association awards, in years since, its investigations have led to increased review of the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. In 2013, its owners, the Graham family, sold the newspaper to billionaire entrepreneur. The newspaper is owned by Nash Holdings LLC, a holding company Bezos created for the acquisition, the Washington Post is generally regarded as one of the leading daily American newspapers, along with The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. The Post has distinguished itself through its reporting on the workings of the White House, Congress. It is one of the two daily broadsheets published in Washington D. C. the other being its smaller rival The Washington Times, unlike The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post does not print an edition for distribution away from the East Coast. In 2009, the newspaper ceased publication of its National Weekly Edition, the majority of its newsprint readership is in District of Columbia and its suburbs in Maryland and Northern Virginia. The Sunday Style section differs slightly from the weekday Style section, it is in a tabloid format, and it houses the reader-written humor contest The Style Invitational. Additional weekly sections appear on weekdays, Health & Science on Tuesday, Food on Wednesday, Local Living on Thursday, the latter two are in a tabloid format. In November 2009, it announced the closure of its U. S. regional bureaus—Chicago, Los Angeles and New York—as part of a focus on. political stories. The newspaper has bureaus in Maryland and Virginia. While its circulation has been slipping, it has one of the highest market-penetration rates of any metropolitan news daily, for many decades, the Post had its main office at 1150 15th Street NW. This real estate remained with Graham Holdings when the newspaper was sold to Jeff Bezos Nash Holdings in 2013, Graham Holdings sold 1150 15th Street for US$159 million in November 2013. The Washington Post continued to lease space at 1150 L Street NW, in May 2014, The Washington Post leased the west tower of One Franklin Square, a high-rise building at 1301 K Street NW in Washington, D. C
8.
Thressa Stadtman
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Thressa Campbell Stadtman was an American biochemist, notable for her discovery of selenocysteine, and her research on selenoproteins and bioenergetics. In addition she made significant advances in amino acid metabolism, enzymes dependent on vitamin B12, in 1920, she was born in Sterling, New York. In 1940, she graduated from Cornell University, with a B. S. in Microbiology, in 1949, she graduated from University of California, Berkeley, with a Ph. D. in Microbial Biochemistry. Her thesis was titled Studies on Methane Fermentations and she was the wife of Earl Reece Stadtman whom she met when they were both graduate students at the University of California, Berkeley. The both were hired by what was then the National Heart Institute in 1950 becoming the first husband-and-wife team at the National Institutes of Health and they both oversaw their own biochemistry labs and collaborated closely. In 2005, they were honored by the NIH with an exhibit titled The Stadtman Way, A Tale of Two Biochemists at NIH. Over a 60-year period, starting in 1943, she published 212, Stadtman was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1981. Stadtman died in December 2016 at the age of 96, Stadtman by Buhm Soon Park, January 2001
9.
Selenocysteine
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Selenocysteine is the 21st proteinogenic amino acid. Selenocysteine exists naturally in three domains of life, but not in lineage, as a building block of selenoproteins. Selenocysteine is an analogue with a selenium-containing selenol group in place of the sulfur-containing thiol group. Selenocysteine is present in several enzymes, Selenocysteine was discovered by biochemist Thressa Stadtman at the National Institutes of Health. Selenocysteine has a similar to that of cysteine, but with an atom of selenium taking the place of the usual sulfur. Proteins that contain one or more residues are called selenoproteins. Most selenoproteins contain a single Sec residue, selenoproteins with catalytic activities which depend on selenocysteines biochemical activity are called selenoenzymes. The structurally characterized selenoenzymes have been found to employ catalytic triad structures that influence the nucleophilicity of the active site selenocysteine, Selenocysteine has both a lower pKa and a lower reduction potential than cysteine. These properties make it suitable in proteins that are involved in antioxidant activity. Although it is found in the three domains of life, it is not universal in all organisms, unlike other amino acids present in biological proteins, selenocysteine is not coded for directly in the genetic code. Instead, it is encoded in a way by a UGA codon. Such a mechanism is called translational recoding and its efficiency depends on the selenoprotein being synthesized, when cells are grown in the absence of selenium, translation of selenoproteins terminates at the UGA codon, resulting in a truncated, nonfunctional enzyme. The UGA codon is made to encode selenocysteine by the presence of an insertion sequence in the mRNA. The SECIS element is defined by nucleotide sequences and secondary structure base-pairing patterns. In bacteria, the SECIS element is located immediately following the UGA codon within the reading frame for the selenoprotein. In Archaea and in eukaryotes, the SECIS element is in the 3 untranslated region of the mRNA, again unlike the other amino acids, no free pool of selenocysteine exists in the cell. Its high reactivity would cause damage to cells, instead, cells store selenium in the less reactive selenide form. Selenocysteine synthesis occurs on a specialized tRNA, which functions to incorporate it into nascent polypeptides
10.
Carrizozo, New Mexico
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Carrizozo is a town in Lincoln County, New Mexico and is the county seat with a population of 996 at the 2010 census. Founded in 1899, the town provided the railroad access for Lincoln County. However, with declining relevance of the railroad, the population of the town has gradually declined, the town is located at the intersection of U. S. Route 54 and U. S. Route 380. The name of the town is derived from the Spanish vernacular for reed grass, the additional zo at the end of the town name was added to indicate abundance of Carrizo grass. The town is now referred to as Zozo. Prior to 1899, the area was primarily a few ranches, lawrence Murphy, a merchant active in the Lincoln County War, owned a major ranch in the area. The location of Carrizozo was selected as the site for a station on the El Paso, Carrizozo was chosen over the nearby booming mine town of White Oaks, New Mexico, resulting in large-scale migration from White Oaks to Carrizozo. The railroad brought businesses, growing populations, and increased importance to the town of Carrizozo, as a result, a county referendum in 1909 moved the county seat of Lincoln County from the town of Lincoln to Carrizozo. This decision resulted in a legal battle that was eventually resolved in favor of Carrizozo by the United States Supreme Court in the case of Gray v. Taylor. The result was a period where railroad access and political importance combined to lead to significant population growth in Carrizozo. The population reached around 2,000 by 1920, during the same time, journalist Quentin Reynolds visited the town and wrote a piece on it for Colliers Weekly. Later, he wrote in The Wounded Dont Cry that I used to agree with Bugs that once you left New York, you were strictly on the horse, but of late years I’ve had to modify that. Since then I’ve discovered New Orleans, San Francisco and a place called Carrizozo, New Mexico. I want to go there and gang around the drug store, Carrizozo is about 50 miles from Trinity Site, where the first nuclear bomb was detonated on July 16,1945. Residents reported tremors like an earthquake and, as the first major downwind settlement, with the rise of the automobile, Carrizozos proximity to the railroad became less important starting in the 1950s, and the last passenger train passed through in 1968. The result was a decrease in economic opportunity in Carrizozo, recently, the town has seen increasing focus on tourism, and cherry cider produced in the town is known nationally. Carrizozo is located at the point of the Tularosa Basin which extends southward to the New Mexico-Texas border. The town itself is located in an area known prior to the founding of the town as the Corrizo flats
