Archive for February, 2010
Natural products
Natural products have been a major source of drugs for centuries. With more than 25% of the pharmaceuticals in use today from natural products. This can be attributed to several factors, including unmet therapeutic needs that drive drug discovery, the remarkable diversity of both chemical structures and biological activities of naturally occuring secondary metabolities and [...]
Surface plasmon resonance
At an interface between two transparent media of different refractive index (glass and water), light coming from the side of higher refractive index is partly reflected and partly refracted. Above a certain critical angle of incidence, no light is refracted across the interface, and total internal reflection is observed. While incident light is totally reflected [...]
Plagiarism
Defining “Ethics” “What is all this, and how does it work?” – the answers to which are sought by science; and “What should we do?” – the answers to which are given by ethics. Ethics is a bridge between science and the deliberate mind. With the word deliberate mind I mean, the mind which seeks [...]
Structure Visualization
It’s generally understood by the molecular biology research community that the sequencing of the human genome, which will likely take several more years to complete, is relatively trivial compared to definitively characterizing the interactions within the proteome. Non-Static Structure Visualization Unlike a nucleotide sequence, which is a relatively static structure, proteins are dynamic entities that [...]
Cancer Chemotherapy
Cancer is a disease characterized by a shift in the control mechanisms that govern cell survival, proliferation, and differentiation. Cells that have undergone neoplastic transformation usually express cell surface antigens that may be of normal fetal type, may display other signs of apparent immaturity, and may exhibit qualitative or quantitative chromosomal abnormalities, including various translocations [...]
Antioxidants and treatment of diseases
What are antioxidants? An antioxidant is a molecule capable of slowing or preventing the oxidation of other molecules. Oxidation is a chemical reaction that transfers electrons from a substance to an oxidizing agent. Oxidation reactions can produce free radicals, which start chain reactions that damage cells. Antioxidants terminate these chain reactions by removing free radical [...]
Cancer is a Genetic Disease
The role of somatic mutations in cancer was debated for many years. Witkowski (1990) puts that historical debate in context with a comprehensive time line of developments in cancer research interleaved with developments in basic genetics and molecular biology. Boveri (1914, 1929) often gets credit for the first comprehensive theory of somatic genetic changes in [...]
Travel and tourism – Demand
Business travel and tourism demand is influenced by a broad range of factors found in both the generating region and the destination. These factors tend to focus on the forces that will influence demand between a specific generating region and a particular destination. They also give an indication of the factors that will influence demand [...]
Travel and tourism – History
Business travel and tourism is certainly not a new phenomenon. People have been travelling because of their work for many centuries. However, some forms of business tourism, such as incentive travel, are modern inventions. Business travel and tourism originated with trade between communities. Once agriculture developed beyond the subsistence level in areas of Africa, Asia [...]
Reducing your sleep
As you recall, during jet lag we travel over several time zones. If we travel 2 time zones to the West, our body temperature rhythm will still be set to 2 hours ahead. In response we feel out of place and it takes a while for our body temperature rhythm to adjust to the new [...]
Newsletter