Chemistry

  The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2004             Ubiquitin This is what the actual label looks like. It consists of a short polypeptide chain, a small protein that is so common in the cells of different organisms that it was early named ubiquitin, from the Latin ubique, ‘everywhere’. This protein…

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  The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2004           The most common reason for miscarriage is an error when the mother’s and the father’s chromosomes are to be separated in the formation of sex cells. Ubiquitin-marking plays an important role here. The picture shows a calf embryo.   How are sex cells…

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Banquet speech

Robert B. Woodward’s speech at the Nobel Banquet in Stockholm, December 10, 1965 Your Majesty, Your Royal Highnesses, Ladies and Gentlemen. We are told that the Nobel festivities are a celebration of achievement. Therefore, I hope it will be regarded as appropriate for me to express my feeling that the things my fellow laureates and…

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      Paul D. Boyer and John E. Walker have shown how the enzyme ATP synthase makes ATP. ATP synthase is found in chloroplast and mitochondrial membranes and in the cytoplasmic membrane of bacteria. A difference in hydrogen ion concentration across the membrane drives the enzyme to synthesise ATP. Using chemical methods Paul Boyer proposed…

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