Dear Reader, As you may note, some posts have disappeared, while others have been modified. I ask your indulgences. I try to maintain a good-level of security to guard the blog from intrusion, but this is an Election Year that means Robots and Intruders on Social Media. More intrusion and changes to posts have occurred …
“Methods of Thinking; Methods of Work”
A great scientific thinker wrote, “Philosophy holds that the most important problem does not lie in understanding the laws of the objective world and thus being able to explain it, but in applying the knowledge of these laws to actively change it. “Where do correct ideas come from? Do they drop out of the skies? …
“Coronaviruses: An Overview of Their Replication and Pathogenesis”
Anthony R. Fehr and Stanley Perlman, Department of Microbiology, University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, Iowa City, IA 52242 "Coronavirus Life Cycle Attachment and Entry The initial attachment of the virion to the host cell is initiated by interactions between the S protein and its receptor. The sites of receptor binding domains (RBD) within …
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Nextstrain update on SARS-CoV-2
"Changes in viral genomes over time are normal "SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the disease COVID-19, is a coronavirus. Like other coronaviruses, SARS-CoV-2 has a genome encoded in RNA (rather than DNA). "Viruses infect cells because they need to borrow cellular machinery to replicate. For RNA viruses, this process is quite error-prone, as most RNA …
“Did Sweden make the right call on limiting its lockdown?”
Editorial, The Washington Post, May 18, 2020 "SWEDEN OFFERS an appealing model to many people who are fatigued by the hardships of pandemic lockdown or who were never convinced it was entirely necessary. The Nordic country took some measures to control the spread of the coronavirus: It banned groups larger than 50 people, called for …
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“Thermodynamics, Kinetics, and Mechanisms of Non-competitive Allosteric Inhibition of Chymotrypsin by Dihydrolipoic Acid-Coated Gold Nanoclusters”
Wen-Qi Chen, Miao-miao Yin, Peng-Jun Song, Xiao-Hang He, Yi Liu, and Feng-Lei Jiang Abstract Enzymes are an important class of biomacromolecules which catalyze many metabolic processes in living systems. Nanomaterials can be synthesized with tailored sizes as well as desired surface modifications, thus well acting as promising enzyme regulators. Fluorescent gold nanoclusters (AuNCs) are a representative …
“Saturation Mutagenesis for Phenylalanine Ammonia Lyases of Enhanced Catalytic Properties”
biomolecules-10-00838 Defining Phenylpropanoids
Locust Swarms Are Eating Their Way Across Two Continents
Climate change is worsening the largest plague of the crop-killing insects in 50 years, threatening famine in Africa, the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent. BY BOB BERWYN, INSIDECLIMATE NEWS As giant swarms of locusts spread across East Africa, the Arabian Peninsula and the Middle East, devouring crops that feed millions of people, some scientists …
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The Dynamics of Pandemics
Always the public servant for The American People, Commander Shope during his career in The United States Navy. He was known to be, 'a sober yet brilliant scientist possessed of a wide knowledge, common sense, integrity, and complete sanity.' "If pandemic influenza spread from sick-to-well by contact, then it should diffuse with reasonable rapidity over …
