Word: hofmann
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...they use protein molecules called enzymes as their machine tools. Scientists probing the secrets of life have learned that enzymes are long chains of amino acids linked together in definite order and tightly coiled or folded. But no one is sure just how they work. Last week Biochemist Klaus Hofmann of the University of Pittsburgh offered a glimmer of understanding by announcing the first partial synthesis of a working enzyme...
...model Dr. Hofmann selected ribonuclease, a much-studied natural enzyme that breaks down the ribonucleic acid found in all cells. With delicate skill, he split the ribonuclease into two parts, one containing 20 amino acids, the other containing 104. In this disjointed condition the enzyme has no effectiveness. It is like a machine tool with the motor separated from the cutting edge...
...Hofmann patiently built a copy of the smaller fragment. After he had stuck 13 of the acids together, he joined his synthetic segment to the 104-acid remainder of natural ribonuclease. The reconstituted enzyme proved to have 70% of the activity of the natural substance. Apparently the seven amino acids, Nos. 14 to 20, that had been left out are like the chip collector on a lathe-useful but not essential...
...PSILOCYBIN, which Hofmann first extracted from Mexican mushrooms and then synthesized in 1958, has much the same effect as the other two. It apparently falls somewhere between mescaline and LSD in potency...
...short for D-lysergic acid diethylamide), by far the most potent, is a chemical relative of the ergot drugs, synthesized in 1943 by Swiss Chemist Albert Hofmann. As Discoverer Hofmann found, and countless psychiatrists have since confirmed, a dose of LSD-25 can be so small as to be almost invisible and still destroy a man's mental equilibrium, at least temporarily. As little as four-millionths of an ounce is sometimes enough to throw an emotionally wobbly individual into a mental hospital. One victim, ill for months, was a psychologist who was trying out LSD himself...