Word: rna
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...research subjects ranged from cannibalistic flatworms to elderly patients in a Canadian psychiatric hospital. But both the psychiatrists and the flatworm fanciers were working with the same basic stuff: ribonucleic acid (RNA), which seems to be the chemical paper that carries the imprint of animal and human memories. Learned reports on the widely varied projects last week contained startling but strangely similar suggestions for the future. Some day, said the worm workers, students may be able to take their lessons in tablet form. Some day, said the psychiatrists, an old man's failing memory may be rejuvenated in much...
...Boost from Yeast. Dr. D. Ewen Cameron, imaginative and resourceful head of Montreal's famed Allan Memorial Institute, was impressed by the fact that as his patients grew older, the amount of RNA in their cells decreased. Although the plausible theory that the imprint of memory is reflected in changes in RNA molecules (TIME, Feb. 10, 1961) has not yet been proved, Dr. Cameron wondered whether patients with memory defects might be helped by booster doses of RNA...
...result," Dr. Wacker said, "was a doubling of the DNA [deoxyribonucleic acid] in the nucleus of the cell [a process that precedes normal cell division] although the RNA [ribonucleic acid] content of the cell was markedly reduced along with protein and zinc...
...This indicates," Dr. Wacker pointed out, "that there is mitotic arrest and a block in both RNA and protein synthesis resulting from zinc deficiency--a condition that is not reversed when other trace metals [iron, manganese, copper, magnesium and calcium] metabolic precursors or metabolites, are added to the nutrient solution in which the organism is grown...
...Apparently," Dr. Wacker concluded, "zinc may be required to maintain the functional and structural integrity of euglena RNA...