Reserpine

Reserpine is a powerful plant alkaloid that used to be used to control psychotic behavior and treat certain cancers. Unfortunately, it's severe side effects and unpredictable behavior has limited it's usefulness. The drug has been replaced by more reliable treatments.

Many plants contain mildly toxic alkaloids but in most cases the concentrations are not high enough to cause a problem.¹ Reserpine is concentrated in Rauwolfia serpentina (Indian snakeroot) and this plant has been used for several thousand years in treating a number of aliments. One of the main effects of reserpine is to block the action of dopamine. This blockage causes symptom's that resemble Parkinson's disease. They can be relieved by treating the patient with L-dopa [Monday's Molecule #70].

My first exposure to research was a summer job (1966) in the lab of George Setterfield at Carleton University in Ottawa (Canada). The project was to identify crystal-like inclusions in the cells of Rauwolfia serpentina. The hypothesis was that these inclusions were composed of alkaloids, especially reserpine. As I recall, I didn't make much progress. The inclusions weren't always visible and my suspicion was that they could have been an artifact of the fixation process.

I haven't been able to find any mentions of plant alkaloid inclusions in the literature. Does anyone know this field?

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1. It's much safer to eat meat.

Digital Classicist/ICS Work in Progress Seminar

Digital Classicist/ICS Work in Progress Seminar
Summer 2008

Fridays at 16:30 in Senate House, Malet Street, London, WC1E 7HU

(June 20th, July 4th-18th seminars in Stewart House, room B3)

(June 27th seminar room 218, Chadwick Bdg, UCL, Gower Street)

The following may be of interest to papyrologists:

6 June
NG16 Elaine Matthews and Sebastian Rahtz (Oxford) The Lexicon of Greek Personal Names and classical web services

18 July
STB3 Ryan Bauman (University of Kentucky) Towards the Digital Squeeze: 3-D imaging of inscriptions and curse tablets

1 Aug
NG16 Juan Garcés (British Library) Digitizing the oldest complete Greek Bible: The Codex Sinaiticus Project

Source: Stoa.org

Terms & Conditions on Nature Network

 
Eva Amsen has an interesting question about how you would fund research if you were in complete control of all the money in the world [see, Would you rather?].

I was all set to post a comment when I realized that I had to sign in to Nature Network in order to do so. That reminded me about the terms and conditions. That's way more hassle than I'm prepared to put up with. I prefer the rough and tumble of unrestricted blogs.

My question is, does anyone else feel this way? What's the future of science blogging? Is it the strictly controlled environment of Nature Networks where the fora are part of a for-profit venture? Or is it the free-for-all environment of some of the other science blogs? Or is it something in between like the relatively unrestricted environment of the blogs run by SEED magazine?

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Monday's Molecule #70

 
It's been a while since you had to identify a molecule and give it's correct IUPAC name so here's a molecule that will give you some practice. First, you should assume that this is the L- form of this molecule and not the D- form. (This isn't obvious from the chemical structure.)

Give the common name of the molecule and the complete IUPAC name.

Identify the two Nobel Laureates who were awarded a Nobel Prize, in the same year, for discovering the fundamental properties of this molecule.

The first person to correctly identify the molecule and name the Nobel Laureates wins a free lunch at the Faculty Club. Previous winners are ineligible for one month from the time they first collected the prize. There are only two ineligible candidates for this week's reward.

THEME:

Nobel Laureates
Send your guess to Sandwalk (sandwalk (at) bioinfo.med.utoronto.ca) and I'll pick the first email message that correctly identifies the molecule and names the Nobel Laureates. Note that I'm not going to repeat Nobel Laureates so you might want to check the list of previous Sandwalk postings.

Correct responses will be posted tomorrow. I may select multiple winners if several people get it right.

Comments will be blocked for 24 hours. Comments are now open.

UPDATE: This week's winner is Maria Altshuler from the University of Toronto. She identified the molecule as L-dopa ((S)-2-amino-3- (3,4-dihydroxyphenyl) propanoic acid) and the Nobel Laureates are Arvid Carlsson and Paul Greengard. Congratulations Maria, you beat out several others who came up with the correct answer. The University of Toronto is thumping all other schools in this contest!¹

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1. That might have something to do with the fact that you have to be in Toronto to collect the prize, ya think? Maybe I should have another prize for people who can't come to Toronto? How about a Tim Horton's gift certificate?

Evolution of Sex & Recombination

 
I've been wondering if John Logsdon was still alive. There have been very few postings on his blog Sex, Genes, & Evoluton. Now we know why. He has been organizing a meeting about Sex in Iowa. (Is that an oxymoron?)

This looks like a very interesting meeting. Most of the key players are going to be there. Looking over the list of speakers makes you realize that the problem of sex is still very complicated. We don't have a consensus on the evolutionary advantages of sex (if any). This is an important point since many on the evolutionist side think otherwise. They believe that the evolutionary advantages of sex have been proven and it's no longer an open question.

I hope we'll hear a summary of the talks once the meeting is over.

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DESCAT, Économie antique. Approches de l'économie hellénistique, textes rassemblés

From 2006, just noticed in J. Straus' Review of Burstein, who mentions J. Manning, "The Ptolemaic Economy, Institutions, Economic Integration, and the Limits of Centralized Political Power," pp. 257-274 therein.

MUSEE ARCHEOLOGIQUE DEPARTEMENTAL SAINT-BERTRAND-DE-COMMINGES

ENTRETIENS D'ARCHEOLOGIE ET D'HISTOIRE

7 - Économie antique. Approches de l'économie hellénistique, textes rassemblés par DESCAT (R.). 455 p., 2006, (1320 g)

Absente pour l’essentiel des ouvrages qui ont été les plus influents dans l’analyse historique de l’économie antique, l’économie hellénistique mérite une approche réflexive. Limitée aux trois siècles environ qui séparent la conquête d’Alexandre de la mise en place de la conquête romaine, mais étendue à un espace vaste - grec, mais aussi non-grec à l’origine et intégré dans la conquête macédonienne, comme l’Egypte et la Babylonie, de même que les régions de la côte nord de la mer Noire - cette approche permet de s’interroger sur les points qui sont les plus susceptibles de compléter et de modifier la perception des économies antiques. Le problème central soulevé ici est le rapport au document. L’analyse des sources a ainsi été placée au cœur de la réflexion dans deux domaines, le timbrage des amphores et la monétarisation de l’économie. Le fait régional a été placé au centre des préoccupations. Les temps et les acteurs ont été la référence historique vers laquelle les efforts ont convergé : la compréhension des temps a été rattachée aux faits économiques, et en particulier aux prix ; celle des acteurs est passée par la figure du souverain et le rapport entre privé et public ; on a enfin posé la question de l’efficacité du système économique et du rôle des figures intermédiaires, collectives et individuel

Some Forthcoming Books

Listed in worldcat, but not yet available.

From temple to church : destruction and renewal of local cultic topography in late antiquity
by Johannes Hahn; Stephen Emmel; Ulrich Gotter
Leiden ; Boston : Brill, 2008.
ISBN: 9004131418


Mummy portraits from Roman Egypt
by Paul Roberts
Type: Book; English
Publisher: London : British Museum, 2008.
ISBN: 0714150703

Loyalty and dissidence in Roman Egypt : the case of the Acta Alexandrinorum
by Andrew Harker
Type: Book; English
Publisher: Cambridge, UK ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2008.
ISBN: 0521887895

Social Networks in Byzantine Egypt.
Type: Book; English
Publisher: Cambridge Univ Pr 2008.

Arab-Byzantine coins : an introduction, with a catalogue of the Dumbarton Oaks collection
by Clive Foss
Type: Book; English
Publisher: Washington, D.C. : Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection ; [Cambridge, Mass.] : Distributed by Harvard University Press, ©2008.
ISBN: 0884023184

Deir El-naqlun The Greek Papyri.
Type: Book; English
Publisher: Journal of Juristic Papyrology 2008.
ISBN: 8391825086

New Testament Greek Papyri and Parchments.
Type: Book; English
Publisher: Walter De Gruyter Inc 2008.
ISBN: 3110203081