Molecule of the Week: Myosin

Myosin is a kind molecular motor. It exists as a dimer with two myosin monomers twisted around each other. It is an interesting molecule because it takes the energy from ATP hydrolysis in an Ca dependent manner and helps to slide the actin molecule. This amazing molecular mechanism is responsible for muscle contraction. The structure of the molecule in the image shows the ATP binding site and different domains of myosin molecule as well as myosin head which binds to the Actin filament. Watch a video about myosin below.

Binod Pandey 

University of Missouri-St. Luis

"Chemistry—It’s Elemental!" Celebrate National Chemistry Week

American Chemical Society (ACS) is one of the largest professional organizations in the world. Along with other works, ACS celebrates "National Chemistry Week (NCW)" every year in October. This year's NCW is being celebrated from 18–24 October with a slogan  of “Chemistry—It’s Elemental!". According to ACS, National Chemistry Week (NCW) is a community-based annual event that unites ACS local sections, businesses, schools, and individuals in communicating the importance of chemistry to our quality of life. Last year's theme was "The many faces of Chemistry". 

Celebrating such national week about chemistry will help to attract young generation involved in science and popularize chemistry in the society.

Elements are the important and essential building blocks of matter. In total, 117 elements have been observed as of 2008, of which 94 occur naturally on Earth. One has to start from elements to learn chemistry.

I was going through some websites about NCW and found one very interesting was TierneyLab. They have come up with a quiz for this year's NCW. Here is the question for the quiz.

Your task in the quiz is to match the chemical element to the product in which it is found. Here are the nine elements to consider:

1. Aluminum (Al)
2. Copper (Cu)
3. Magnesium (Mg)
4. Potassium (K)
5. Rhenium (Re)
6. Scandium (Sc)
7. Selenium (Se)
8. Titanium (Ti)
9. Zinc (Zn)

And here are the objects in which these elements can be found:
A. Bananas
B. Electrical wires
C. Green plants
D. Hip implants
E. Jet turbine blades
F. Lightweight bicycle parts
G. Nickels
H. Pennies
I. Photocopiers

To win prize please visit this site and submit your answer.

Happy National Chemistry Week 2009!!

2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry announced

Indian born Scientist shares Nobel in Chemistry with 2 other Scientists.

Nobel prize in chemistry for this year of 2009 has been awarded to Venkatraman Ramakrishnan (MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology Cambridge, United Kingdom-born in India), Thomas A. Steitz (Yale University New Haven, CT, USA; Howard Hughes Medical Institute) and Ada E. Yonath (Weizmann Institute of Science Rehovot, Israel)"for studies of the structure and function of the ribosome". Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm announced in a press conference web-casted live. Three scientists will share the prize equally.


This is the 101st Nobel prize in chemistry since it was started in 1901. It was Alfred Nobel's wish to award to “the person who shall have made the most important chemical discovery or improvement”.

Science is changed a lot since Nobel prize started. Chemistry back in 1900 is different from chemistry now. So the question has raised whether Nobel Prize in chemistry is still relevant to this time? There are some arguments about Nobel given to chemistry. There is an in-depth analysis about this issue in Analytical Chemistry. If you are interested, here is the link. http://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/ac9018457

P.S.: Linus Pauling, a Oregon State University graduate, had received Nobel prize two times. One for chemistry and next for peace. Proud to be at OSU.

Nobel Prize in Chemistry to be announced tomorrow!!

Time has again come to announce the most prestigious awards in the world-the Nobel Prize. October is the month to announce most anticipated prizes. Two (Nobel for medicine and physics) prizes have been already given for this year of 2009. Nobel in physics has been awarded for groundbreaking achievements concerning the transmission of light in fibers for optical communication (to Charles K. Kao-1/2 of the money) and for the invention of an imaging semiconductor circuit – the CCD sensor (Willard S. Boyle and George E. Smith-each will receive 1/4th of the money). Whereas Nobel for Medicine or physiology went for the discovery of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase to Elizabeth H. Blackburn, Carol W. Greider and Jack W. Szostak. It is interesting to note that the discoveries made both in physics and medicine were couple of decades back.

Nobel prize in chemistry will be announced tomorrow-Wednesday, October 7, 2009) at 11.45AM CET, 9.45AM GMT, 2.45AM PST (west coast of the USA) and 3.30PM Nepal time during a press conference at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm. The announcement is web cast live at Nobelprize.org

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry had been awarded 100 times to 154 Nobel Laureates between 1901 and 2008. A total of 153 individuals have received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. You can see the list of chemistry Nobel laureates here.

Last years Nobel in Chemistry was awarded for the discovery of green fluorescent protein.

Lets wait and see who will grab this years chemistry Nobel.