Green Thought for Today July 30, 2008

Colui che non sa niente, non ama niente.
Colui che non fa niente, non capisce niente.
Colui che non capisce niente è spregevole.
Ma colui che capisce, ama, vede, osserva …
La maggiore conoscenza
È congiunta indissolubilmente all'amore …
Chiunque creda che tutti i frutti
maturino contemporaneamente come le fragole,
non sa nulla dell'uva.

 

 

Paracelso (Einsiedeln 1493 - Salisburgo 1541)

 

Citato in:  Erich Fromm. L'arte di amare. Il Saggiatore, Milano, 1981

 

 

Laura Cipollina- IBIOCAT, Divisione Marketing e Commerciale

IBIOCAT Science&Art - Our Earth as Art

View the Earth through the eyes of the Landsat-7 satellite by visiting The Earth as Art Gallery! Here you can view our planet through the beautiful images taken by the Landsat-7 satellite - and most recently, the Terra Satellite's Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER). This gallery of images uses the visceral avenue of art to convey the thrilling perspective of the Earth that satellites provide to the viewer.

Enjoy!   http://earthasart.gsfc.nasa.gov/index.htm

 

Image courtesy of USGS (U.S. Geological Survey) National Center for EROS (Earth Resources Observation and Science)  and NASA Landsat Project Science Office

 

 

Laura Cipollina- IBIOCAT, Divisione Marketing e Commerciale

 

IBIOCAT HUMOR- A musical parody for you: "The Enzyme Warp"

THE ENZYME WARP

 

To the tune of  "The Time Warp"
Original Words and Music by Richard O'Brien

 

It's an enzyme:
One of those globular
Proteins - with a twist:
It does reactions
That you can't do in test-tubes -
'Cos it's a catalyst!!

It finds routes of low activation
Energy for reactions, when
The substrate's binding
And the complex is forming:
It's the enzyme warp again!
It's the enzyme warp again!

It's a protein catalyst
With high specificity-y-y-y-y!
Induced fit hypothesis
Or lock and key theory!
But it's the active si-ite
That really mangles that su-u-u-u-ubstrate!
It's the enzyme warp again!
It's the enzyme warp again!

There's ligases
Oxidoreductases
Transferases
Everywhere;
It can do oxidations
Or isomerisations -
If its coenzyme's there;

Active site competition
Can cause inhibition
Increasing Km;
It can end up denatured
With a high temperature -
It's the enzyme warp again!
It's the enzyme warp again!

It's the enzyme warp again!
It's the enzyme warp again!

It's a protein catalyst
With high specificit-y-y-y-y!
Induced-fit hypothesis
Or lock and key theory!
But it's the active si-ite
That really mangles that su-u-u-u-ubstrate!!
It's the enzyme warp again!
It's the enzyme warp again!

 

 

Aimee Hartnell, July 2000

 

 

Laura Cipollina- IBIOCAT, Divisione Marketing e Commerciale

IBIOCAT’S Green Thoughts for Today July 17, 2008

"Nature uses only the longest threads to weave her patterns, so each small piece of her fabric reveals the organization of the entire tapestry".

 

Richard Feynman

 

 

 

"Look deep, deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better".

 

Albert Einstein

 

 

 

Laura Cipollina- IBIOCAT, Divisione Marketing e Commerciale

 

Making it by Design

London (UK), 29th July 2008: Making it by Design

The Business and IP Center of the Bristish Library is organising a conference on "Making it by Design" to be held in London (UK) on 29th July 2008.

The event aims to show inventors or entrepreneurs launching a new product in a commercial market the advantages of design and how to raise the value of their intellectual property.

Further information and registration

 

Vacancy Notice for Scientific Administrative Assistants at the Certification Division

Dear Colleagues,

Please find attached a Vacancy Notice for Scientific Administrative
Assistants at the Certification Division. We would appreciate your help in
the promotion of this notice.

http://ip.ibiocat.eu/admin/files/Vacancy%20notice.pdf

http://ip.ibiocat.eu/admin/files/Experts.pdf

Thanks in advance.

With best regards,

Corinne POUGET
Head
Division Certification of Substances
EDQM

Ad una donna di coraggio: Laura Cipollina

Cara Laura, avremmo voluto risponderti prima perché fiocinando i nostri precordi sei arrivata al punto di dedicarci addirittura i pensieri di Madame Curie, ma i due "moschettieri" Loris e Alberto a nome anche del terzo, Massimo,  che alfin della licenza "tocca" in quel di Monaco con un intervento di altissimo livello, ti dedicano le parole che seguono:

" Senza voler togliere nulla a quel genere di coraggio che porta alcuni uomini a morire, non dobbiamo dimenticare quegli atti di coraggio grazie ai quali gli uomini vivono; il coraggio della vita quotidiana e' spesso uno spettacolo meno grandioso del coraggio di un atto definitivo, ma resta pur sempre una miscela magnifica di trionfo e tragedia...
Un uomo fa il suo dovere, a dispetto delle conseguenze personali, nonostante gli ostacoli, i pericoli e le pressioni, e questo e' il fondamento della moralita' umana.
In qualsiasi sfera dell'esistenza un uomo puo' essere costretto al coraggio, quali che siano i sacrifici che affronta seguendo la propria coscienza: la perdita dei suoi amici, della sua posizione, delle sue fortune e persino la perdita della stima delle persone che gli sono care.
Ogni uomo deve decidere da se stesso qual'e' la via giusta da seguire; le storie che si raccontano sul coraggio degli altri ci insegnano molte cose, possono offrirci una speranza, possono farci da modello, ma non possono sostituire il nostro coraggio... Per quello ogni uomo deve guardare nella propria anima."
Profiles in Courage di John Fitzgerald Kennedy

THE IBIOCAT’S BOOK CORNER – Enzymes in Industry

Enzymes in Industry: Production and Applications, 3rd Edition by Wolfgang Aehle (Editor)

September 2007, WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim

Hardcover, 516 p.

 

Leading experts from all over the world present an overview of the use of enzymes in industry for:

• the production of bulk products, such as glucose, or fructose
• food processing and food analysis
• laundry and automatic dishwashing detergents
• the textile, pulp and paper and animal feed industries
• clinical diagnosis and therapy
• genetic engineering.

The book also covers identification methods of new enzymes and the optimization of known ones, as well as the regulatory aspects for their use in industrial applications.

Summary- Introduction: History, Nomenclature, Structure, Enzymes and Molecular Biology. CATALYTIC ACTIVITY OF ENZYMES. Factors Governing Catalytic Activity. Enzyme Assays. Quality Evaluation of Enzyme Preparations. GENERAL PRODUCTION METHODS. Fermentation. Isolation and Purification. Immobilization. INDUSTRIAL USES OF ENZYMES. Survey of Industrial Enzymes. Enzymes in Starch Processing and Baking. Glucose Isomerization. Proteolytic Enzymes. Meat Processing. Dairy Products. Processing of Fruit, Vegetables, and Wine. Hydrolysis of Protein, Fat, and Cellulose, and Inversion of Sucrose. Amino Acids and Hydroxycarboxylic Acids. Enzymes in Organic Synthesis. ENZYMES IN ANALYSIS AND MEDICINE. Survey. Enzymes in Diagnosis. Enzymes for Food Analysis. Enzymes in Therapy. Enzymes in Genetic Engineering: Restriction Endonucleases and Methylases. DNA Polymerases. RNA Polymerases. DNA Nucleases. RNA Nucleases. Modifying Enzymes. ECONOMIC ASPECTS. SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENTAL ASPECTS. References. Index.

Further information: http://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-3527316892.html

 

Laura Cipollina- IBIOCAT, Divisione Marketing e Commerciale

 

 

IBIOCAT Science&Art- Exhibition: “The Medici and the Sciences -Instruments and machines in the grand ducal collections”- From 15 May 2008 to 11 Jan 2009, Florence (Italy), the “Museo degli Argenti”, Pitti Palace.

The exhibition "The Medici and the Sciences" addresses the leading role played by physical, mathematical and natural disciplines in Tuscany in the sixteenth-seventeenth centuries. More specifically from Cosimo I up to Ferdinand II, the Medici were great patrons of both the constructors of scientific instruments and natural philosophers, since they were more acutely aware than any other European rulers of the fact that scientific knowledge and the technological control of nature gave political power solidity and prestige. This is why, alongside the lavish collections of paintings, sculpture and jewellery, the Medici also created a collection of mathematical instruments. The close relationship between art and science emerges from the precious beauty of many of these instruments, often one-off pieces and authentic works of art in themselves. "The Medici and the Sciences" underscores the fusion between art, science and political power, juxtaposing a wide selection of instruments from the Institute and Museum of the History of Science with a similarly ample range of paintings, printed works and manuscripts originating from the institutions of the Polo Museale and other institutes and libraries in Florence and elsewhere in Italy.

 

Promoters

• Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali
• Soprintendenza Speciale per il Patrimonio Storico, Artistico ed Etnoantropologico e per il Polo Museale della città di Firenze
• Museo degli Argenti
• Firenze Musei
• Istituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza (IMSS)
• Ente Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze

For further information please visit the website: http://www.polomuseale.firenze.it/english/mostre/mostra.asp?id=123

 

 

Laura Cipollina-IBIOCAT, Divisione Marketing e Commerciale

IBIOCAT HUMOR - The Periodic Table of Comic Books

Enjoy yourself!

The Periodic Table of Comic Books

http://www.uky.edu/Projects/Chemcomics/

Click on an element to see a list of comic book pages involving that element.

Click on a thumbnail on the list to see a full comic bookpage.

 

From the Department of Chemistry, Universityof Kentucky
Lexington,KY 40506-0055

 

 

Laura Cipollina- IBIOCAT, Divisione Marketing e Commerciale

 

 

Summer school on ethics of nanotechnology

The University of Twente is organising a "Summer school on ethics of nanotechnology" to be held in Enschede (The Netherlands) on 24th-29th August 2008.

The EthicSchool is open to researchers (Ph.D. students, postdocs and others) from a wide variety of natural sciences, engineering, social sciences and humanities backgrounds. The programme is organised around four themes related to nanoethics: ethics of bionanotechnology; ethics of nanoelectronics/ambient intelligence; military and dual use/peaceful use/global issues of nanotechnology; religious and cultural aspects, ethical traditions and relativism in the debate about nanoethics.

Further information and online registration

 

Green Thought for Today July 8, 2008

 

 

"The scientist does not study nature because it is useful; he studies it because he delights in it, and he delights in it because it is beautiful. If nature were not beautiful, it would not be worth knowing, and if nature were not worth knowing, life would not be worth living."

 

 

Jules Henri Poincaré (1854 -1912), French mathematician, theoretical physicist and philosopher, is  known for formulating the "Poincaré Conjecture", one of seven Millennium Prize Problems which the Clay Mathematics Institute is offering $1,000 000 for a solution. Poincaré also discovered a chaotic deterministic system which provided the foundations of modern Chaos theory.

 

 

Laura Cipollina- IBIOCAT, Divisione Marketing e Commerciale

 

Green Thought for Today July 6, 2008

"[...] Non vi è alcuna incompatibilità fra l'esatto e il poetico. Il numero è nell'arte come nella scienza. L'algebra è nell'astronomia e l'astronomia confina con la poesia. L'anima dell'uomo ha tre chiavi che aprono tutto: la cifra, la lettera, la nota. Sapere, pensare, sognare".

Victor Hugo (1802-1885)

Laura Cipollina-IBIOCAT, Divisione Marketing e Commerciale

IBIOCAT Science&Art – Chris Drury: A Land Artist Working with Nature

From Chris Drury's statement:

 

"I am categorised as a land artist or someone who works with art and nature. In reality my work explores nature and culture, inner and outer. I travel and walk in out-of-the-way places, often alone. More recently I have been looking at Body as Landscape or systems within the body and systems on the planet.

 

Body as a Landscape- These are Science/Art crossover projects, mostly done in conjunction with hospitals and medical imaging technologies. I have been looking at blood and water flow patterns, wave patterns from echocardiograms and in naturally occurring formations in landscape, rock and tree barks. I have also been looking at plants and their poisonous / medicinal effects on the body. This area is a continuing source of inspiration and connective ideas which I will continue to explore.

 

Mushroom & Hand-written Text Works - Ever since Medicine Wheel, made in 1982, where I used a spore print at the centre to mirror the whole work, I have continued to use the image of the mushroom.

In a sense, fungi are the great recyclers of our planet. They break down dead organic matter to form the basis of the soil on which all life on earth depends. More than that, I am simply drawn to their mysterious beauty. By introducing hand written text following the pattern of the gills I have been able to add layers of meaning and direction to these works".

 

 

Learn more about Chris Drury's art by visiting his website: http://www.chrisdrury.co.uk/

 

 

Laura Cipollina- IBIOCAT, Divisione Marketing e Commerciale

 

Green Thought for Today July 2, 2008

Dedicato a Massimo, Alberto e Loris, e a tutti coloro che stanno lavorando con passione a IBIOCAT, per catalizzare una migliore qualità della vita.

"Humanity needs practical men, who get the most out of their work, and, without forgetting the general good, safeguard their own interests. But humanity also needs dreamers, for whom the disinterested development of an enterprise is so captivating that it becomes impossible for them to devote their care to their own material profit.

Without doubt, these dreamers do not deserve wealth, because they do not desire it. Even so, a well-organized society should assure to such workers the efficient means of accomplishing their task, in a life free from material care and freely consecrated to research".

Marie Curie, (1867-1934) b. Warsaw, Poland (née Maria Sklodowska)


Quoted from: Eve Curie (translated by Vincent Sheean), Madame Curie, Pocket Books, Simon and Schuster, New York, 1946, pp 352-253.


Laura Cipollina- IBIOCAT, Divisione Marketing e Commerciale