The Scientist

Toby CosgroveCourtesy of The Cleveland ClinicBill Gates once said that if business in the 1980s was about quality and in the 1990s it was about reengineering, then in the 2000s it will be about velocity. The rate of change is brutal. Obsolescence doesn't creep anymore, it leaps. The situation is best expressed in the Latin phrase absolutum obsoletum: If it works, it's out of date. In terms of shelf life, any technology at the peak of its adoption curve has passed its expiration date. You need to

0 Comments

Courtesy of Langer Research Lab, MITRobert Langer is a professor of chemical and biomedical engi neering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has written more than 800 articles, has more than 500 issued or pending patents worldwide, and has licensed his patents to 120 companies. In 2002 Langer was awarded the $500,000 Charles Draper prize, considered to be the Nobel Prize of engineering, and in 1999, Forbes Magazine named him one of the 25 most important people in biotechnology.Advan

0 Comments

FIGURE 1:Courtesy of Vicki ColvinThe cytotoxicity of three fullerene derivatives in cell culture (human dermal fibroblasts, 48-hour exposures). As the derivatization of the fullerene surface changes from a sparingly soluble version (black) to a fully hydroxylated material (blue), the dose that kills half the cells changes over many orders of magnitude. This result highlights the importance of surface coatings and derivatizations to biological activity.When materials and devices are fabricated wi

0 Comments

A COMPLICATED UNION:Image redrawn from Ann Rev Biochem, 72:717–42, 2003Antigens bound by major histocompatibility complex (MHC) molecules interact with T-cell receptors (TCRs) at the heart of the interface for T-cell recognition. But, many other players are involved. Massive polyvalency within this confined space may compensate for low-affinity receptors, giving added sensitivity.In some ways, science resembles gold mining: Eager practitioners congregate around rich veins of discovery whil

0 Comments

SMALL HINTS, LARGE CHANGES:Courtesy of Rick Effland; Design, Erica P. JohnsonAlthough the genetic differences are small, as illustrated in the above stretch of FOXP2, and the neural differences still largely unknown, there is a world of difference between the mind of a chimp and the mind of a human.From our common ancestor with chimpanzees, it took only six million years, give or take, to develop the ability to speak. And, as we now know, the vast majority of our genetic material has been inheri

0 Comments