RienhoS, Jr., associate professor of surgery, Johns Hopkins school of medicine; Kenneth M . Lynch, president, d e a n of faculty, and. professor of pathology, Medical College of South Carolina; and R e i m a n n .
hbriepoWër, νv 0 to I S O ^ a l l o n s -?j per m in ut'e ;· i r o n , ^tainlèss steel br rriphel; Construction;
• Habits and characteristics of smokers. Age, sex, emotional Habits, environmental factors, a n d exposure, as well as smoking histories, will b e included in surveys organized b y Edwin B. Wilson, professor emeritus of vital statistics at H a r v a r d .
THE PUMP THAT CAN'T
• Preparation and analysis of tobacco derivatives. Sources will b e developed for a continuous supply of tobacco smoke and its derivatives. Efforts will b e m a d e to duplicate h u m a n smoking in machines. W o r k will b e organized by McKeen Cattell, h e a d of the department of pharmacology, Cornell medical college.
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-myrORPHTNE, q u i n i n e , strychnine—all -•-*-•* classical problems of s y n t h e s i s have in recent years given w a y t o the concerted efforts of organic chemists. T h e latest to give w a y is lysergic acid, an important compoixnd in t h e structure of ergot alkaloids (JACS, O c t . 2 0 ) . Steps are already known by w h i c h lysergic acid can b e converted t o ergonovine, so this synthesis, b y Eli Lilly's organic chemistry division, also constitutes the first total synthesis of this alkaloid, widely u s e d in obstetrics t o stop postpartum hemorrhaging. LiUy feels t h e feat also has practical value. Ergot is scarce a n d expensive —the price has b e e n around $60,000 a pound in t h e last 1 0 years, a n d has been as high as $100,000. W h i l e many problems are involved, Lilly hopes i t s chemical d e v e l o p m e n t group wall b e able to come u p with a process for large scale manufacture. T h e synthesis starts with indolepropionic acid a n d goes through 14 stops. A n u m b e r of new synthetic dérivaN O . 44
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Lilly adds lysergic acid to the growing list of natural products chemists have been able t o synthesize
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RESEARCH. tives of lysergic acid have already been prepared, some of them demonstrating promising pharmacological activity. Interest in synthesis of lysergic acid dates back to World War I; efforts at that time were unfruitful. T h e high price of ergot spurred more intensive efforts at the end of World War II. Lilly entered the field in 1950, when the race was well under way. Edmund C. Kornfeld had been interested in the problem while doing graduate work at Harvard. When he first came with Lilly, he took the research on as a parttime project. However, his success in making promising intermediate compounds led to expansion into a fulltime project for a group of chemists—Eugene J. Fornefeld, G. Bruce Kline, Reuben G. Jones, Dwight E. Morrison, and Marjorie J. Mann. Harvard's R. B. Woodward, who first synthesized quinine and strychnine (C&EN, Oct. 11, page 4 0 6 5 ) , served as technical consultant on the project. In four years, Kornfeld and associates synthesized more than 300 pure, well characterized compounds before obtaining lysergic acid. "Many times," Kornfeld says, "we thought we had the solution or were only a few days from achieving it, only to be disappointed. Twenty-two of the intermediate compounds contained the complete skeleton of lysergic acid except for one missing atom. Twelve contained the entire skeleton. But only one proved to be the right one."
• Arteriosclerosis can be t r e a t e d with a soy bean derivative, cytellin, according to C. William Castor, John M. Lesesne, and Sibley W. Hoobler, University of Michigan. Patients with a high concentration of blood cholesterol, and presumably a high susceptibility to hardening of the arteries, respond to the tasteless, nontoxic, milky soy bean substance. In one case, a 22.5% reduction in cholesterol level was achieved. They told an Ann Arbor meeting of the American Federation for Clinical Research that long term, controlled experiments are needed before the treatment can prove useful. • "Industrial Research Laboratories of
t h e United S t a t e s / ' 10th edition, will be published in mid-1955. It includes nongovernmental labs devoted to industrial research, research being defined to include industrial development work on processes and products, as well as fundamental and applied research. There is no charge for listing; labs that want to b e included but have not received a questionnaire may do so by writing to James F. Mauk. staff associ4382
Southern Research Institute Celebrates Its 10th Birthday GM's Charles F. Kettering (left), Sears, Roebuck's General Robert E. Wood, and Avondale Mills' Hugh Moss Comer, also chairman of Southern Research Institute's board, wish the institute a happy 10th birthday at a dinner celebration in Birmingham. In 10 years, SRI's capital fund has grown from about $400,000 to $2.7 million, its research volume from under $100,000 to $1.2 million. By 1964, SRI believes its capital fund should total about $5.5 million, its research volume $2.4 million
ate, National Academy of S c i e n c e s National Research Council, 2101 Constitution Ave., N. W., Washington 25, D. C .
ing date; applications may be sent to Awards Officer, National Research Council, Ottawa 2, Ont.
t O a k Ridge is accepting applications from university faculty members to conduct research at Oak Ridge for three months to a year. Opportunities are available for fundamental and applied research in physics, chemistry, metallurgy, biology, mathematics, and engineering, with a number of nuclear reactors and particle accelerators as the principal research instruments. Application forms may be obtained from University Relations Division, Oak Ridge Institute of Nuclear Studies, P.O. Box 117, Oak Ridge, Tenn.
made institutional cancer research grants and 10 fellowship awards totaling $137,760 in September. Among the grants was one for $20,000 to the University of Oregon, where T. B. Fitzpatrick, A. B. Lerner, and H. S. Mason are making a study on Detection, Metabolic Control, and Therapy of Malignant Melanomas.
t National Science Foundation will grant 800 fellowships in the academic year 1955-56. Applications may be obtained from the Fellowship Office, National Research Council, Washington 25, D. C. Closing dates for receipt of applications for postdoctoral applicants are Dec. 20. and for graduate students. Jan. 3. • National Research Council of Canada will award about 80 fellowships for fundamental research and engineering in 1955-56. Of these, 50 will be tenable in the council's labs in Ottawa and Saskatoon, 15 in the science service labs of the Canada Department of Agriculture, and 15 in Canadian universities. Feb. 1 is clos-
• Damon
Runyon
Memorial
Fund
• North D a k o t a Agricultural College's
school of chemical technology receives $4800 from Spencer Kellogg and Sons to be used over four years to subsidize research activities of a graduate student working in drying oil technology. In addition, one or two senior students may be awarded $300 to $450 annually to help defray college expenses. Archer-Daniels-Midland renews its two grants; the graduate award provides $750 to a student of organic chemistry or paint technology, and the senior award provides $500. Glidden Co. is again providing three $100 scholarships to entering freshmen. • Dorr Co.'s fellowship in sanitation at Rutgers goes to Fred Brofazi, for extension of Rutgers' program of fundamental research on mechanism of biological transformation of organic materials in wastes by employing radioactive isotopes as biological tracers.
CHEMICAL
AND
ENGINEERING
NEWS
