Recording pyrometer for measuring hour temperatures is being put to work in medical research
LABORATORY OF THE MONTH Instrumental analysis stressed in medical research laboratory
of modern medicine and control of disease have been made principally through chemistry. The human biological system is an amazingly complex yet highly efficient chemical process. A little study of the chemical reactions that make us what we are causes wonderment that such a vastly complicated system stays in balance as well as it does. I t seems safe to say that until the last few decades, next to nothing was known of the chemistry of the human or animal body. The opportunities for basic chemical research in this field are still tremendous. More and more medical research is turning to the fundamental sciences of chemistry and physics. An example of this is the establishment of a new laboratory by the Harvard Medical School and the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital. Located in a remodeled area of the hospital basement, the laboratory is said to be the first of its type established in a hospital. The facilities will be used for both research and education. According to Bert L. Vallée, scientific director of the lab, the first focus of the research will be the functional significance and occurrence of trace elements in biologic
processes, particularly their association with enzymes in biocatalysis. An important approach to be followed in this work is the full application of modern methods of instrumental analysis with special emphasis on emission spectrograph^. Some 30 elements, all of which are known to occur in the biologic systems of man, lower animals, and plants in very small concentrations, will be under study in the laboratory. Existence of these elements in cells has been recognized for more than a century. Only in the past 25 years, however, has any organized inquiry been brought to bear on the part they may play in cell metabolism. Past inquiry has been primarily directed toward identification of the elements. Measurements of precise amounts of understanding of their roles awaited the development of adequate physical instrumentation and chemical methods. I t is now possible to establish normal levels of most of these elements in the cells. "Without instrumental developments," says Vallée, "the present approach to this problem would be impossible."
T H E ADVANCE
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Adequate work areas and semiprivate office provided for graduate students and researchers
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Laboratory facilities in the remodeled hospital basement are equipped with latest apparatus and furnishings
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L A B O R A T O R Y OF THE M O N T H
The spectrograph! is a key instrument in the identification of minor elements, many of which p l a y impor- j | tant roles in cell metabolism 1
W a r b u r g apparatus for measuring respiration rates of small samples of tissue
Many modern analytical instruments are used for research and instruction of graduate students
The scientific staff has adequate facilities to make conferences and discussions more effective VOLUME
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