ing cycloadditions produces significantly more of one of the many possible thermally allowed pericyclic products, finds Dr. K. N. Houk of Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge. This selectivity in the reaction has caused him to coin the term "periselective" for these cycloadditions. Narcissistic reactions are those in which reactants and products are mirror images with respect to a fixed plane, Dr. Salem told the Symposium on New Developments in Concerted Reaction Processes held at the Quinquennial Southeast-Southwest Regional Meeting of ACS in New Orleans, La. A restriction exists in that at least one coordinate involved in the reaction be antisymmetric with respect to the mirror plane. The narcissistic definition covers all reactions which are equivalent to reflection, while excluding those reactions which are equivalent to reflection plus rotation, Dr. Salem says. The important question which must be answered concerning those reactions—many of which, such as racemization, are familiar to organic chemists—is whether or not the halfway point along the reaction path has a mirror-plane of symmetry. Knowing the physical difference between pathways which go "through" the mirror and those which go "around" it can have various uses. In Dr. Salem's work, the main application is in calculating the structure of the reaction midpoint, which can be expected to be quite close to that of the transition state. Such calculations have led to his elucidation of the structure of two trimethylene diradical entities resulting from the stretching of one carbon-carbon bond in cyclopropane and the twisting of methylene groups. More recently his group has discovered a third diradical structure whose striking feature is the collapse of the face-to-face terminal methylene groups toward each other. In periselective cycloadditions, three factors determine the relative energies of the transition states and, in turn, the predominating products of competing reactions, Dr. Houk says. Most important is orbital symmetry. Only if a total of (4n -+- 2) ?r electrons are present in the closed loop of atoms undergoing cycloaddition will the reaction be thermally allowed. The work of Dr. Houk and his associates has led to potential development of general synthetic routes to new classes of compounds using concerted cycloadditions of the 6TT electron system of the fulvenes and ( 6 + 4 ) 1,3-dipolar cycloadditions. Among examples from the work, supported by the Petroleum Research Fund and Research Corp., are new azulene and azulene heteroanalog syntheses. 18
C & E N DEC. 7, 1970
LIFE SCIENCES:
$500 million (normalized to 1956 purchasing power), or diminished (see graph). The present pause in funding, the committee says, should be used to plan a complete system of support for the future, to replace the present haphazard patchwork with an orderly continuum. Special emphasis should be given to continued training of graduate students, "even, if necessary, at the expense of basic research," the report says. The main recommendations of the report include: • Establishment of a funding program for the Department of Agriculture similar to that of the National Institutes of Health, with particular emphasis given to nonagricultural departments and schools. • Greatly increased federal support for graduate and professional schools; bloc grants to supplement faculty salaries and a 50% increase in funds for postdoctorals within four years. • Increased availability of traineeships for graduate students—initially requiring a doubled appropriation within five years—and an eventual shift to full support of graduate students through stipends.
Federal Support Needed The Federal Government should support life sciences on a scale commensurate with national aspirations to understand more about the nature of man, of all life, of fatal diseases, and of our complex environment. That is the essence of "The Life Sciences," a comprehensive report on the status of academic research and education issued last week by the National Academy of Sciences. The exhaustive survey is the result of a four-year study by the committee on research in the life sciences of the committee on science and public policy, an affiliate of NAS. The conclusions are based primarily on responses to questionnaires distributed to nearly 26,000 life scientists (55% of whom responded). The report indicates that U.S. biomedical enterprise has been a unique and highly successful endeavor, and that basic research in the life sciences is a prime national purpose in itself. The report also notes, in contrast, that 1970 is the fourth consecutive fiscal year in which support for this research has either remained at a level of about
Most agencies have reduced research support in the life sciences bU r
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1970
THE CHEMICAL WORLD THIS WEEK
• Development of broader, more humanistic single-core cumculums for biology majors, and of new curriculums for training technical assistants. The report also calls for substantially increased support to medical students, possibly to be repaid by service in a national medical corps; establishment of a national institute of environmental studies; and increased federal support for natural science museums, marine biology stations, and scientific journals. It also recommends new programs for funding instrumentation, initially at a level of $25 million annually, funding of at least $50 million a year for construction of teaching and research facilities. Understanding life in molecular terms, the report concludes, is the unique basis for hope that man shall be able to cope with the major diseases to which he is subject.
RESEARCH:
Redirection of Effort Opinion is far from unanimous. But from some vantage points, the current research slowdown is seen more as a redirection of effort than a longterm decline, at least for contract research organizations. Speaking last week during a panel discussion on contract research at the American Institute of Chemical Engineers' annual meeting in Chicago, Dr. Edgar Manker, vice president of Garrett Research and Development Co., La Verne, Calif., said that Garrett's experience suggests a continuing demand for contract research. As long as an organization is able to identify significant research areas and carries out projects economically and professionally, it won't have difficulty getting research contracts, he says. A perhaps more representative evaluation of the current research situation came from Dr. Jack Bregman of Water Pollution Research and Applications, Inc., Washington, D.C. He finds contract research companies in trouble. The ones that seem to be doing well, he says, are those heavily involved in environmental areas. And there is a lack of skilled manpower, he points out, in those areas where funding is available. Dr. Bregman offers some recommendations to help alleviate problems caused by the slowdown. Contract research firms, he says, should go after more work in the industrial area. The money is not as great nor the projects as big, but projects can often begin one or two months following negotiations, compared to the longer lead
time in government work. Individual scientists and engineers, Dr. Bregman says, should take a hard look at their own futures and move to acquire the skills and knowledge needed for work in expanding research areas. Dr. Bregman feels that Government must take a hand in easing the situation by setting up a program to phase out current research projects as it phases in new ones. The relationship of scientists and engineers to Government has been as partners, not as grateful supplicants, he says. Thus, Dr. Bregman views Government as having an obligation to help in the transition period. If redirection is indeed the current phenomenon, some idea of the new directions for engineers can be gained from areas in the talking stage in the engineering division of the National Science Foundation. NSF's Lewis Mayfield points out that not all projects are in the same stage of formulation, but those being considered include enzyme engineering, superhard materials, earthquake engineering, wind engineering, communications systems, nonconventional battery materials, power systems, and metallurgy.
closely muscular dystrophy in mice correlates with the disease in man, the disease in mice closely resembles the clinical, histological, and physiological characteristics of progressive muscular dystrophy in humans. Dystrophic mice are identified at birth and are characterized by progressing signs of muscular weakness and a reduced lifespan. In humans the disease probably begins at infancy and progresses for Rye to 20 years. The Austin scientists now plan to use small-tissue enzyme microanalysis techniques to analyze human tissue samples from dystrophic patients to determine whether a coenzyme Q deficiency also exists in human beings with the disease. At the same time
MUSCULAR DYSTROPHY:
Key Is Coenzyme Q Some new fundamental information has been added to the slowly growing body of knowledge concerning muscular dystrophy and its possible future treatment as a result of a twopronged effort at the University of Texas, Austin. Key to the research (spearheaded by Dr. Karl Folkers, director of UT Institute for Biomedical Research, and Dr. Jean Scholler, director of UT laboratory for comparative pharmacology) is coenzyme Q. Coenzyme Q is a vitaminlike quinone that plays a part in biochemical mechanisms of electron transport and oxidative phosphorylation. Dr. Folkers, Dr. Scholler, postdoctoral fellow Gian Littarru, and graduate student David Jones find that mice with hereditary muscular dystrophy have a deficiency of coenzyme Q in their heart and hind leg muscles. The deficiency is more marked as the disease becomes more severe. Evidence for the deficiency comes from analyses of the succinate dehydrogenase-coenzyme Q reductase enzyme system in tissue of dystrophic mice. In a related study, the Texas team administered coenzyme Q therapeutically to mice in advanced stages of the disease. Treatment produced physical improvement of the mice and "a significantly prolonged lifespan," Dr. Folkers says. Although it isn't known just how
Folkers (left) with team Role of vitaminlike quinone
they will continue their research in mice. A prophylactic study will be carried out in which coenzyme Q will be administered to newborn dystrophic mice. Dr. Folkers and Dr. Scholler point out that the advanced disease probably can't be halted completely or reversed because of irreparable damage in muscle that begins at birth. But they are hopeful that early therapy in mice may be more successful in slowing deterioration. Details of the research, supported in part by the Robert A. Welch Foundation, Houston, and the Muscular Dystrophy Associations of America, Inc., will be disclosed in the forthcoming issue of Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. [41, 1298 (1970)]. DEC. 7, 1970 C&EN 19
