Scene
at Hand Concert ση Tuesday
evening
Washington Session Opens First Divided National ACS Meeting A STAFF KEPORT
A H E first part of
the
divided
114th
meeting of the AMERICAN C H E M I C A L S O
CIETY, held in Washington during the week of Aug. 30 through Sept. 3, brought out a n attendance close to 2,600 members a n d visitors which, if equaled at t h e St. Louis and Portland gatherings, would bring t h e total not far from the average ACS meet ing totals of previous years. Of the Society's 18 divisions, one half convened in Washington, a n d some of these will hold sessions along with t h e other nine divisions in St. Louis and P o r t land. Those which m e t in Washington and which were well a t t e n d e d were t h e divisions devoted t o agricultural and food chemistry; biological chemistry, chemical education, fertilizer chemistry, history of chemistry, industrial and engineering chemistry, medicinal chemistry, organic chemistry, and paint, varnish, and plastics chemistry. T h e divided meeting, of course, is experi mental, and its success cannot be ascer
2676
tained until the midwest a n d far west gatherings take place. T h e Society meets in St. Louis, Mo., on Sept. 6, and in P o r t land, Ore., on Sept. 13. Some are of t h e belief t h a t the St. Louis meeting will exceed t h e eastern convention in numbers; o t h e r s feel t h a t t h e gatherings a t n e i t h e r St. Louis nor P o r t l a n d will exceed the W a s h ington attendance. T h e Washington meeting had one dis a d v a n t a g e which may h a v e had some in fluence upon attendance; it started a t the end of one of the most torrid heat waves ever recorded for the eastern seaboard. T h e h e a t spell ended abruptly on t h e eve ning of the first day, however, when a rain s t o r m struck Washington while the general meeting was in progress. The t h e r m o m e ter dropped 21 degrees i n 24 minutes. T h e Washington meeting was held in w h a t scientists have come to regard as t h e world's largest research center, where liter ally billions of dollars have been poured into chemical and other scientific investi
CHEMICAL
gation since the s t a r t of World W a r I I . For t h a t reason m a n y were a t t r a c t e d to the e a s t e r n gathering of the ACS, a n d t h a t fact also explained why m a n y noted scien tific workers in the G o v e r n m e n t addressed the meeting. T h e r e were other a t t r a c t i o n s outside of the meetings which served to offset t h e early unfavorable weather. T h e nation's capital is still a city of b e a u t y a n d inter est for visitors, and " p l a n t t r i p s " t h i s time were of more t h a n ordinary value. Some of those on t h e schedule were the N a t i o n a l B u r e a u of Standards, t h e N a t i o n a l I n s t i t u t e s of H e a l t h and N a v a l Medical Center a t Bethesda. t h e N a v a l Research Labora t o r y at Anacostia, the Agricultural R e search Center a t Beltsville, a n d t h e Wash i n g t o n h e a d q u a r t e r s of t h e ACS. General
Meeting
Charles Allen T h o m a s , A C S President, was chairman a t t h e general meeting held in t h e Statler's colorful Presidential Ball-
AND
ENGINEERING
NEWS
room on Monday evening» and he bestowed, with brief and appropriate tributes, awards in chemistry upon Dilworth Wayne Woolley, Albert Lester Lehninger, and Gerty T. Cori. In presenting the Eli Lilly & Co. Award in Biological Chemistry to Dr. Woolley, the Society's President noted that the Lilly Award in Bacteriology had been won by Woolley in 1940 and that in the 13 years since receiving his B.S. (he was educated a t University of Alberta and at University of Wisconsin), the medalist has published 74 scientific papers. He is best known for his studies in vitamins and antivitamins, and, in part, these researches have sought to elucidate the mechanism by which these materials act. He is now with the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research. A young man then stepped up to receive the Paul-Lewis Laboratories Award in Enzyme Chemistry; his accomplishments, according to his associates, have provided us with sessions of the Division of Biogen. Therapeutic* value of these derivatives is yet to bo determined Reporting further studies on the stereochemical specificity of oxidation of the eyclotols by Acclobactcr suboxydans, Boris Magasanik of Columbia University reviewed earlier findings that a polar hydroxyl (above or below the plane of the ring) is necessary. He further revealed, however, that an equatorial hydroxyl (in the plane of the ring) is also necessar}' in the meta position counterclockwise from the polar hydroxyl that is attacked. These conclusions were reached by study of isomers of inositol and quercitol. At the Symposium on Recent Progress in the Isolation, Properties, and Mode of Action of Enzymes and Proteins on Tuesday afternoon, at which Hans Neurath of Duke University presided, a paper on the visualization of protein, molecules with the electron microscope was given by R . W. G. Wyckoff of the National Institutes of Health. Another paper which, attracted much attention was the discussion of reactions involved in the transformation of insulin into insulin fibriLs by David F. Waugh. of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which was given on the second session of the same symposium on Wednesday afternoon, at which Krwin Brand of Columbia University and chairman of the Division of Biological Chemistry presided. Concluding the symposium was the Eli Lilly and Co. Award in Biological Chemistry address by D. W. Woolley, who spoke on some aspects of the exact chemical structure of proteins as revealed by investigations on strepogenin. Strepogenin is a constituent of many pure proteins and is essential to the growth of several microorganisms and of mice and rats. Fractionation studies have shown that it contains glutamic acid and glycine residues. In insulin or trypsinogen, richest known sources of strepogenin, some of the free amino groups apparently constitute the amino groups of strepogenin. Conversion of these to dinitrophenyl amines and fractionation of the dinitrophenyl inVOLUME
2 6,
NO.
37
logical Chemistry. Albert E. Sobel, Howard and Samuel JSatelson, Brooklyn Jetcish spoke at opening session of Biological
sulin digests has led to the isolation of several dinitrophenyl peptides of which the amino acid composition has been determined. A series of graded complexity of amino acid composition was found such as to suggest something of the order of amino acids in insulin. Two peptides identical in all respects with those crystallized from dinitrophenyl insulin were isolated from dinitrophenyl trypsinogen. Thus, two large fragments of both proteins were shown to be identical. Similar studies have been initiated with carbobenzoxy derivatives of insulin, but while strepogenin-active material has been obtained, technical difficulties have not yet permitted the isolation of strepogenin. Fatty Acid Oxidation The final presentation of the division's Washington session was the paper by Albert A. Lehninger of the University of Chicago in which he described the work which has won for him the Paul-Lewis Laboratories Award in enzyme chemistry. The outstanding achievement of Dr. Lehninger's research has been to devise a technique by which the oxidation of fatty acids by body tissue, particularly liver tissue, could be achieved in vitro in the absence of whole cells. Once this technique was developed it was possible to ascertain that the enzyme which promotes the oxidation was localized in the mitochondria of the cells. The system requires an extensive group of coenzymes including adenine nucleotides, magnesium, inorganic phosphate, and cytochrome-C. This system, which operates in the liver tissue, oxidizes fatty acids directly to acetoacetate, but in the presence of oxalacetate the acid molecules tend to break down into an undetermined 2-carbon intermediate which enters into the Krebs cycle to produce carbon dioxide and water. This later reaction apparently takes place in heart muscle and kidney tissue since no acetoacetate is formed by fat oxidation in these organs. Two other enzyme mechanisms were discussed during the same session. A theory of the activation of glutaminase II in
» SEPTEMBER
13,
1948
Kirshner, Hospital, Chemistry
the liver by pyruvate or other keto acids was offered by Jesse P. Greenstein of the National Cancer Institute. Dr. Greenstein submitted that an intermediate involving the amide bond of the glutamine may form on the surface of the enzyme. When pyruvate is the activator, this intermediate may be in the nature of a dehydropeptide and glutaminase II may be considered a dehydropeptidase. The enzymic mechanism of arginine formation from citrulline was discussed by S. Ratner of New York University College of Medicine. His studies on acetone extracts of mammalian livers disclosed an enzyme system which produces arginine and L-malate from L-aspartate and L-citrulline in the presence of magnesium and adenosine triphosphate. The reaction was described as an exchange of OH and NH 2 groups through an intermediate form and is believed to occur stepwise. Employment Opportunities The Washington meeting of the Division of Chemical Education, which will hold its main sessions at the Portland meeting, featured a Symposium on Employment Opportunities for Chemists. The two major fields of employment opportunity— industry and university—were discussed by J. W. Reynard, Du Pont, and Raymond E. Kirk, Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, respectively. Reynard pointed out that industrial opportunities could be conveniently divided into research, production, development, and sales. He said that it is becoming essential that chemists or engineers planning to go into industrial research have graduate degrees, preferably doctorates. Employment in the other categories may be found at any academic level, but he pointed out that most jobs in these fields are obtained after a preliminary sti..o in the laboratories. Dr. Kirk accented the fact that the chemist entering the teaching profession must be at least as anxious to teach as he is to practice chemistry. He pointed out the greatest satisfaction must come to the teacher-chemist from the studying of a 2681
Ε. Pietsch of Gnieliti institute of Ger many, special guest of the Division of Chemical Education, will be present at each of [he national programs changing subject with a group of young minds. Tine chemist-teachers' research program, sat-id Or. Kirk, must be a tool to train research techniques to graduate students rather t h a n a means to enhance t he teacher" s professional standing. T h e symposium took a d v a n t a g e of the location of the meeting and presented speakers from the various scientific organi zations of thue Federal G o v e r n m e n t who ex plained the Avorkings a n d hiring procedures of their various organizations. T h e pro cedures use
