Molecules

To make the greatest omelet in the world, make sure that the eggs are at room temperature by leaving them out of the refrigerator for 30 minutes before using them. Cold eggs are too stiff for an omelet. Also, if you always add a little milk to your omelet, try adding a small amount of water instead. The water will increase the volume at least three times more than the milk. The water molecules surround the eggs' protein, forcing you to use more heat to cook the protein and make it coagulate.

IRVINE, Calif. -- The first microscope that can penetrate the mysteries of living human cells has been built by University of California-Irvine researchers, with the possibility it will eventually change the way diseases like cancer are diagnosed and treated.The technology uses shock waves produced by laser beams to capture, freeze and chemically analyze the contents of a cell.This ability to surprise a cell before it has time to change its internal chemistry in defense is a key factor to learning how diseased cells behave, and what types of drugs might treat them best.

DALLAS -- More than any other science, chemistry provided the products that made the 20th century modern.From plastics to Prozac, new chemicals from the lab invaded every aspect of ordinary life. Chemists produced new sources of clothes for people, tires and gas for cars, cures for diseases. Fertilizers, pesticides, refrigerants, birth-control pills, air conditioners and copy machines owe their existence to clever chemists.It was just a matter of mastering the magic of molecules.As the science in charge of understanding how molecules are made and what they do, chemistry touches all aspects of life, as well as most other sciences.

Doris M. Drury,72, the first woman to head the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, died Tuesday. Ms. Drury, a longtime professor at the University of Denver and Regis University, also was a pioneer in helping women get bank loans.Patrick Heron,79, Britain's foremost abstract painter, died yesterday, the director of London's Tate Gallery said. The Tate Gallery held a retrospective exhibition of Mr. Heron's work last year. He was a principle member of the St. Ives group of artists.Marian Searchinger,81, New York theatrical agent who represented actors Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee and Jane Alexander, died Monday in Santa Barbara, Calif.

Australian scientists say they have found evidence that complex forms of life existed on Earth 2.7 billion years ago, 500 million to 1 billion years earlier than previously thought.The life forms are single-celled creatures called eukaryotes, the first known cells to have nuclei and specialized internal structures for processing energy.Present-day descendants of this group include all the higher forms of life, such as plants, animals (including people) and fungi, as well as many single-celled creatures like amoebae.

Following are excerpts from the 22-page valedictory John Bova would have delivered, had he been allowed, to 179 classmates, their parents and faculty at Archbishop Spalding High School graduation yesterday:Good morning, members of the Class of 1997 I am going to try to leave you with a genuine idea. If you would like to try this, I ask that you clear your minds allow yourself to listen to the voice of your own mind called forth by my halting suggestions.When I was trying to decide what this speech would really be about, I gradually became aware that something was bothering me about the word "valedictory" itself.

Johns Hopkins University chemical engineer Dr. Denis Wirtz has developed a sort of molecular towing service.Wirtz has devised a way to hitch tiny iron-oxide beads to individual DNA molecules. Then, using a computer keyboard or joystick, he can alter magnetic fields around the molecules to tow the beads and their DNA wherever he wants -- in three dimensions, and all by remote control.Dyed so that they fluoresce with a blue glow, the threadlike DNA strands can be seen on a video screen, drifting and turning obediently in ghostly formation as they move through a dark sea of nonbeaded DNA."

Somewhere in the descent through the realm of the extremely small, you cross a line from engineering into chemistry. You leave behind silicon circuits and tiny machines that are merely microscopic, and begin to move among atoms and molecules.That's where Larry R. Dalton and Troy W. Barbee Jr. work.Barbee is a materials scientist at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where he is creating new, high-performance alloys, atom by atom.Dalton, a professor of chemistry and electrical engineering at the University of Southern California, co-directs a team that is assembling individual molecules into working computer memorydevices as small as bacteria.

Slowed down steam, water numbed to sleep, its dream of a more spacious body clear, unclear. Waking may be gradual, or, under pressure, sudden (as the naive sole grasps too late). An agitating weight, a layer of molecules hot under the collar and it slips its skin, sly, upsetting, shifts, springs released from slow to fast. Answer: melting ice

For Jeremy M. Berg, it all started with the gift of a book.For W. Mark Saltzman, it was tangled up in his admiration for the world's original thinkers.For both, the decision to become a scientist was a matter of applying their energies and talents, and indulging their passion for understanding the physical world.Both are being honored this week: Dr. Berg, 37, chairman of biophysics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, has been named Maryland's Outstanding Young Scientist for 1995.

With a new analytical technique, a fingerprint can now reveal much more than the identity of a person. It can also identify what the person has been touching - drugs, explosives or poisons, for example. Writing in today's issue of the journal Science, Dr. R. Graham Cooks, a professor of chemistry at Purdue University, and his colleagues describe how a laboratory technique, mass spectrometry, could find a wider application in crime investigations. The equipment to perform such tests is commercially available, although prohibitively expensive for all but the largest crime laboratories.

Instruments aboard a Maryland-built spacecraft that soared past the planet Mercury in January have provided a real surprise: traces of water molecules in the hot little world's extremely thin atmosphere, scientists reported yesterday. It's not clear where they came from yet, but astronomers suspect that the water molecules are being blasted from the planet's surface by the solar wind, along with ions of sodium, calcium and magnesium - all clues to the chemical composition of surface material.

Researchers have identified seven possibilities for the next generation of mosquito repellent, some of which may work several times longer than the current standard-bearer, DEET. The next step: safety testing to make sure they're not harmful. While the new repellents aren't likely to be available commercially for a few years, early tests on cloth were promising, with some chemicals repelling mosquitoes for as long as 73 days and many working for 40 days to 50 days, compared to an average of 17.5 days with DEET, according to a recent study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Pushing the Hubble Space Telescope to its limits, astronomers say they have made the first discovery of the organic molecule methane in the atmosphere of a planet circling a sun-like star. Although methane can be generated by cows and rotting garbage, scientists say there's little chance that they've stumbled on signs of life on the planet, about 63 light-years from Earth. The Jupiter-size world's atmosphere sizzles at 1,700 degrees Fahrenheit. But their apparent success in detecting the gas so far away gives them confidence that they'll be able to find it again someday on a smaller, cooler planet circling a different star.

CHICAGO -- Vaccines, the most potent medical weapon ever devised to vanquish deadly germs, are being called on to do something totally different and culturally revolutionary - to inoculate people against bad habits such as overeating, cigarette smoking and drug use. Whether this new era of vaccine research can actually subdue many of the poor lifestyle choices that are today's biggest threats to health, causing obesity, cancer, heart disease and other...

Glue makes modern life possible, quietly holding together electronics, houses, planes, shoes and more with unseen chemical bonds that are taken for granted - until something breaks. Bolts held in place with epoxy are the likely culprit in the July collapse of ceiling panels in Boston's Big Dig tunnel. But adhesives can be superior to conventional nuts and bolts in some circumstances. Scientists and companies are searching for even better glues - substances that will stick under water or grip even the slipperiest surfaces.

Pancreatic cancer is relentless: Nearly all of the 30,000 Americans diagnosed annually with the disease die within 12 months. The early symptoms, back pain and indigestion, are so vague that most patients have no idea that they have cancer. By the time it's detected, the disease has usually spread to the point that it is untreatable. But what if a simple blood test could alert doctors to pancreatic cancer early enough to treat it? Such a test does not exist, but University of Nebraska researcher Michael Hollingsworth thinks he has a solid lead.

Scientists say a moist towel soaked with a common food preservative could turn into an effective tool for combating the next anthrax attack. Nisin, a compound found in hot dogs and other processed foods, has been shown to stop the spread of anthrax spores, and a Gaithersburg research firm is investigating its potential for preventing the spread of anthrax on human skin. Although the research is preliminary, if nisin works out, it would be the first topical treatment of its kind, according to researchers who presented findings at a scientific conference this week in Baltimore.

Like the old Seinfeld show, the story of nanotubes is a story about nothing. Or nearly nothing. To the naked eye, a vial of nanotubes looks like a fine black powder, the sort of stuff you can wipe off the disks of your car's brakes. "It's basically soot," said Peter J. Burke, a researcher at the University of California at Irvine. In fact, nanotubes are tiny carbon molecules with astonishing strength and lightness, electrical conductivity, heat conductivity and sharpness. Since nanotubes were discovered in 1991, their boosters have promised a revolution in products, including high-strength aircraft parts, faster computers, more powerful batteries, cheaper and more efficient video displays and lights, better fuel cells and disposable chemical and biological sensors.

A tiny new scaffold that assembles itself inside the body could point the way to regeneration of spinal cords and the ability to grow tissues ranging from bone cartilage to blood vessels, scientists say. "This is a magic material," said one of the scaffold's inventors, Northwestern University chemistry professor Samuel Stupp, who reported the discovery last week in Science magazine. Other researchers were almost as effusive. "This work is excellent. It is very beautiful," said Massachusetts Institute of Technology molecular biologist Shuguang Zhang, who is developing a similar device.