Molecular Visions

Molecular models are as vital a tool for the study of chemistry as calculators are for the study of mathematics. Molecular Visions models may be assembled in infinite combinations enabling the user to construct not only familiar configurations but also undiscovered possibilities. Models are intended to inspire the imagination, stimulate thought, and assist the visualization process. They present the user with a solid form of an abstract object that can otherwise only be visualized by the chemist. While chemistry textbooks use letters and graphics to describe molecules, molecular models make them "real". MOLECULAR VISIONS Organic Kit #1 is in a green plastic box, 9"x4"x2"

Manufactured by Darling Model Kits, this custom kit was designed by T.W.Graham Solomons. The kit consists of Darling's basic Molecular Vision kit with a few additional pieces, so that p orbitals could be shown in molecules like acetylene. This customized kit also has pieces that allow linear geometry for the sigma bonds of alkynes while also having orthogonal connections at each atom for the associated p orbitals. By attaching balls of the right colors it is possible to show the lobes of the p orbitals that make up the pi bonds in an alkyne. Ball colors can be matched symmetrically to show in-phase orbital overlap, or antisymmetrically to show an antibonding state. Use of colored balls with the appropriate framework geometry is a very nice feature of the Darling model set. Pieces from Darling's inorganic model set and are used for octahedral geometry.

This fascinating study examines the rise of American molecular biology to disciplinary dominance, focusing on the period between 1930 and the elucidation of DNA structure in the mid 1950s. Research undertaken during this period, with its focus on genetic structure and function, endowed scientists with then unprecedented power over life. By viewing the new biology as both a scientific and cultural enterprise, Lily E. Kay shows that the growth of molecular biology was a result of systematic efforts by key scientists and their sponsors to direct the development of biological research toward a shared vision of science and society. She analyzes the motivations and mechanisms empowering this vision by focusing on two key institutions: Caltech and its sponsor, the Rockefeller Foundation. Her study explores a number of vital, sometimes controversial topics, among them the role of private power centers in shaping scientific agenda, and the political dimensions of "pure" research. It also advances a sobering argument: the cognitive and social groundwork for genetic engineering and human genome projects was laid by the American architects of molecular biology during these early decades of the project. This book will be of interest to molecular biologists, historians, sociologists, and the general reader alike.

Darling Models(tm) contain various pieces used to build atoms, bonds and molecules. These models bring visual representation and hands on learning to the microscopic world of molecules.

Molecular Evolutionary Models in Drug Discovery explores the application of evolutionary molecular models in drug discovery in which secondary metabolites play a fundamental role. Secondary metabolites are not produced in isolation, they are the result of the interaction of genes, metabolism and the environment. The book examines the role of secondary metabolites as leads in drug discovery and on the development of a rational bioprospecting model for new medicines based on the evolution of secondary metabolism. These evolutionary models are part of biological systems and are the most reliable expression of the functioning of living beings. Examines the integration and application of evolutionary models in the pharmaceutical industry to create new drug development platforms Investigates the biotechnological prospecting of secondary metabolites and their potential use in the discovery of new drugs Evaluates the ecosystem of living beings and how its molecular adaptation might improve the success of therapies

Today's science tells us that our bodies are filled with molecular machinery that orchestrates all sorts of life processes. When we think, microscopic "channels" open and close in our brain cell membranes; when we run, tiny "motors" spin in our muscle cell membranes; and when we see, light operates "molecular switches" in our eyes and nerves. A molecular-mechanical vision of life has become commonplace in both the halls of philosophy and the offices of drug companies, where researchers are developing “proton pump inhibitors” or medicines similar to Prozac. Membranes to Molecular Machines explores just how late twentieth-century science came to think of our cells and bodies this way. This story is told through the lens of membrane research, an unwritten history at the crossroads of molecular biology, biochemistry, physiology, and the neurosciences, that directly feeds into today's synthetic biology as well as nano- and biotechnology. Mathias Grote shows how these sciences not only have made us think differently about life, they have, by reworking what membranes and proteins represent in laboratories, allowed us to manipulate life as "active matter" in new ways. Covering the science of biological membranes in the United States and Europe from the mid-1960s to the 1990s, this book connects that history to contemporary work with optogenetics, a method for stimulating individual neurons using light, and will enlighten and provoke anyone interested in the intersection of chemical research and the life sciences—from practitioner to historian to philosopher.

The computer-aided design of novel molecular systems has undoubtedly reached the stage of a mature discipline offering a broad range of tools available to virtually any chemist. However, there are few books coveringmost of these techniques in a single volume and using a language which may generally be understood by students or chemists with a limited knowledge of theoretical chemistry. The purpose of this book is precisely to review, in such a language, both methodological aspects and important applications of computer-aided molecular design (CAMD), with a special emphasis on drug design and protein modeling. Using numerous examples ranging from molecular models to shapes, surfaces, and volumes, Computer-Aided Molecular Design provides coverage of the role molecular graphics play in CAMD. The text also treats the very notion of the structure of molecular systems by presenting both the various experimental techniques giving access to it and the most common model builders based on force fields. Separate chapters are devoted to other important topics in CAMD, such as Monte Carlo and molecular dynamics simulations; most common quantum chemical methods; derivation and visualization of molecular properties; and molecular similarity. Finally, strategies used in protein modeling and drug design, such as receptor mapping and the pharmacophore approach, are presented and illustrated by several examples. The book is addressed to students and researchers who wish to enter this new exciting field of molecular sciences, but also practitioners in CAMD as a comprehensive source of refreshing information in their field. Key Features * Presents a comprehensive introduction to computer-aided molecular design * Describes applications of CAMD through the use of numerous examples * Emphasizes strategies used in protein modeling and drug design * Includes separate chapters devoted to other important topics in CAMD, such as: * Monte Carlo and molecular dynamics simulations * Common quantum chemical methods * Derivation and visualization of molecular properties * Molecular similarity