scholarly journals An Interview with Nobel Laureate David Baltimore, PhD

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 50-59
Author(s):  
Michael M. Lederman ◽  
Neil Greenspan

In an online interview, Nobel Laureate David Baltimore, Ph.D., reflected on his contributions to biomedical science that have had a major influence on the fields of molecular biology, virology, cancer, and immunology. Dr. Baltimore is President Emeritus and Distinguished Professor of Biology at the California Institute of Technology. Among other notable works, he discovered the critical nuclear transcription factor NF Kappa B and the Rag1 and Rag2 proteins that rearrange adaptive immune cell receptors. His career path, he says, evolved naturally, as math and science came easily to him. As a high school student, he participated in a summer program at the Jackson Lab in Bar Harbor, Maine, where he says he came away feeling that experimental biology was exciting and rewarding. “That's where I discovered that the frontiers of science, were not so distant; that I could actually make a discovery that nobody else in the world knew about,” he says.  And that he did. Independently, he and Howard Temin discovered the viral enzyme reverse transcriptase revising the canon of cellular information transfer. They published back-to-back papers in Nature demonstrating that this enzyme in virus particles could transcribe RNA to DNA. Both received a Nobel Prize for this work. In reflecting on his early experience evaluating how to work with recombinant DNA and how we should scientifically and safely approach gain of function research, he says, “We have to be very honest with ourselves about what might hold danger, and we have to control our instinct … to do anything we can to generate progress and understanding of life. …At the same time, we don’t want to hold back progress, and so there is a balancing.” Dr. Baltimore also discussed his optimism about vectored immunoprophylaxis as a strategy for prevention of HIV and his doubt that scalable strategies will be able to cure HIV. He also reflected on his philosophy for the training of young scientists and the successful training program that he developed at the Whitehead Institute.

2013 ◽  
Vol 85 (3) ◽  
pp. iv
Author(s):  
Hassan S. Bazzi

The 14th International Conference on Polymers and Organic Chemistry (POC 2012) was held 6-9 January 2012 in Doha, capital of the State of Qatar. This conference followed the 13th edition of this series, which was held in Montreal, Canada in 2009, and is a biannual meeting that travels from one continent to another since its inception in 1982 in Lyon, France to discuss recent results in the fields of polymer and organic chemistry in order to promote their importance in our everyday lives. This was the first IUPAC-sponsored meeting ever in the State of Qatar and the first time this meeting (POC) took place in the Arab world since it was established. POC 2012 was a very successful event, attended by approximately 300 chemists from over 15 countries.The conference featured Dr. Robert H. Grubbs, Victor and Elizabeth Atkins Professor of Chemistry at the California Institute of Technology and 2005 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, as keynote speaker. His lecture was titled “The synthesis of large and small molecules using olefin metathesis catalysts”.The conference consisted of eight oral sessions, which focused on:- Polyolefins (Chair: Dr. Abbas Razavi, Total Petrochemicals Research Feluy)- Responsive and smart polymers (Chair: Dr. David E. Bergbreiter, Texas A&M University)- Polymers in energy (Chair: Dr. Hiroyuki Nishide, Waseda University)- Polymers as therapeutics (Chair: Dr. Karen L. Wooley, Texas A&M University)- Advances in polymer synthesis (Chair: Prof. Brigitte Voit, Leibniz-Institut für Polymerforschung Dresden)- Orthogonal chemistry: organic and polymer synthesis (Chair: Dr. Craig Hawker, University of California Santa Barbara)- Macromolecular engineering with biomolecules (Chair: Dr. Hanadi F. Sleiman, McGill University)- Polymers from renewable resources (Chair: Dr. Joe Kurian, Dupont Company).In addition to the keynote lecture, the conference featured an impressive 43 invited lectures by prominent chemists from all over the globe. The oral sessions featured an additional 29 contributed talks. The poster session showcased the latest results presented by 71 faculty and students attendees.The organizers of the POC 2012 would like to thank the sponsors who generously supported this event. Qatar Petrochemical Company (QAPCO) was the premier sponsor. The organizers are also grateful to the following sponsors: Qatar Fertiliser Company (QAFCO), Qatar University, Qatar Foundation, Texas A&M University at Qatar, and Qatar Airways.I would like finally to acknowledge all the members of the POC 2012 Organizing Committee and International Advisory Committee for their immense contributions. Special thanks are extended in particular to Hala El-Dakak and G. Benjamin Cieslinski for their outstanding efforts.Hassan S. BazziConference Chair


Author(s):  
William F. Chambers ◽  
Arthur A. Chodos ◽  
Roland C. Hagan

TASK8 was designed as an electron microprobe control program with maximum flexibility and versatility, lending itself to a wide variety of applications. While using TASKS in the microprobe laboratory of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, we decided to incorporate the capability of using subroutines which perform specific end-member calculations for nearly any type of mineral phase that might be analyzed in the laboratory. This procedure minimizes the need for post-processing of the data to perform such calculations as element ratios or end-member or formula proportions. It also allows real time assessment of each data point.The use of unique “mineral codes” to specify the list of elements to be measured and the type of calculation to perform on the results was first used in the microprobe laboratory at the California Institute of Technology to optimize the analysis of mineral phases. This approach was used to create a series of subroutines in TASK8 which are called by a three letter code.


1949 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-52
Author(s):  
Merit P. White

Abstract An analysis of longitudinal impact tests that were made by Drs. D. S. Clark and P. E. Duwez at the California Institute of Technology on an iron and a steel with definite yield points is described. From this analysis is deduced the probable nature of the dynamic stress-strain relations for such materials. These appear to differ greatly from the static stress-strain relations, unlike the case for materials without yield points. As pointed out by Duwez and Clark, the upper yield stress for undeformed material is several times as great under impact as the static yield stress. The present analysis indicates that under impact, the material with a definite yield point is made harder at a given deformation, and ruptures at a higher (engineering) stress and smaller strain than when loaded statically. The critical impact velocity, defined as that at which nearly instantaneous failure occurs in tension, is discussed, and the factors upon which it depends are given.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marie Ygouf ◽  
Charles A Beichman ◽  
Graça M Rocha ◽  
Joseph J Green ◽  
Jewell Jeffrey B ◽  
...  

<div>  The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will probe circumstellar environments at an unprecedented sensitivity. However, the performance of high-contrast imaging instruments is limited by the residual light from the star at close separations (<2-3”), where the incidence of exoplanets increases rapidly. There is currently no solution to get rid of the residual light down to the photon noise level at those separations, which may prevent some crucial discoveries.</div> <div>  We are further developing and implementing a potentially game-changing technique of post-processing that does not require the systematic observation of a reference star, but instead directly uses data from the science target by taking advantage of the technique called “phase retrieval”. This technique is built on a Bayesian framework that provides a more robust determination of faint astrophysical structures around a bright source.</div> <div>  This approach uses a model of instrument that takes advantage of prior information, such as data from wavefront sensing operations on JWST, to estimate instrumental aberrations and further push the limits of high-contrast imaging. With this approach, our goal is to improve the contrast that can be achieved with JWST instruments.</div> <div>  We were awarded a JWST GO-Calibration proposal to implement, test and validate this approach on NIRCam imaging and coronagraphic imaging. This work will pave the way for the future space-based high-contrast imaging instruments such as the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope Coronagraph Instrument (Roman CGI). This technique will be crucial to make the best use of the telemetry data that will be collected during the CGI operations.</div> <div>  <br />“© 2021 California Institute of Technology. Government sponsorship acknowledged. The research was carried out in part at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. This document has been reviewed and determined not to contain export controlled data.”</div>


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