OCR Text |
Show pfeiKe Reports Isiworms Used Cancer Study NEW YORK Science, official Journal of American scientists, yVkave announced the creation of a S radioactive silkworms. Itj" ; They make radioactive silk. But Ps:-- Ifce purpose is to study cancer and Nrowth, rather than learn how to V Synthesize silk, which is one job kfij tha' has baffled chemistry. j xhe work is done by a group in IV the medical laboratories of the -d Collis P. Huntington memorial 'enS" hospital and the chemical and bio- ' jpgical laboratories of Harvard uni-IVfersity. uni-IVfersity. Ij5: They are trying to discover how ' to synthesize a protein, because pro-x pro-x teins are the biggest molecules, the ' '.'fjnost difficult to make, and prob-'.3 prob-'.3 ably the most Important to life. 'gilk gives them a good chance, because be-cause it is made of fibroin, one of f''ine large protein molecules. : f: Method Is Puzzle rV How the silkworms make this 'H, jtut is one of the puzzles of growth, lef and growth in turn is one of the i i basic researches in hunting the !'3 cause and maybe the cure of can-jeer. can-jeer. ;a,V The Harvard group used radio-5J radio-5J active carbon atoms to light up "7 the insides of silkworms so that the ':f living process could be seen in 11 photographs. 5,. These atoms were injected into y'. -f.e silkworms, but not haphazardly. . V.-fuiemists had discovered that a -i silk fiber is largely made of two acids, alanine and glycine. Both contain carbon. The radioactive y.' , atoms were added to these two ; r: acids, and the latter injected by ;',t; needles. T;-r These two acids appear not only jj.. in silk, but also in human protein jj r tissues. That was another reason en.-the silkworm tests. Became Radioactive The injected worms became radio-"K- active. Their bodies rattled for. Geiger counters, but they did not Ol have enough of the hot carbon to harm them or to interfere with their silkmaking. I The worms spun cocoons, and the cocoons were radioactive. Fibers j from the cocoons were laid on photographic plates, in darkness, : and took their own pictures by the : radioactive rays, indicating the radioactive .atoms were-in -the big ilk protein molecules. lOther experiments are starting to unravel the process further. If this i-E pure-science venture tells how ,-worms make silk, it has a byproduct by-product of great possibilities for jeptne textile industry because the W knowledge will help scientists synthesize syn-thesize real silk. |