Future NIH field investigators
I once tried
to learn organic chemistry, from a Teaching Company on-line course – no lab, no tests,
no flesh-and-blood teacher, not even a real-life textbook. And, as you might have guessed – no useful
result. Organic molecules consist of
innumerable carbon and oxygen atoms with all sorts of stuff (other atoms, often
hydrogen) hooked on. These trellises of
atoms extend out in all directions into three-dimensional space. The precise atoms they contain, and
the exact pattern they describe geometrically, are of vital significance in
organic chemistry. And, as I should have
been able to predict, are inaccessible to the octogenarian mind. All I can tell you about organic chemistry
today is that there are innumerable organic molecules, the shapes and
compositions of which are of vital significance in everything from medicine to
beer-making. Organic chemistry is
important; too bad I never mastered it.
So, in early
days – tribal times, let’s say – there were people, mainly women, who
specialized in going into the forest and collecting herbs for use as
medicine. Mostly they didn’t work, but
occasionally they did. Part of the
success no doubt was owing to the placebo effect; if you trust your “doctor”
enough, you may well feel better – especially if the herbal potion was prepared
by your maternal great-aunt, who happens to be the wife of the chief. But more than likely some of the plants the
old lady made you ingest contained organic compounds of genuine curative value;
otherwise she would have stopped picking them.
At least, so reasons the NIH.
All of which
is to tell you that our government is spending a bit of Cancer Moonshot money on
creating a catalog of potentially useful organic compounds derived from plants
and soil biota. Turns out this is not a
simple task. How they do it, and why,
makes interesting reading.
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