Alas, too much written about this new science is gibberish...for example:
Effervescence -- in medical nanorobotics, bubble formation by a gaseous solute that is offloaded by nanorobot sorting rotors at a concentration that exceeds the solvation capacity of the surrounding solvent.
Right. Is that clear?
And I thought cell physiology and biochemistry was difficult...
This explanation of Buckyballs is a bit easier...you know what a Buckyball is, don't you?
Buckyballs are members of a class of all-carbon, cage-shaped molecules now known as fullerenes.
The Nobel prize was awarded in 1996 to their discoverers, who had formally named the molecule buckminsterfullerene for its resemblance to the geodesic domes of architect R. Buckminster Fuller.
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BUCKY DRUG. Model of a fullerene-based HIV protease inhibitor recently designed by Simon Friedman.
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More than a decade after Friedman and others first pondered the idea, research toward medical uses for buckyballs continues trekking forward. Buckyballs are members of a class of all-carbon, cage-shaped molecules now known as fullerenes. In recent months, for example, daylong sessions at national meetings of both the American Chemical Society and the Electrochemical Society were devoted to the topic, and at least three companies are working toward medical uses of fullerenes.
Friedman notes that fullerenes' unique qualities have promise for certain types of drug design. Their small size, spherical shape, and hollow interior all provide therapeutic opportunities. Moreover, a cage of 60 carbon atoms has 60 places at which to attach chemical groups in almost any configuration. Such opportunity has led to the development of not only drug candidates for treating diseases including HIV, cancer, and neurological conditions, but also new diagnostic tools. Among these are contrast agents for X-ray and magnetic resonance imaging (see box, below).
Molecular pincushion
One of the best ways to use fullerenes' unique structures is as scaffolding for building drug molecules, says Friedman, now at the University of Missouri in Kansas City. "You can think of the fullerene as a molecular pincushion," agrees Uri Sagman of C Sixty, a small, Toronto company specializing in developing fullerenes for biomedical uses.
Ah, Molecular pincushion. That's easier to understand...
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