Changes: economic/cultural

Hundreds of metabohc reac tions take place simultaneously in cells. There are branched and parallel pathways, and a single biochemical may participate in sever distinct reactions. Through mass action, concentration changes caused by one reac tion may effect the kinetics and equilibrium concentrations of another. In order to prevent accumulation of too much of a biochemical, the product or an intermediate in the pathway may slow the production of an enzyme or may inhibit the ac tivation of enzymes regulating the pathway. This is termed feedback control and is shown in Fig. 24-1. More complicated examples are known where two biochemicals ac t in concert to inhibit an enzyme. As accumulation of excessive amounts of a certain biochemical may be the key to economic success, creating mutant cultures with defective metabolic controls has great value to the produc tion of a given produc t. 

From a general historical perspective we can characterize Paracelsus and iatrochemistry as a kind of counter-culture of the sixteenth century, a revolt against the rigidity of the University curriculum and its isolation from experience. Similar movements can be found in religion, politics, the arts, and economics, the whole period being characterized by changes and upheaval that we call the Renaissance. 

Jon Lawrence, The First World War and its aftermath , in Paul Johnson (ed.), Twentieth-Century Britain Economic, Social and Cultural Change (London Longman, 1994), pp. 151-68, at p. 158. 

There is great diversity amongst the cultures and traditions of the world that can constitute irreconcilable difficulties. What one state considers worthy of protection another may consider part of its commons. What is to the economic advantage of one nation may be to the economic detriment of another. IP, however, is seed sown in the design of the Washington Consensus (Chang 2002). That seed, TRIPS, in Article 27(1), sets out the mandatory minimal standard for the scope of patent protection. It... 

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