Nitrogen discovery monoxide

Our experience conditions us to focus on the organic components of the reaction—l arginine and l citrul line—and to give less attention to the inorganic one—nitric oxide (nitrogen monoxide NO) To do so however would lead us to overlook one of the most important discoveries in biology in the last quarter of the twentieth century... 

The first is biomedicine. The discovery of superoxide dismutase and nitrogen monoxide as messengers has led to an explosive growth in articles in which one-electron oxidations and reductions have been explored. Organic radicals play an important role in the treatment of cancers. The other is atmospheric chemistry where the modeling of reactions requires accurate reduction potentials (Stanbury 1989, Wardman 1989). 

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