The Beauty of Life

A companion element to carbon, directly below it in the periodic table, is silicon. Silicon (Si) can also form long chains of linked silicon nuclei, and it also assumes a tetrahedral shape like carbon. But silicon does not readily form the double and triple bonds of carbon, so it does not appear to possess the versatility necessary for a complex life form, though some science fiction writers would have it otherwise. Still, silicon forms the basis for quartz, gemstones, and glass, which contribute to the beauty of life. 

Your I.C. is in Libra, indicating that while you may be willing to fight in the professional world, you need a serene and harmonious home. Take the advice of Aries artist William Morris in The Beauty of Life Have... 

Evolution tells us how man developed in the biosphere ultimately to dominate it. Because of the complexity and the beauty of life, one often forgets that life was threatened as soon as it began. DNA, a child of the sun, was probably one of the sun s first victims. Survival meant adaptation to the environment. What did not adapt did not live. 

The Indian physicist Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman was on a cruise on the Mediterranean Sea in 1921. Some reports suggest it was his honeymoon. Others say the beauty of its deep blue opalescence captivated him. Whatever the reason, he dedicated the rest of his life to understanding its colour and discovered the so-called Raman effect. 

In contrast to muscarine, atropine blocks these actions of acetylcholine and muscarine. Atropine is, therefore, an acetylcholine antagonist. It binds where acetylcholine binds and therefore prevents the binding of the latter but does not activate it. Two molecules cannot occupy the same binding site at the same time. Atropine is isolated from the plant Atropa belladonna. Extracts of this plant have been used for millennia for a variety of purposes. Although large doses are poisonous (Atropos is the name of the Fate who cuts the thread of life), small doses causes dilation of the pupils, a consequence of its action as an acetylcholine antagonist, and has been used for cosmetic purposes by women, hi Itahan, belladonna means beautiful woman. 

But if the atom is not the only face of matter, as we seem forced to admit, it is to our knowledge the atom that assumes the widest and most evolutive range of forms. Dark matter and its companion ectoplasm, the repulsive substrate of the Universe, transparent yet crammed with energy, that we venture to call vacuum (Casse 1993) or quintessence , are merely shapeless substrates before the atom in its wealth of forms, line tracery and beauty. And raised above all else, it is cathedrals of atoms that form the seat of life and consciousness, giving speech to matter. 

DNA, short for deoxyribonucleic acid, is the coding machinery of life. The beauty of DNA is in its simplicity that results in the complexity of life. The double helix of DNA is made of the chemicals adenine (A), guanine (G), thymine (T), and cytosine (C). These chemical are bound in long stretches as AT and CG pairs,... 

All parts of the belladonna plant contain the alkaloids. Linne named the species after one of the Fates, Atropos, who cut the thread of life. In Italy during the Middle Ages an extract of the plant was dropped onto the eyes in order to dilate the pupils (this practice gave rise to the name "belladonna" or beautiful lady since large dark pupils were considered a mark of beauty). Today atropine analogues, such as homatropine, are still used to dilate the pupils for opthalmalogical studies. Sympathomimetics can also be used for this purpose. See the Aside on Eye Openers . 

Five Kingdoms An Illustrated Guide to the Phyla of Life on Earth, 3rd edn, W. H. Freeman and Company, New York. Description of all major groups of organisms, beautifully illustrated with electron micrographs and drawings. 

The study of protein synthesis offers another important reward a look at a world of RNA catalysts that may have existed before the dawn of life as we know it. Researchers have elucidated the structure of bacterial ribosomes, revealing the workings of cellular protein synthesis in beautiful molecular detail. And what did they find Proteins are synthesized by a gigantic RNA enzyme ... 

To throw away the beauty of close companionship because you fear physical activities is foolish at any stage of life. For mature people, it is ridiculous. 

Can—and should—life be described in terms of molecules For many, such description seems to diminish the beauty of Nature. For others of us, the wonder and beauty of nature are nowhere more manifest than in the submicroscopic plan of life... 

Perhaps the most incontrovertible source from which we derive beauty is Nature. In terms of molecular beauty, Nature has perfected its brand of chemistry over billions of years and is an endless source of inspiration for chemists. For all our efforts, the number of chemicals and reactions we have discovered and created seem diminished by the bewildering complexity and sheer abundance of those in Nature. In particular, the diversity and intricacy of systems and cycles in the chemistry of life processes are still far beyond our total comprehension. Even so, in a world where stmcture and function are so intrinsically and intimately linked, it should come as no surprise that Nature started dabbling with mechanical bonds long before humans came to the scene. 

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