White whales

Romano, T.A. et al., Molecular cloning and characterization of CD4 in an aquatic mammal, the white whale Delphinapterus leucas, Immuno genetics, 49, 376, 1999. 

Yes. Whatever that means, but something like that, I suppose. Gad Why not I mean it s pretty nuts, but it s also the symbol system we brought with us mnning into the shamanic magic that we came here looking for. This is what you shipped for, man, to chase the White Whale over all sides of ocean and both sides of earth till he spout black blood and roll fm out. Isn t that your rap "... 

Sperm Oil.—This oil is obtained from the white whale—physeter maerocephahs. This, termed also the cachalot and sperm whale, is remarkable for the enormous size of ita head, which is square, and apparently cut off in front. The animal is pursued chiefly for this oil, but it yields also ambergris. The oil is met with in several parts of the body, but the head is the principal receptacle of. it. Here it is fonnd in a large excavation of the upper jaw, anterior to, and quite distinct from the true cranium whioh contains the brain. Like tho fat of othor animals, this oil is contained in colls, or cellular membrane but besides these cells,... 

Spermaceti.—A beautiful, pearly-white, dry, Inodorous fat, found in the bony receptacles of the head of tbe white whale—physetcr macrocephalus. It is obtained by subjecting the head matter of the whale to hydraulio pressure, for the separation of the oily portion. Unless entirely freed from oil, it is liable to become rancid. It may be purified sufficiently by subjecting it repeatedly to hot pressure or, more expensively, by dissolving out the oil with boiling alcohol. Its etruoture is scaly, and it may readily be crystallized in plates. When pure, it melts at 120", Solar spermaceti is the popular nsme of an admixture of true spermaceti with palmitic acid. 

The (freat White Whale, P O s Canbornt, surrouiided by well-wishing small craft at Southampton, on her return from the Falklands.. Apart from a helicopter flight deck,she was structurally unaltered. 

Dahl, T.M., Lydersen, C., Kovacs, K.M., Falk-Petersen, S., Sargent, J., Gjertz, L, and Gulliksen, B. (2000) Fatty acid composition of the blubber in white whales [Delphinapterus leucas). Polar Biol, 23, 401-409. 

Both attractive forces and repulsive forces are included in van der Waals interactions. The attractive forces are due primarily to instantaneous dipole-induced dipole interactions that arise because of fluctuations in the electron charge distributions of adjacent nonbonded atoms. Individual van der Waals interactions are weak ones (with stabilization energies of 4.0 to 1.2 kj/mol), but many such interactions occur in a typical protein, and, by sheer force of numbers, they can represent a significant contribution to the stability of a protein. Peter Privalov and George Makhatadze have shown that, for pancreatic ribonuclease A, hen egg white lysozyme, horse heart cytochrome c, and sperm whale myoglobin, van der Waals interactions between tightly packed groups in the interior of the protein are a major contribution to protein stability. 

When oil from the head of the sperm whale is cooled, spermaceti, a translucent wax with a white, pearly luster, crystallizes from the mixture. Spermaceti, which makes up 11% of whale oil, is composed mainly of the wax cetyl pabnitate ... 

Ivory, or dentine, the main constituent of the teeth of mammals, is a relatively hard, cream-white material that can be carved or mechanically formed, and its surface can be polished to a high shine (O Connor et al. 1987 Wills 1968). Of particular interest is the ivory that makes up the tusks (large incisor teeth) of large mammals such as elephants, hippopotami, whales, narwhals, and... 

Muir, D.G.G., R. Wagemann, N.P. Grift, R.J. Norstrom, M. Simon, and J. Lien. 1988. Organochlorine chemical and heavy metal contaminants in white-beaked dolphins (Lagenorhynchus albirostris) and pilot whales ( Globicephala melaena) from the coast of Newfoundland, Canada. Arch. Environ. Contam. Toxicol. 17 613-629. 

Weihe, P., P. Grandjean, F. Debes, and R. White. 1996. Health implications for Faroe Islanders of heavy metals and PCBs from pilot whales. Sci. Total Environ. 186 141-148. 

MATERIALS. Ribonuclease A (RNase A) (bovine pancreas), cytochrome C (Cyt. C) (horse heart), lysozyme (chicken egg white), myoglobin (sperm whale), P-lactoglobulin A... 

Fig. 2. Temperature dependence of the partial specific heat capacity for pancreatic ribonuclease A (RNase), hen egg-white lysozyme (Lys), sperm whale myoglobin (Mb), and catalase from Thermus thermophilus (CTT). The flattened curves are for RNase and Lys with disrupted disulfide cross-links and for apomyoglobin, when polypeptide chains have a random coil conformation without noticeable residual structure (Privalov et al., 1988).

Ambergris is excreted into the sea along with the whale s other wastes. Due to its low density, it floats in salt water and is sometimes collected from beaches. It comes in a variety of colors, usually gray or brown, and may have a white powdery surface coating. Ambergris has also been collected from whales killed during hunting, or that died and came to rest on a beach. 

Sperm whales also carry a quantity of oil in a cavity in their heads. This oil contains a wax compound called spermaceti wax. This wax is white in color, and was used for candles, wax casting, and in medicines. 

Boon et al. studied the in vitro biotransformation capacity of hepatic micro-somes of a sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus), a white-beaked dolphin (Lagenorhynchus albirostris), a harbor seal (Phoca vitulina), and an eider duck... 

Somateria mollissima) for PCTs [36]. The biotransformation rates of PCTs were generally low. Eider duck microsomes metabolized more of the lower chlorinated PCTs, whereas the harbor seal microsomes metabolized a wider range of PCTs. The microsomes of the sperm whale and the white-beaked dolphin were almost incapable of metabolizing PCTs. PCTs were considered to be more bio-accumulative than the PCBs but the larger molecular size of PCTs would possibly inhibit bioaccumulation to some extent. In a mutatox assay Aroclor 5442 was not genotoxic [36]. 

---