CALIFORNIA | LOCAL July 15, 1999 Buckeyballs, spheres of pure
carbon shaped like a soccer ball, have been found in a piece of
the Allende meteorite that landed in Mexico in 1969--the first
evidence that the exotic molecules can be found in nature. The
spheres, named after Buckminster Fuller, inventor of the
geodesic dome, were first synthesized in chemistry labs in 1985.
The new finding, reported in today's Nature, confirms
speculation that they might be found in space. May 7, 1999 |
Pharmaceutical researchers have found the first simple molecule
that, given by mouth, can mimic the action of insulin in
diabetics, a discovery that could eventually free millions of
people from the burden of injecting insulin two or more times a
day. Isolated from a fungus growing on the leaves of a plant
collected outside Kinshasa, Congo, the chemical controls blood
glucose levels in mice specially bred to develop diabetes, the
team reports in today's Science. CALIFORNIA | LOCAL April 21,
1999 What do peanut butter and jelly sa