Molecules: You'd better learn to live with them.
Just as the swine flu story was starting to catch all our attention, 21 horses died. It was like plagues were breaking out everywhere! With a couple weeks' hindsight, people are breathing easier about the pig bug (perhaps prematurely), and we know the horses died of selenium toxicity from a supplement.
Selenium is essential for the synthesis of selenocysteine, dubbed the "21st amino acid," because it's not quite part of the canon, but it comes up more often than any of the other oddballs. I covered selenocysteine in 2007 and 2008.
Terra Sig has a nice discussion here and here.
See also my previous entry on curcumin, a compound in curry with which a selenocysteine residue reacts.
Life Science
Medicine & Health
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One is heartened to learn that the fruits of diversity - every voice has equal share, and empirically defective ones treble - are now risen to technicians being absolved of decimal points. Stock up on weapons and ammo while caliber can still be accurately machined.
Posted by: Uncle Al | May 8, 2009 11:14 AM