“1984”: What Orwell could not predict. Proteomic analysis of his scripts

George Orwell, fighter for the Republican Army during the Spanish Civil War, was shot through the throat by a sniper on 20th May 1937 and nearly killed. After receiving only a summary external treatment, on the 29th, he was cured in a Barcelona hospital where he was infected by the Koch bacillus. After fleeing from Spain on 23rd June 1937, he repaired to his cottage in Wallington, Hertfordshire, wherefrom he wrote a letter to Sergey Dynamov, Editor of Soviet journal “Foreign Literature.” This typewritten letter was analyzed by application of five EVA strips (ethylene vinyl acetate studded with strong cation and anion and with C₈ and C₁₈ resins; four on the corners and one over his signature), searching for biological traces. Upon elution of the captured biologicals, trypsin digestion and Orbitrap Fusion trihybrid mass spectrometer analyses, three of the five strips yielded clear traces of six unique proteins (via proteotypic peptides) of the tuberculosis bacterium. Additionally, MALDI TOF analysis of saliva of a tuberculosis patient and the EVA strip eluates gave a spectrum of 14 peptide bands (Mr 2700 to 6700 Da range) coincident between the two samples, thus, fully confirming Orwell's pathology. These results are attributed to saliva traces on Orwell's fingertips and to the fact that the letter was written on 2nd July 1937, when Orwell's pathology was at its peak.     

Photonuclear production and radiochemical separation of medically relevant radionuclides: 67Cu

Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry - Production of medical radionuclide 67Cu by the irradiation of Zn of natural isotopic composition by bremsstrahlung photons of maximum energy of...     

Synthesis of Substituted N‐Formylaminomethylenediphosphonates and Their Derivatives

The convenient methods for the synthesis of new trimethylsilyl esters of aminomethylenediphosphonic acids are elaborated. The new substituted N‐formylaminomethylenediphosphonates are obtained via the interaction of trimethylsilyl esters of methylenediphosphonic acids with a mixture of triethyl orthoformate and ethanol. Also boron trifluoride–diethyl etherate as an effective catalyst is used for the interaction of hydrochlorides of ethoxymethylene imines with diethyl trimethylsilyl phosphite. The corresponding aminomethylenediphosphonic acids are presented.     

Nanosize metal clusters in polymer systems

Three synthetic methods have been developed for embedding nanosize metal clusters into polymers: (i) in situ synthesis of silver nanoparticles in cross-linked poly-acrylamide gels, (ii) implantation of cryochemically produced silver nanoparticles into poly-acrylamide gels, and (iii) encapsulation of metal nanoparticles in poly-p-xylylene films. All methods allow one to produce 3–20 nm stable metal clusters embedded into bulk materials, thin films or fine particles dispersed in organic solvents or water. Results on some physical properties of the metal-polymer systems thus obtained are presented.