Nobelium

"Nobelium is a synthetic element with the symbol No and atomic number 102. It was first correctly identified in 1966 by scientists at the Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions in Dubna,Soviet Union. Little is known about the element but limited chemical experiments have shown that it forms a stable divalent ion in solution as well as the predicted trivalent ion that is associated with its presence as one of the actinides."

"The appearance of this element is unknown, however it is most likely silvery-white or gray and metallic. If sufficient amounts of nobelium were produced, it would pose a radiation hazard. Some sources quote a melting point of 827 °C for nobelium but this cannot be substantiated from an official source and seems implausible regarding the requirements of such a measurement. However, the 1st, 2nd and 3rd ionization energies have been measured. In addition, an electronegativity value of 1.3 is also sometimes quoted."

"The discovery of element 102 was first announced by physicists at the Nobel Institute in Sweden in 1957. The team reported that they created an isotope with a half-life of 10 minutes, decaying by emission of an 8.5 MeV alpha particle, after bombarding ²⁴⁴Cm with ¹³C nuclei. The activity was assigned to ²⁵¹No or ²⁵³No. The scientists proposed the name nobelium(No) for the new element. Later they retracted their claim and associated the activity to background effects."

Ganglioside

"A ganglioside is a molecule composed of glycosphingolipid (ceramide and oligosaccharide) with one or more sialic acids (e.g. n-acetylneuraminic acid, NANA) linked on the sugar chain. NeuNAc, an acetylated derivative of the carbohydrate sialic acid, makes the head groups of gangliosides anionic at pH 7, which distinguishes them from globosides."

"The name ganglioside was first applied by the German scientist Ernst Klenk in 1942 to lipids newly isolated from ganglion cells of brain.^[1] More than 60 gangliosides are known, in which they differ from each other mainly in the position and number of NANA residues. It is a component of the cell plasma membrane that modulates cell signal transduction events, and appears to concentrate in lipid rafts."

"Recently, gangliosides have been found to be highly important molecules in immunology. Natural and semisynthetic gangliosides are considered possible therapeutics for neurodegenerative disorders."

Cholesterol

"Cholesterol, from the Greek chole- (bile) and stereos (solid) followed by the chemical suffix -ol for an alcohol, is an organic chemical substance classified as a waxy steroid of fat. It is an essential structural component of mammalian cell membranes and is required to establish proper membrane permeability and fluidity."

"In addition to its importance within cells, cholesterol also serves as a precursor for the biosynthesis of steroid hormones, bile acids, and vitamin D.^[2] Cholesterol is the principalsterol synthesized by animals; in vertebrates it is formed predominantly in the liver. Small quantities are synthesized in other cellular organisms (eukaryotes) such as plants and fungi. It is almost completely absent among prokaryotes (i.e., bacteria)."

"Although cholesterol is important and necessary for human health, high levels of cholesterol in the blood have been linked to damage to arteries and cardiovascular disease."

"François Poulletier de la Salle first identified cholesterol in solid form in gallstones, in 1769. However, it was only in 1815 that chemist Eugène Chevreul named the compound 'cholesterine'".

Holmium

"Holmium is a chemical element with the symbol Ho and atomic number 67. Part of the lanthanide series, holmium is a rare earth element. Holmium was discovered by Swedish chemist Per Theodor Cleve. Its oxide was first isolated from rare earth ores in 1878 and the element was named after the city of Stockholm."

"Elemental holmium is a relatively soft and malleable silvery-white metal. It is too reactive to be found uncombined in nature, but when isolated, is relatively stable in dry air at room temperature. However, it reacts with water and rusts readily, and will also burn in air when heated."

"Holmium is found in the minerals monazite and gadolinite, and is usually commercially extracted from monazite using ion exchange techniques. Its compounds in nature, and in nearly all of its laboratory chemistry, are trivalently oxidized, containing Ho(III) ions. Trivalent holmium ions have fluorescent properties similar to many other rare earth ions (while yielding their own set of unique emission light lines), and holmium ions are thus used in the same way as some other rare earths in certain laser and glass colorant applications."

"Holmium has the highest magnetic strength of any element and therefore is used for the polepieces of the strongest static magnets. Because holmium strongly absorbs neutrons, it is also used in nuclear control rods."

Trimethylamine

"Trimethylamine is an organic compound with the formula N(CH₃)₃. This colorless, hygroscopic, and flammable tertiary amine has a strong "fishy"odor in low concentrations and an ammonia-like odor at higher concentrations. It is a gas at room temperature but is usually sold in pressurized gas cylinders or as a 40% solution in water."

"Trimethylamine is a product of decomposition of plants and animals. It is the substance mainly responsible for the odor often associated with rottingfish, some infections, and bad breath. It is also associated with taking large doses of choline and carnitine."

"Trimethylamine is a nitrogenous base and can be readily protonated to give trimethylammonium cation. Trimethylammonium chloride is a hygroscopic colorless solid prepared from hydrochloric acid. Trimethylamine is a good nucleophile, and this reaction is the basis of most of its applications."

Francium

"Francium is a chemical element with symbol Fr and atomic number 87. It was formerly known as eka-caesium and actinium K. It is one of the two least electronegative elements, the other being caesium. Francium is a highly radioactive metal that decays into astatine, radium, and radon. As an alkali metal, it has one valence electron."

"Bulk francium has never been viewed. Because of the general appearance of the other elements in its periodic table column, it is assumed that francium would appear as a highly reflective metal, if enough could be collected together to be viewed as a bulk solid or liquid. However preparing such a sample is impossible, since the extreme heat of decay (its longest isotopic half life is only 22 minutes) would immediately vaporize any viewable quantity of the element."

"Francium was discovered by Marguerite Perey in France (from which the element takes its name) in 1939. It was the last element discovered innature, rather than by synthesis.^{[note 2]} Outside the laboratory, francium is extremely rare, with trace amounts found in uranium and thorium ores, where the isotope francium-223 continually forms and decays. As little as 20–30 g (one ounce) exists at any given time throughout the Earth's crust; the other isotopes are entirely synthetic. The largest amount produced in the laboratory was a cluster of more than 300,000 atoms."

Simvastatin

"Simvastatin (INN) ( /ˈsɪmvəstætɨn/) is a hypolipidemic drug used to control elevated cholesterol, or hypercholesterolemia. It is a member of thestatin class of pharmaceuticals."

"Simvastatin is a synthetic derivative of a fermentation product of Aspergillus terreus. The drug is marketed generically and under the trade name Zocor."

"All statins act by inhibiting 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A HMG-CoA reductase, the rate-limiting enzyme of the HMG-CoA reductase pathway, themetabolic pathway responsible for the endogenous production of cholesterol. Statins are more effective than other lipid-regulating drugs at lowering LDL-cholesterol concentration, but they are less effective than the fibrates in reducing triglyceride concentration. However, statins reduce cardiovascular disease events and total mortality irrespective of the initial cholesterol concentration. This is a major evidence that the statins works in another way than the lowering of cholesterol (called pleitropic effects)."

Lidocaine

"Lidocaine (INN) ( /ˈlaɪdɵkeɪn/), Xylocaine, or lignocaine (former BAN) ( /ˈlɪɡnɵkeɪn/) is a common local anesthetic and antiarrhythmic drug. Lidocaine is used topically to relieve itching, burning and pain from skin inflammations, injected as a dental anesthetic or as a local anesthetic for minor surgery."

"Lidocaine, the first amino amide–type local anesthetic, was first synthesized under the name Xylocaine by Swedish chemist Nils Löfgren in 1943. His colleague Bengt Lundqvist performed the first injection anesthesia experiments on himself.^[1] It was first marketed in 1949."

"The efficacy profile of lidocaine as a local anesthetic is characterized by a rapid onset of action and intermediate duration of efficacy. Therefore, lidocaine is suitable for infiltration, block and surface anesthesia. Longer-acting substances such as bupivacaine are sometimes given preference for spinal and peridural anesthesias; lidocaine, on the other hand, has the advantage of a rapid onset of action. Epinephrine vasoconstricts arteries reducing bleeding and also delays the resorption of Lidocaine, almost doubling the duration of anaesthesia. For surface anesthesia several formulations are available that can be used e.g. for endoscopies, before intubations etc. Buffering the pH of lidocaine makes local freezing less painful."

Hydroquinone

"Hydroquinone, also benzene-1,4-diol or quinol, is an aromatic organic compound that is a type of phenol, having the chemical formula C₆H₄(OH)₂. Its chemical structure, shown in the table at right, features two hydroxyl groups bonded to a benzene ring in a para position. It is a white granularsolid. Substituted derivatives of this parent compound are also referred to as hydroquinones."

"In term of the reactivity of its O-H groups, hydroquinone resembles other phenols, being weakly acidic. The resulting conjugate base undergoes easy O-alkylation to give mono- and diethers. Similarly, hydroquinone is highly susceptible to ring substitution by Friedel-Crafts reactions such as alkylation. This reaction is exploited en route to popular antioxidants such as 2-tert-butyl-4-methoxyphenol ("BHA"). The useful dye quinizarin is produced by diacylation of hydroquinone with phthalic anhydride."

Neptunium

"Neptunium ( /nɛpˈtjuːniəm/ nep-tew-nee-əm) is a chemical element with the symbol Np and atomic number 93. A radioactive metal, neptunium is the first transuranic element, and belongs to the actinide series. Its most stable isotope, ²³⁷Np, is a by-product of nuclear reactors and plutoniumproduction, and it can be used as a component in neutron detection equipment. Neptunium is also found in trace amounts in uranium ores due to transmutation reactions."

"The periodic table of Dmitri Mendeleev published in the 1870s showed a " — " in place after uranium similar to several other places for at that point undiscovered elements. Also, a 1913 publication of the known radioactive isotopes by Kasimir Fajans shows the empty place after uranium."

"At least three times, discoveries of the element 93 were falsely reported, as bohemium and ausonium in 1934, and then sequanium in 1939. The name neptunium had previously been considered for germanium."

"The search for element 93 in minerals was encumbered by the fact that the predictions on the chemical properties of element 93 were based on a periodic table which lacked the actinide series, and therefore placed thorium below hafnium, protactinium below tantalum, and uranium below tungsten. This periodic table suggested that element 93, at that point often named eka-rhenium, should be similar to manganese or rhenium. With this misconception it was impossible to isolate element 93 from minerals, although neptunium was later found in uranium ore, in 1952."