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Most observers would point to the 1969 Apollo moon landing as the single greatest accomplishment of NASA, yet prominent scientists, engineers, and public officials were questioning the purpose of the U.S. space program, even at the height of its national popularity. Defining NASA looks at the turbulent history of the space agency and the political controversies behind its funding. W. D. Kay examines the agency's activities and behavior by taking into account not only the political climate, but also the changes in how public officials conceptualize space policy. He explores what policymakers envisioned when they created the agency in 1958, why support for the Apollo program was so strong in the 1960s only to fade away in such a relatively short period of time, what caused NASA and the space program to languish throughout most of the 1970s only to reemerge in the 1980s, and, finally, what role the agency plays today.
This volume constitutes the proceedings of a satellite symposium of the XXXth congress of the International Union of Physiological Sciences. The symposium has been held In Banff, Alberta Canada July 9-11 1986. The program was organized to provide a selective overview of current developments in cardiac biophysics, biochemistry, and physiology. In order to highlight areas of develop ing ideas and to stimulate the participants' inquisitiveness into the nature and complexity of the integrated cardiovascular system, lectures and discussions were presented that emphasized evolving and sometimes provocative concepts in the field. With the same goal in mind we have, for the readers of this volume, b...
Calcium Binding Proteins explains the unique and highly diverse functions of calcium in biology, which are realized by calcium binding proteins. The structures and physical characteristics of these calcium binding proteins are described, as well as their functions and general patterns of their evolution. Techniques that underlie the description of proteins are discussed, including NMR, circular dichroism, optical rotatory dispersion spectroscopy, calorimetry,and crystallography. The book discusses the patterns of bochmical phenomena such as calcium homeostasis, mineralization, and cell signaling that involve specific proteins. It summarizes ongoing research and presents general hypotheses that help to focus future research, and also provides a conceptual framework and a description of the underlying techniques that permits someone entering the field to become conversant.
Conformation in Fibrous Proteins: And Related Synthetic Polypeptides provides a comprehensive and critical account of conformation in fibrous proteins and synthetic polypeptides in the solid state. Physical methods of determining conformation are discussed, and relevant results from studies of synthetic polypeptides and fibrous proteins are presented. Comprised of 18 chapters divided into three sections, this book opens with a discussion on the theory and technique of X-ray diffraction applicable to the study of conformation in fibrous materials, along with electron diffraction, electron microscopy, optical diffraction, and infrared spectrophotometry. The procedures used for conformation analysis and prediction are also outlined. The following chapters consider optimization techniques and other methods for elucidating conformation in fibrous proteins and synthetic polypeptides; the use of synthetic polypeptides as models of fibrous proteins; and conformation in fibrous proteins such as silks, collagens, myofibrillar proteins, and keratins. This monograph will be a valuable source of information for molecular biologists.