{"id":1273,"date":"2012-08-23T15:12:19","date_gmt":"2012-08-23T15:12:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/trading-knowledge\/?p=1273"},"modified":"2012-08-23T15:12:19","modified_gmt":"2012-08-23T15:12:19","slug":"a-look-back-at-the-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/trading-knowledge\/2012\/08\/23\/a-look-back-at-the-future\/","title":{"rendered":"A look back at the future"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I am indebted to Dr R.A.C. for bringing to my attention a spoof exam paper drawn up by J.B.S. Haldane. Originally published in the journal\u00a0<em>Brighter Biochemistry<\/em> (&#8220;the illustrated journal of the Biochemical Laboratory, Cambridge&#8221;), the paper was <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/pii\/0968000481900335\">republished<\/a> in\u00a0<em>Trends in Biochemical Sciences<\/em> in 1981.<em>\u00a0<\/em>I had not come across\u00a0<em>Brighter Biochemistry<\/em> before but it<a href=\"http:\/\/www2.warwick.ac.uk\/fac\/arts\/history\/chm\/research_teaching\/womenbiochemists\/workingenvironments\/\"> sounds like<\/a> it would have been an entertaining read.<\/p>\n<p>For the 1931 issue J.B.S. Haldane, then a Reader in the department of Biochemistry at Cambridge, looked into his crystal ball and produced an examination paper for 1956. Some of it is a bit obscure (well, to me anyway), some of it sounds quite far-fetched, but I have a suspicion that some of it would be answerable &#8211; though probably not in 1956.<\/p>\n<p>Here are some of the questions.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">Write down the structural formula of human type C oxyhaemoglobin, and briefly summarise the evidence on which it is based.\u00a0 (Structural formulae should be written stereoscopically. A stereoscope is provided.)<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">&#8220;Enzyme action is only intelligible in terms of wave mechanics.&#8221; (Meldrum). Discuss this statement.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">&#8220;Taxonomy must in future be based on biochemistry.&#8221; (Haldane). How have the confers been reclassified on the basis of their terpenes?<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">Describe briefly the biochemical functions of each of the 17 genes concerned in chlorophyll production in <em>Zea Mays<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">Contrast the function of glutathione in (a) yeast, (b) cabbage leaf, (c) mammalian liver, (d) mammalian erythrocytes.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">&#8220;The beginning of consciousness in the developing hen&#8217;s egg can be placed with certainty on the 19th day.&#8221; (Needham and Holmes). Describe the substances which determine the appearance of this function, and the analytical methods employed for their detection.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">Contrast the immune bodies developed by man in response to (a)\u00a0<em>Taenia<\/em>, (b) cobra venom, (c)\u00a0<em>Pneumocossus type III<\/em>. What points regarding their composition are still doubtful?<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">Contrast the structure of the receptors for adrenaline and acetyl-choline in heart muscle.<\/p>\n<p>How good were Haldane&#8217;s predictions of the state of biochemical knowledge in 1956?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I am indebted to Dr R.A.C. for bringing to my attention a spoof exam paper drawn up by J.B.S. Haldane. Originally published in the journal\u00a0Brighter Biochemistry (&#8220;the illustrated journal of the Biochemical Laboratory, Cambridge&#8221;), the paper was republished in\u00a0Trends in &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/trading-knowledge\/2012\/08\/23\/a-look-back-at-the-future\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,1],"tags":[97,95,96],"class_list":["post-1273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history","category-uncategorized","tag-biochemistry","tag-examinations","tag-retrofuturology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/trading-knowledge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/trading-knowledge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/trading-knowledge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/trading-knowledge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/trading-knowledge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/trading-knowledge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1273\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/trading-knowledge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/trading-knowledge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/trading-knowledge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}