1. moleculeoftheday
  2. Cori Ester (Don't touch that if you don't understand what it does)

Cori Ester (Don't touch that if you don't understand what it does)

By moleculeoftheday on February 12, 2008.

I have a lot of sympathy for graphic designers. For every one preaching to you about how you can't possibly appreciate whitespace on the same level she does, there's nine out there slogging away doing honest work. The ones who are just trying to convince the guy with the mattress store not to put seven fonts on the flyer (that's how many that are on MSNBC as I write this; you see how it's an uphill battle).

i-2d86944f783fbaa607058736640e9fce-cori-ester.png

Chirality is easy to get wrong. Connectivity errors are a little rarer; usually designers seem to realize moving one of those lines in a stick figure might do something bad. However, the postal service released a stamp honoring Gerty Cori and her discovery of the above, metabolically important, compound - Cori Ester.

They got that lower right bond to the phosphate group wrong. A chemist noticed, and many chemists snickered.

(Hoping I got the structure and chirality right...and hey, at least the designer drew the chair conformer)

Tags
biology

More like this

USPS Honors Nobelist Gerty Cori With Her Own Stamp
tags: Gerty Cori, 1947 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, glycogen metabolism, USPS commemorative stamps A stamp featuring Biochemist Gerty Cori, who together with her husband won a Nobel Prize in 1947 for discovering how the body processes glycogen. Chemists found a small flaw in the drawing…
Celebrating Role Models in Science & Engineering Achievement: Gerty Theresa Cori!
Gerty Theresa Cori -- Biochemist Often considered one of the greatest women scientists of the 20th century. The first American woman to win the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine; known for her discovery (with husband Carl Cori and physiologist Bernardo Houssay) of how the body metabolizes…
Beaucage's Reagent (When you need some sulfur in your DNA, trust Beaucage)
The phosphoramidite method of oligonucleotide synthesis has been invaluable. WIth a few reagents and an expensive machine, you can make any sequence of DNA or RNA. Purification can be a bit tricky, and it only gets worse as you get longer (once you're up to about 100 bases, you probably have a…
Book Review: Visual Language for Designers (and Scientists)
Modeling the flight of a bat (click to enlarge) Dave Willis et. al., Brown University and MIT Visual complexity is a paradox. On the one hand, complexity is a compelling feature known to capture a viewer's attention and stimulate interest. . . . On the other hand, complexity only arouses curiosity…

I recently complained on my blog about a similar thing...this T-Shirt that reads "Yay Serotonin" and has a picture of a molecule in it with a happy face. ...unfortunately, their version of serotonin wasn't an indole at all, but a quinoline. (Not to mention that they neglected to draw any double bonds/aromaticity...)

Yeah, I laughed a lot at that one. My favorite part was that they got the message that we enjoy the hexagons with the lines inside and 60 degree angles, but not much else made it through.

I used to work at a Catholic school, and the chaplin there was terrible for font abuse. Every few days she would send an email to every staff member in the school to announce a prayer event or mass - every line a different color and font, and often changing color and font in mid-word.