Valerian

"An unusual feature of valerian is that the essential oil of valerian root is a cat attractant similar to catnip. The active compound in valerian for this is actinidine. Cat attractants might mimic the odor of cat urine which is caused by 3-mercapto-3-methylbutan-1-ol (MMB). Anecdotes state that valerian is also attractive to rats, so much so that it had been used to bait traps. Some versions of the legend of the Pied Piper of Hamelin have him using valerian, as well as his pipes, to attract the rats. This might be related to the change of aversion into attraction to cat urine in rats infected with the parasite Toxoplasma gondii." -- Wikipedia

But the odor is really pungent! The smell may come from valeric acid:

whose IUPAC name should be pentanoic acid. If I must guess, it should have some solubility in water. (The image is taken from Wikipedia.)

Regarding it is medicinal use for insomnia, a review article (Sleep Med Rev. 2007;11:209-30) claims that "Most studies found no significant differences between valerian and placebo either in healthy individuals or in persons with general sleep disturbance or insomnia". But it works very well for when I get occasional sleep problem. And the effect does not seem merely psychological. The nature of the active ingredients, however, remains controversial.

A puzzle

Two nonintersecting roads lead from City A to City B. Suppose it is known that two cars connected by a rope of length less than 2R manage to go from A to B along different roads without breaking the rope. Can two circular wagons of radius R, whose centers move along the roads in opposite directions, pass each other without colliding?

(This is from Vladimrir Arnold 's book "Ordinary Differential Equations".)

973 Program of China -- 2009

2009 National 973 plans and major research projects have been identified. The national plan for agriculture, energy, information, resources and environment 8 of 84 field projects and protein research, quantum control research, nanotechnology research and development and reproductive study of four major national scientific research plan for 39 major research projects, invested 3.2 billion.

This is today (October 19) held the national 973 plan and a major scientific research plan of project implementation in 2009 at the news. According to reports, than in the past, this year there are six characteristics of the deployment project.

The first is China's national economic and social development, the deployment of major issues, arrange the main core germplasm of crops important agronomic traits and the interaction of cell-type section of the study, multi-energy complementary distributed CCHP systems for basic research, super - High-speed large-capacity ultra-long haul optical transmission of basic research, the ecological environment of China's shelf sea evolution, mechanisms and future trend forecasts, advanced composite materials, air and space application technology basic science studies and other projects.

Second, for international science and cutting-edge issues had to prioritize the deployment of dark matter of theoretical study and experimental pre-research, based on precise measurement of the physical laws of gravity and related physics studies, antibody - antigen, the structural basis of molecular recognition and function of the attack and pro - and behavior of the mechanism and unusual - multi-disciplinary multi-level cross-cutting research and other projects.

The third is to improve people's livelihood as the starting point and final goal of focusing on improving people's quality of life and standard of living in the deployment of a number of projects. Arranged for the formation and development of congenital heart disease, as well as the basis for intervention studies, based on the system based on leukemia biomedical translational research , a new marker of gastric cancer screening and early warning and early diagnosis and the role of large-scale population studies and other projects.

Fourth, to further strengthen energy-saving emission reduction, climate change, basic research. Emphasis is placed on heavy oil, coal and efficient use of large -scale solar thermal power generation, clean energy production and environmental management in the rare earth catalytic materials, nano-materials in solar cells the application of basic research, climate change and the eastern monsoon region of China's land-based water cycle and water resources security implications of the eastern coastal city with the climate effects, the basic process of the atmosphere and the stratosphere on climate and weather changes in East Asia, the role of other projects.

Fifth, focus on the harmonization of the major projects and to strengthen basic research related to deployment. For ultra-high frequency, high-power compound semiconductor devices and integration technology for basic research, silicon-based mm poya millimeter-wave integrated circuits, cotton fiber quality, functional genomics, civil aircraft cockpit ergonomics integrated simulation theory and methods in areas such as deployment.

Sixth, is to further strengthen the support of major research programs. In protein research, quantum control research, nanotechnology research, development and reproduction research, four major research plan to establish 39 projects examined in depth.

(Xinhuanet Chun Lin)

CO2