From Alcohol to Perfume
and more: Harnassing Transformations with Enzymes
Scientists try to understand how to make enzymes, so they can
make some chemical activities "go" faster or longer.
New compounds can be made in this manner.
Alcohol, for example, is frequently changed by those working
in industries, into aldehyde and then into perfumes, medicines
and much more. Scientists have made a molecule that mimics the
enzyme that changes alcohol to aldehyde. Both the natural enzyme
and its made-by-humans look alike have a single Copper atom at
its center. This atom removes electrons from one set of atoms
and gives them away to another ONLY if positioned in the right
place.
If they want to get the same reaction to happen in the laboratory,
scientists don't have to make the whole molecule, just the part
that is critical to the operation, and the way it works.
Science Jan 1998
Vol 279, pp. 479-80
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