cyclic heptapeptide comes up often in conversation and rarely with the context attached. Here we lay out the basics in order, then work through the practical considerations.
Updated 2025-11-05. Numbers and descriptions here follow the published literature rather than marketing material.
Melanotan-2 is a synthetic cyclic heptapeptide designed as a structural analogue of alpha-melanocyte-stimulating hormone, the endogenous tridecapeptide that regulates pigment production. Two modifications distinguish it from the natural hormone: norleucine replaces methionine at the N-terminus, which limits oxidation, and a D-phenylalanine substitution raises receptor affinity. The ring is closed through an aspartate-lysine lactam bridge, giving the molecule a constrained conformation. The free base has a molecular mass near 1024 daltons, and commercial material is usually supplied as an acetate salt. It appears in the literature as a research peptide rather than an approved therapeutic agent.
Receptor studies place melanotan-2 among non-selective melanocortin agonists, binding MC1R, MC3R, MC4R and MC5R rather than a single subtype. Activation of MC1R on cutaneous melanocytes raises tyrosinase activity and shifts pigment synthesis toward eumelanin, which is darker and more photostable than pheomelanin. Central receptors, particularly MC4R, are associated with appetite suppression and with reported effects on sexual function. Because subtype selectivity is low, the same molecule engages pigment, metabolic and vascular pathways at once, and this breadth is a common explanation offered for the range of adverse events described in user reports.
Melanotan-2 is handled in the laboratory as a lyophilised powder that dissolves readily in water, dimethyl sulfoxide and dimethylformamide, with limited solubility in ethanol. Stock solutions prepared in an organic solvent often precipitate when diluted into aqueous buffer, so gradual dilution with mixing is standard practice. The peptide carries a tryptophan residue and a histidine residue, both sensitive to oxidation and to alkaline conditions. Working solutions are therefore kept near neutral to slightly acidic pH, protected from light, and consumed within the same working session whenever that is practical.
Solid peptide kept dry at minus twenty degrees Celsius, shielded from light and moisture, is generally considered stable for extended periods. Solutions are divided into single-use aliquots and held at minus twenty or minus eighty degrees Celsius, because repeated freeze-thaw cycles promote aggregation and loss of material to container surfaces. Hydrolysis of the backbone and oxidation of tryptophan are the principal degradation routes in aqueous solution, and both accelerate at ambient temperature. Hygroscopic uptake after a vial is opened can also shift the actual mass weighed, which affects any concentration calculated from it.
Routine characterisation relies on reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography with ultraviolet detection near 214 nanometres, using a C18 column and a water-acetonitrile gradient containing trifluoroacetic acid. Electrospray ionisation mass spectrometry confirms the expected molecular mass and can reveal truncated or oxidised by-products that co-elute poorly. Sequence and stereochemistry require additional work, such as peptide mapping or amino acid analysis, because a chromatographic purity figure alone does not distinguish a diastereomer from the target peptide. Independent testing of research-grade material frequently shows measured content below the stated label, so a certificate of analysis is best read together with the method that produced it.
| Property | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Molecular formula | C50H69N15O9 | Free base; salt forms add to total mass |
| Molecular mass | About 1024 daltons | Calculated for the free base |
| Structural class | Cyclic heptapeptide | Contains D-phenylalanine and norleucine |
| Parent hormone | Alpha-melanocyte-stimulating hormone | Endogenous tridecapeptide of 13 residues |
| Receptor profile | Non-selective melanocortin agonist | Interacts with MC1R, MC3R, MC4R and MC5R |
Melanotan II is a synthetic cyclic heptapeptide analog derived from the core sequence of alpha-melanocyte-stimulating hormone. Researchers at the University of Arizona synthesized it during the 1980s while studying pigmentation and appetite signaling. The compound is not an approved medicine in any major jurisdiction and appears mainly in laboratory and research-chemical settings. Its structure incorporates a lactam bridge between side chains, which constrains the ring and slows enzymatic breakdown relative to the natural hormone.
Melanotan II binds several melanocortin receptor subtypes rather than a single target. MC1R on melanocytes drives melanin synthesis, while MC3R and MC4R participate in energy balance, appetite, and sexual response pathways. This lack of selectivity explains why reported effects extend beyond skin darkening. Substitutions at positions four and seven, including norleucine and D-phenylalanine, increase potency and resistance to peptidases. Understanding which receptor mediates which effect remains an active area of investigation.
Identity testing for a synthetic peptide relies on several complementary methods. Reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography separates the target from related impurities and reports purity as a percentage of total peak area. Mass spectrometry confirms molecular mass and can reveal deletions or truncations. Amino acid analysis and peptide mapping provide sequence-level confirmation, while counter-ion content and residual solvents are measured separately. A purity figure alone does not establish identity, so a complete dataset combines chromatographic and spectrometric evidence.
Lyophilized peptide powder is generally stored frozen, protected from light and moisture. Tryptophan residues are susceptible to oxidation, and the lactam bridge can hydrolyze under strongly acidic or basic conditions. Solutions prepared for laboratory work degrade faster than dry powder, and repeated freeze-thaw cycles accelerate loss. Common practice is to aliquot solutions before freezing and to avoid alkaline buffers. Reported stability windows vary with concentration, buffer, and temperature, so exact shelf lives are method-specific rather than universal.
Melanotan-2, also written Melanotan II, is a synthetic cyclic heptapeptide designed as an analogue of alpha-melanocyte-stimulating hormone. Its sequence is Ac-Nle-cyclo[Asp-His-D-Phe-Arg-Trp-Lys]-NH2, and the lactam bridge between the aspartate and lysine side chains constrains the peptide into a ring. This structural change increases receptor affinity and metabolic stability relative to the native hormone. The compound was created in the 1980s as a research tool for studying pigmentation biology.
Melanocytes are the pigment-producing cells of the skin, and they carry melanocortin-1 receptors on their surface. When the receptor is activated, cyclic adenosine monophosphate rises inside the cell and raises the activity of enzymes such as tyrosinase, which increases melanin output. Melanotan-2 binds melanocortin-1 receptors in vitro and in animal models, and this binding is generally described as the basis for the tanning effect. Other receptors account for different effects: melanocortin-4 receptors contribute to appetite and erectile signalling, while melanocortin-3 and melanocortin-5 receptors contribute to energy balance and exocrine function.
Lyophilised melanotan-2 is supplied as a solid, which is more stable than a solution. The material is hygroscopic, so weighing is done quickly, in low humidity, with the container kept sealed. Reconstitution usually uses water for injection or bacteriostatic water, added down the wall of the vial to limit foaming. A reconstituted solution is held at 2 to 8 °C and kept away from light. Repeated freezing and thawing of the same vial is avoided because ice crystal formation and concentration effects degrade the peptide.
Reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography is the routine method for purity assessment. Peptides absorb near 214 nm because of the peptide bond, and a gradient of acetonitrile in water separates the intact peptide from deletion sequences, oxidised products, and earlier-eluting fragments at neutral pH. Electrospray ionisation mass spectrometry provides an orthogonal check: the measured mass must agree with the theoretical value. Amino acid analysis and peptide mapping confirm structure but are used less often. Reference standards remain scarce because the peptide is not described in any pharmacopoeia.
== Medical uses == Varicella vaccine is 70% to 90% effective for preventing varicella and more than 95% effective for preventing severe varicella. Follow-up evaluations have taken place in the United States of children immunized that revealed protection for at least 11 years. Studies were conducted in Japan which indicated protection for at least 20 years. People who do not develop enough protection when they get the vaccine may develop a mild case of the disease when in close contact with a person with chickenpox. In these cases, people show very little sign of illness. This has been the case of children who get the vaccine in their early childhood and later have contact with children with chickenpox. Some of these children may develop mild chickenpox also known as breakthrough disease. Another vaccine, known as zoster vaccine, is simply a larger-than-normal dose of the same vaccine used against chickenpox and is used in older adults to reduce the risk of shingles (also called herpes zoster) and postherpetic neuralgia, which are caused by the same virus. The recombinant zoster (shingles) vaccine is recommended for adults aged 50 years and older.
=== Key and Combat pages === After clearing a battle, the player will receive books of the defeated enemies. Burning these books randomly gives the player Key pages and Combat pages, color-coded based on rarity and quantity. Key pages serve as the game's "armor" items and can be assigned to the librarians. Each gives unique stats, damage resistances, and passives. Key pages can only be obtained in limited amounts. For game progression purposes, players' Key pages may not share the same strengths or vulnerabilities with the characters as enemies. Combat pages are the game's "weapon" items. Some Combat pages are unique to a specific character and their Key pages. Pages will have at least one offensive (attacking an enemy) or defensive (defending against attacks or dodging attacks entirely) die, color-coded in red and blue, respectively. The unique yellow-colored "Counter" die is played against an unopposed Combat page and can replay upon winning a clash until the unopposed Combat page ends. While most Combat pages are melee, there are ranged Combat pages that take action before Melee pages, Mass Attack pages that take first action regardless of Speed, and On Play pages that take effect immediately upon selecting a target.
==== Yazidism ==== Circumcision is not required in Yazidism, but is practised by some Yazidis due to regional customs. The ritual is usually performed soon after birth; it takes place on the knees of the kerîf (approximately "godfather"), with whom the child will have a lifelong formal relationship.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
In mouse leukemia model driven by fusion oncoprotein, condensate arrest suppressed target gene expression and inhibited cell proliferation. These findings provide mechanistic support for the functional relevance of the condensate microenvironment. Together, these studies establish the condensate microenvironment as a key mechanism in the regulation of biochemical specificity, localization, and activity within cells.
=== 1988 === 11 February Running to Time, about the new InterCity 225; the National Express Coaches Rapide service; the project team of the Intercity 225, with project director Mike Rollin, and Mike Newman of GEC; the 225 train had to be delivered on 14 February 1988, with an operational life of thirty years; the InterCity 125 was not intended to have been primarily developed - in a board meeting, the commercial directors were not technologically knowledgeable of trains, and asked about alternatives, to be told by an engineering director that a 125 mph diesel train could be developed in two years, so the HST began at that meeting; the British Rail APT-E prototype, powered by the Leyland 2S/350 gas turbine; in 1974 BR commissioned the APT-P, which had ten years of development, due to the active tilting suspension; the 225 train was possibly to enter service on the UK's only large electrified line, the West Coast Main Line, but the much-straighter and faster East Coast Main Line was being electrified, so BR decided to implement the 225 train on the ECML instead; Crewe railway station, which opened in 1837, and where trains were first built nearby in 1843; Steve Corfield, of Crewe Works; the unsprung mass of a train, and Cardan shafts; Roger Ford of Modern Railways; John Prideaux, director of InterCity; David Carter of DCA in Warwick, who designed the livery; the Modernisation Plan was published in December 1954, which had advocated the electrification of the ECML, and the phasing-out of steam travel; the late-1980s ECML electrification had cost BR £350m - it was not government-funded, with 2,800 miles of copper wire, and 33,000 support masts, overseen by Don Heath; all of the improvements in the UK were on old lines of track, but France and Germany had built entire new electrified lines - the TGV was planned from the mid-1960s; G. Freeman Allen of Jane's World Railways; the 225 train underframe being built at Crewe Works; GEC Traction at Preston, Lancashire, Al Reed, the separately excited (Armature Controlled DC Motor) brushed DC electric motor, and Gerald West; the right-angle gearboxes were built by David Brown Ltd and Voith of Heidenheim an der Brenz in southern Germany; Eric Black of Metro-Cammell in Washwood Heath; the ST41 bogies were made by SIG Combibloc Group of Neuhausen am Rheinfall in Switzerland. Narrated by Robin Ellis, produced by Patrick Uden, directed by Paul Fabricius, made by Uden Associates. 12 February Playing with Fire 17 July The Air Fix!, about aviation safety; a television adaptation of a black comedy theatre production by 35-year-old James Castle, dressed as an airline pilot, largely featuring Turkish Airlines Flight 981, the Ermenonville air disaster, in France on 3 March 1974, to this day the worst airliner crash, without any survivors, with 177 British people killed, when a cargo door ruptured, and the subsequent enquiry led to a cover up by the airline and aviation authority; the DC10 had known design failings in its fuselage, and its cargo door design was known to be faulty by the aircraft manufacturer; the American Airlines Flight 96 crash had happened on 12 June 1972, involving a design failure of the cargo door, but the FAA nonetheless gave the DC-10 a certificate of airworthiness; the DC10 had been rushed into service; James Castle accused the aircraft industry of callous negligence; James Castle had been a British Airways aircraft maintenance technician from 1969 to 1977 at Heathrow Airport; he listed the numbers of children that lost one or both parents in the crash, and the numbers of women who were widowed; the theatre production had been going since December 1986, directed by Caroline Noh Narrated by James Castle, produced by Ben Gooder, made by Uden Associates 24 July Nic's Boat, about Nic Bailey, a 37-year-old architect with Foster and Partners; he designed a 40-ft trimaran, called MTC, for the Carlsberg Single-Handed Trans-Atlantic Race on 5 June 1988; he had helped to design the 1978 Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts in Norwich and the Renault Centre in Swindon; boat builder Spud Rowsell in Exmouth, with Phil Morrison; the hull cost £46,000, and the rigging cost £46,000; the mast and rigging were fitted at Topsham, Devon; Robin Knox-Johnston; French yacht designer Bruno Fehrenbach; he sailed the Atlantic between the Rhumb Line Route and the Great Circle Route; some yachts made the journey to Newport, Rhode Island in ten days; the yacht mast was constructed by Proctor South West. Produced by Michael Wills, directed by Bob Bee, made by Juniper Productions 31 July The Living Dead 7 August Zen and the Art of TV Manufacture, a Panasonic TV factory in South Wales; in 1933 the company founder Kōnosuke Matsushita established seven guiding commercial principles; the Fidelity TV factory in west London was given one year - 1988 - to turn its fortunes around or be closed; the factory's closure was announced to the workforce on 25 January 1988, with the site closing at the end of July 1988; Amstrad bought the Fidelity name in May 1988. Narrated by Alan Howard, directed by Patrick Uden, produced by Michael Proudfoot, made by Uden Associates 14 August How Good Is Soviet Science?, about the political inhibition of Soviet technology in the 1980s; in many ways the Soviet Union in 1987 was a backward and underdeveloped nation, with food queues; the Soviet system didn't respond to changes in demand - everything was planned years in advance; physicist Alexander Prokhorov, who won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1964; Russians were proud of mathematicians Pafnuty Chebyshev and Nikolai Lobachevsky; large government centrally planned projects were compatible with the communist system, notably its space programme; by the 1970s, the Russians realised that they were some distance behind other countries, such as in disciplines of computing and genetics; science teaching was emphasised at Soviet schools, and English was well taught as well; after secondary schools, half went into science; theoretical science was where Soviet teaching excelled, such as at the Steklov Institute of Mathematics; Yuri Ovchinnikov wanted to improve Soviet science; in the early 1950s, the Soviet Union tried to ignore the findings of genetics, through the work of Trofim Lysenko, who claimed that genetics was anti-communist, known as Lysenkoism leading to many scientists being imprisoned and executed; in the 1960s, a set of large biological research centres were built at Pushchino; one of the most well-built research institutes was the Shemyakin Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, for biotechnology; Stalin did not like computer science, and it was largely banned until 1958; the Soviets were always years behind in computer science; the first recognisable transistor Soviet computer was the BESM-6 in the 1960s; later computers were the ES EVM series, copied from the IBM System/360; the Akademgorodok (Academic City) in Novosibirsk; the Institute of Automation and Electrometry researched optical memory on holographic slides to and much work on lasers; collaboration between Soviet research and Soviet industry was long-winded, maybe almost impossible - the centrally planned Soviet industry could not sufficiently adapt for short-term changes, as it had to be monotonously planned years in advance, for mass production; Soviet government research was perhaps excellent nonetheless; not many Soviet scientists could travel to international conferences; dissemination of current worldwide science was limited throughout the Soviet Union, due to widespread government restrictions; Suite No. 2 in B minor, BWV 1067. Narrated by US technology historian Loren Graham, produced by Chris Durlacher, directed by Martin Smith, made by Uden Associates, NDR and WGBH. Shown on Nova on 17 November 1987 and 22 March 1988 21 August Toys for the Boys, about the Williams racing team; Graham Hill and Jim Clark in 1967; Tomorrow's World in 1967, narrated by Derek Cooper; journalist Peter Windsor of Williams; aerodynamicist Frank Dernie, head of research at Williams; Keith Botsford, motor racing editor of the Sunday Times; the German racing manager Alfred Neubauer, in the late 1930s; there were 18 F1 teams, with 7 being British; Mobil Oil paid Williams £2.5m for advertising on the cars of Nigel Mansell and Riccardo Patrese; the Williams FW11; racing driver Howden Ganley; part of a BBC Horizon documentary broadcast on 9 March 1981, featuring the Williams FW07, and likewise narrated by Martin Jarvis and produced by Patrick Uden; engineering director Sir Patrick Head; Bach Mass in B minor; Mike Hawthorn, was killed on a public road, the A3 Guildford bypass, in his Jaguar Mark 1 on 22 January 1959; Canadian Gilles Villeneuve was thrown from his Ferrari, when qualifying for the 1982 Belgian Grand Prix; Swedish Ronnie Peterson, died after an accident on the start line at the 1978 Italian Grand Prix; Italian Elio de Angelis was killed in May 1986 at the Circuit Paul Ricard in south-east France; British Piers Courage burned to death at the 1970 Dutch Grand Prix; Jim Clark hit a tree on 7 April 1968 at the 1968 Deutschland Trophäe in the north-west of Baden-Württemberg; German Jochen Rindt was killed at the 1970 Italian Grand Prix after winning the championship in the same year, which was awarded posthumously; Bach Mass in B minor; Frank Williams had a crash on 8 March 1986 in the south of France, with Peter Windsor, in a Ford Sierra, making him quadraplegic; the Williams wind tunnel; Alan Jones waving the British flag at the 1980 Grand Prix; the 1988 season Williams car had a Judd V8 engine; the closing fanfare of Les préludes by Liszt; the documentary ends with German military march Prussia's Glory. Narrated by Martin Jarvis, produced by Patrick Uden, made by Uden Associates 28 August Cold Spring, Morning Sun, about atomic physicist Joan Hinton and her husband Erwin Engst. Joan's mother was teacher Carmelita Hinton. Joan worked on the top secret Manhattan Project at Los Alamos in 1944 which produced the atomic bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Hagasaki in the summer of 1945. After the war, Joan, her brother Bill, and her husband Erwin (Sid) Engst travelled to China to join Mao Ze Dong and the cultural revolution. Over the next five decades, Joan and Sid became pioneers in Chinese agricultural science and technology. Narrated by Liza Goddard, written, produced and directed by Chris Haws, Made by InCA. 18 September Taking the Tunnel, who would be travelling through the Channel Tunnel; the tunnel would open in May 1993; Colin Kirkland, technical director of Eurotunnel; Roger Vickerman of the University of Kent; historian Corelli Barnett, and how France and Germany spent money after the war improving rail infrastructure; journalist Kathy Watson; a working model was built of the two Channel rail terminals; 90% of the tunnel went through chalk; the French end was built much more water-tight than the English end, due to the worse geology; the tunnel was around one mile long at the English end, to meet the French side in 1990; the Single Market would stop duty free sales on the Channel ferries; the former Night Ferry across the Channel, which operated until 30 October 1980; TGV Est would connect Bordeaux, and TGV Nord would connect to Germany, the Netherlands, with a spur to the new tunnel; Richard D. North; tolls on the autoroutes discouraged local traffic, which slowed down British motorways; Daniel Ghouzi of Transmanche; Martin Simmons of Kent County Council; A292 junction of M20; Corelli Barnett believed that the British civil service was best at fudging, whereas the French civil service had been trained differently at the French grandes ecoles; a VTG ship from Dover to Dieppe carried trains; freight journeys over 250 miles were most cost effective by rail, but did lack logistical flexibility at either end; Michael Barclay of Tiphook Rail; a distribution centre in Paddock Wood in Kent, built by the Spanish Transfesa; UIC gauge was the main European gauge for freight; Artura Boix of Transfesa; Richard Hope of Railway Gazette; British trains had a 25 tonne axle weight, more than the European 22 tonnes; early plans for the new Eurostar trains, which would be dual voltage for travelling in England and France; rail writer Geoffrey Freeman Allen; the French trains would leave from the Gard du Nord; customs checks would be at the British end in London, but not in France; British Rail planned a high speed line across Kent to open in 1998 from King's Cross, but it would not open until September 2003, and to London in November 2007; Roger Ford of Modern Railways. Narrated by Geoffrey Palmer, produced by Patrick Uden, directed by Paul Fabricius, made by Uden Associates 25 September Road Test about road transport in the UK; there were two million vehicles in the UK in 1930; a test drive would be conducted from The Point, Milton Keynes at 8.30am to Maidstone, by different routes - Mike McDonald of the University of Southampton and Margaret Bell of the University of Nottingham in a Volvo 850 would go across London, and Peter Bonsall and Howard Kirby of the University of Leeds in a Volkswagen Passat B3, would follow the M25 to the north of London, George Hazel of Napier College and John Wootten in a Ford Granada would follow the M25 south of London, and Martin J. H. Mogridge would take the train on the new Thameslink from Bedford railway station via Blackfriars Railway Bridge; the test would be directed from the Road Traffic Research Centre at Middlesex Polytechnic, with Chris Wright, Peter Hills from Newcastle University, and psychologist Ivan Brown from the Applied Psychology Unit (MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit) in Cambridge; variable-message signs (VMS) on the M6; before joining the M25, the vehicles had an average speed of 50 mph; the early plans in the 1940s for the M25, which the M25 to the south and west of London, now largely follows; when the M25 needed to be built, in the 1960s, many environmental objections had arisen for it to be built; Russ Kane in Capital Radio's Flying Eye; David Marsh at the AA Roadwatch studio in north London; the ramp meter, installed on the M6 by John Wootten; all of London's traffic lights were controlled from a computer centre in Westminster, with software (Split Cycle Offset Optimisation Technique) developed by Dennis Robertson; the Volvo 850 enters London along the Edgware Road and Park Lane to Hyde Park Corner; the prototype Autoguide system invented by Ian Catling; automatic vehicle identification (AVI) and piezoelectric strips developed at the University of Nottingham Department of Civil Engineering, and tested by Peter Davies on the Nottingham ring road, next to the QMC; the Volkswagen Passat arrives first at the Great Danes Hotel, making the 107 miles in two hours seventeen minutes, an average speed of 47 mph; the route south of London - 119 miles, also has a 47 mph average speed; the 96-mile rail journey had an average speed of 35 mph; the programme content would be copied by Top Gear fifteen years later. Narrated by Martin Jarvis, produced by David Sharp, directed by Mike Tomlinson, made by Orlando Productions 9 October Look, No Hands! about technology outpacing human knowledge; Hubert Dreyfus of University of California, Berkeley; Martin Corbett, industrial psychologist at the University of Warwick; work by Mike Cooley, and systems design; mechanical engineer Frederick Winslow Taylor and his meticulous improvements to industrial methods, in his book The Principles of Scientific Management; John Harris, manager of the Rolls-Royce helicopter engine plant at Leavesden, Hertfordshire; perhaps automation in engineering manufacturing processes could perhaps add or enhance, rather than totally replace, which required and produced less directly competent workers. Produced by Debra Hauer, directed by Christopher Rawlence, made by Hauer Rawlence Productions 16 October Spytech, John Pike of the Federation of American Scientists and how the Space Shuttle was built mostly for low Earth orbit reconnaissance satellites; but the Titan 34D was also available for many spy satellite launches; Christopher Andrew of the University of Cambridge; Harry Rositzke of the CIA, and the disastrous Operation Red Sox, from 1949 to 1953; William Colby, Director from 1973 to 1976 of the CIA, and how spying methods that worked in Germany during World War II were simply hopeless in a possibly more bizarre culture of communist eastern Europe in the early 1950s, so Ferret missions by B-29 aircraft over the border were attempted instead, but many were shot down; the Americans decided to go for high-altitude reconnaissance; on 1 May 1960, an aircraft photographing a missile construction factory, pilot was sentenced to 10 years, but released after two years in exchange for Rudolf Abel; H. Keith Melton and notorious improvised technology of the KGB; the Russian defector Stanislav Levchenko; the burst transmission method; camera lenses for spy satellites made by Itek; the Space Shuttle was built to maintain and repair the Key Hole set of spy satellites, such as KH-11 KENNEN, launched by the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) in 1976, and introduced digital photography, and EOSAT and its Landsat program; Jeffrey T. Richelson, a writer on national security; Major-General George Keegan of the Twenty-Fifth Air Force described how the Soviet Union got to know when spy satellites would be overhead, and would hide anything sensitive; listening satellites sent their data to the NSA at Fort Meade in Maryland, such as data from Magnum, launched by the secret STS-51-C mission in January 1985; Paul Bracken and all-source intelligence fusion; Soviet intelligence in the US was quite widespread, with up to 800 spies operating out of Soviet trade missions, and operated much more widespread than the US had attempted; the new KH-12 satellite, that launched in November 1992, could see through clouds. Narrated by Mike Short, produced by Claudia Milne, made by Twenty Twenty 23 October Bamboo, the importance of bamboo to the Chinese economy; Prof Hsiung Wenyue of the Bamboo Research Centre of Nanjing Forestry University; bamboo structures do not collapse in high winds; over a thousand species of bamboo; bamboo dies out for ten years, then grows again; only 15% of China can be cultivated; bamboo can grow four feet in 24 hours, it is the fastest growing plant; bamboo has a tensile strength twice as much as timber; hospitals in China worked with herbal remedies; bamboo traders had quotas set by the Chinese government; bamboo shoots were mostly exported to Japan; growing bamboo helped soil structure; the Chinese government encouraged the growing of bamboo, as an alternative to timber. Narrated by Jenny Agutter, produced by Michael Blakstad, directed by Patrick Fleming, made by Workhouse Productions, made in cooperation with China Central Television 30 October Heavy Metal, chemist Neil Ward of the University of Surrey, who found abnormal pregnancies; medical doctor Robin Russell-Jones of the Campaign for Lead Free Air; environmental chemist Brian Davies of the University of Bradford; footage from the 1971 BBC A Public Poison, with chemist Derek Bryce-Smith, and Patrick Lawther of St Bartholomew's Hospital; Gloria all'Egitto from Aida by Giuseppe Verdi, with the assembly line of the Rover 800; Robin Brundle; Eric Fountain of Vauxhall Motors; Ojos Criollos by Louis Moreau Gottschalk. Narrated by Catherine Robins, produced by Michael Blakstad, made by Workhouse Productions 13 November Free Flight, about gliding, with Derek Piggott in a Rolladen-Schneider LS4 at Booker Gliding Centre in Buckinghamshire; in the UK there were about 350,000 flights and 2 deaths each year; a Schleicher ASW 24 in a wind tunnel with Loek Boermans at TU Delft Faculty of Aerospace Engineering in the Netherlands; the Schleicher ASH 25 with glider pilot John Jeffries at London Gliding Club west of Dunstable; at Wasserkuppe, a 3,000 ft mountain in the east of Hesse in the centre of Germany is where gliding mostly developed in the 1920s by the Deutsche Forschungsanstalt für Segelflug, due to German powered-aircraft manufacturing being legally restricted; nearby at Poppenhausen, Hesse is Alexander Schleicher GmbH & Co, with designer Gerhard Waibel, where gliders had wings made from carbon fibre, and covered in kevlar for torsional stiffness; the first glider of a contemporary design was the Akaflieg Stuttgart fs24 in 1951. Narrated by Robert Gary 20 November Chaos, Tim Palmer of the ECMWF; mathematician Robert L. Devaney; German mathematician Heinz-Otto Peitgen and fractal geometry; strange attractors in dynamical systems, such as weather systems; David Rand of the University of Warwick, and period-doubling bifurcation, discovered in 1975 by mathematician Mitchell Feigenbaum discovered; fractal landscapes; British mathematician Michael Barnsley, and affine transformations, which are applied to digital image processing; the chaos game; Soviet physicist Lev Landau; physicist Harry Swinney of the University of Texas; economist James B. Ramsey; Ian Stewart of the University of Warwick, and the unpredictable rotation of Hyperion. Written, produced and directed by Chris Haws, the programme was made by Independent Communications Associates (InCA). In 1989, it won the SciTech Award for best scientific documentary. 27 November The Art of Deception, about camouflage, deception, decoys and stealth. The Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit was first displayed on Tuesday 22 November 1988, just five days before the programme was aired. Featured interviewees include: Richard P. Hallion of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base; Peter Varnish of the Admiralty Research Establishment at Funtington in West Sussex; defence writer Antony Preston; Roy Behrens of the Art Academy of Cincinnati; Lt Col Chris Nash of Surveillance, Target Acquisition, Night Observation and Counter-surveillance (STANOC); Major William Marshak of the AAMRL - now the 711th Human Performance Wing; Captain Brian Perowne, commanding officer of HMS Brazen (F91); aviation writer Bill Sweetman, and Commander Patrick Walker, commanding officer of HMS Trafalgar (S107) a Royal Navy hunter-killer submarine; John Hall of the Admiralty Research Establishment (former Admiralty Experiment Works) at Haslar. Narrated by Nick Chilvers, Written, produced and directed by Chris Haws, made by InCA and WGBH Boston
The potato () is a starchy tuberous vegetable native to the Americas that is consumed as a staple food in many parts of the world. Potatoes are underground stem tubers of the plant Solanum tuberosum, a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae. Wild potato species can be found from the southern United States to southern Chile. Genetic studies show that the cultivated potato has a single origin, in the area of present-day southern Peru and extreme northwestern Bolivia. Potatoes were domesticated there about 7,000–10,000 years ago from a species in the S. brevicaule complex. Many varieties of the potato are cultivated in the Andes region of South America, where the species is indigenous. The Spanish introduced potatoes to Europe in the second half of the 16th century from the Americas. They are a staple food in many parts of the world and an integral part of much of the world's food supply. Following centuries of selective breeding, there are now over 5,000 different varieties of potatoes. The potato remains an essential crop in Europe, especially Northern and Eastern Europe, where per capita production is still the highest in the world, while the most rapid expansion in production during the 21st century was in southern and eastern Asia, with China and India leading the world production as of 2023. Like the tomato and the nightshades, the potato is in the genus Solanum. The aerial parts of the potato contain the toxin solanine.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
Medication includes folate supplementation, iron chelation, bisphosphonates, and removal of the spleen. Beta thalassemia can also be treated by bone marrow transplant from a well matched donor, or by gene therapy. Thalassemias were first identified in severely sick children in 1925, with identification of alpha and beta subtypes in 1965. Beta-thalassemia tends to be most common in populations originating from the Mediterranean, the Middle East, Central and Southeast Asia, the Indian subcontinent, and parts of Africa. This coincides with the historic distribution of Plasmodium falciparum malaria, and it is likely that a hereditary carrier of a gene for beta-thalassemia has some protection from severe malaria. However, because of population migration, β-thalassemia can be found around the world. In 2005, it was estimated that 1.5% of the world's population are carriers and 60,000 affected infants are born with the thalassemia major annually.
Because of their costs, many transgender women cannot afford GnRH modulators and must use other, often less effective options for testosterone suppression. However, in countries with publicly funded health care, such as France, they are becoming more common: they are for instance prescribed as standard practice for transgender women in the United Kingdom, where the National Health Service (NHS) covers them. This is in contrast to the United States. Another drawback of GnRH modulators is that most of them are peptides and are not orally active, requiring administration by injection, implant, or nasal spray. However, non-peptide and orally active GnRH antagonists, elagolix (Orilissa) and relugolix (Relumina), were introduced for medical use in 2018 and 2019, respectively. But they are under patent protection and, as with other GnRH modulators, are very expensive at present. In adolescents of either sex, GnRH modulators can be used to suppress puberty. The eighth edition of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health's Standards of Care permit its use from Tanner stage 2 and recommends GnRH agonists as the preferred method of puberty blocking.
Dino, Desi & Billy were an American singing trio that existed between 1964 and 1969. The group featured Dean "Dino" Martin (Dean Paul Martin, the son of singer and actor Dean Martin), Desi Arnaz Jr. (Desiderio Arnaz IV, the son of television stars Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball), and their friend Billy Hinsche. A reconstituted version of the group performed between 1998 and 2010.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
No regulatory agency has authorised melanotan-2 as a medicine for any indication. It circulates mainly as a research chemical or through unregulated channels. As a result, identity, purity and content are not independently guaranteed.
Melanotan-1, also called afamelanotide, is a linear analogue with greater selectivity for MC1R and has received approval in some jurisdictions for a specific photosensitivity disorder. Melanotan-2 is cyclic, less selective, and reaches central receptors more readily. The two are often confused in online discussion despite different pharmacology and regulatory status.
Alpha-MSH is an endogenous tridecapeptide derived from pro-opiomelanocortin. Melanotan-2 reproduces its core receptor-binding sequence inside a shortened, stabilised ring. The result is a molecule with a longer effective half-life and higher potency than the parent hormone.
Purity is normally stated as an area percentage from high-performance liquid chromatography, for example ninety-five or ninety-eight percent. That figure describes the proportion of ultraviolet-absorbing material eluting as the main peak. It says nothing about water content, counterions, residual solvents or mass fraction of the peptide itself.