File:Bell telephone magazine (1922) (14756375635).jpg

Identifier: belltelephone7273mag00amerrich (find matches)
Title: Bell telephone magazine
Year: 1922 (1920s)
Authors: American Telephone and Telegraph Company American Telephone and Telegraph Company. Information Dept
Subjects: Telephone
Publisher: (New York, American Telephone and Telegraph Co., etc.)
Contributing Library: Prelinger Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Internet Archive

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the hemoglobinmolecules where the oxygen actu-ally binds are immersed in a largevolume of amino acids making upthe protein. By studies of the hemegroup it has been possible to showthat the changes responsible for theincreased desire for oxygen do notoccur at the hemes, where the oxy-gens are attached, but rather aresmoothly distributed throughoutthe protein. At Bell Telephone Laboratories,the nature of these changes is be-ing studied by a technique callednuclear magnetic resonance,usually abbreviated NMR. In thistechnique, an atomic nucleus, par-ticularly one of hydrogen, is kept ina strong magnetic field and ex-posed to radio waves. Such nucleiwill absorb radio waves; and theparticular wavelength that is mostreadily absorbed depends on theexact distribution of electronsaround that nucleus. By studying the NMR of hemo-globin before and after one or moreoxygen molecules have been pickedup, something about the electronshifts that take place is being de-termined. The delicacy of the con-
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trol is indicated by the fact thatthere are abnormal hemoglobinswhich do not behave as efficientlyas normal hemoglobin does when itcomes to picking up oxygen. Yetsuch abnormal hemoglobins maydiffer from the normal variety by asingle amino acid out of 141 ineach of two of the amino acidchains in the molecule. If by means of such researchstudies as are now proceeding atBell Telephone Laboratories, weshould master the principles ofmolecular communication, we willbecome ready to take an enormousadditional step downward in thescale of miniaturization. Computers with molecular mem-ories may be no larger than thosenow in operation, and yet havememory banks large enough to con-tain the accumulated knowledge ofthe human race. We could theneasily envisage a central computerserving the nation, or even the world,and acting as the general referencelibrary for the population. Govern-ment bureaus, industrial firms, ed-ucational or research institutions,even individuals, might have accessto such a co

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