showing the results of the project work were also much appreciated. The seminar proceedings were printed as a bulletin which included all the talks, papers, charts and poems presented at the Seminar and which was released to the members of the University staff. I may mention here that the present Education Minister of Nigeria, Professor Jibril Aminu, was the Vice-Chancellor during my period of work at the University of Maiduguri and all the developments in that University were made possible because of his support.

Results It is noteworthy that one BSc student got a first class mark (70%) and two students got upper second class marks (68%) for the first time in 1985, and the results of MBBS and other classes were also far better than the previous years.

Poems and charts All the students enjoyed the study of biochemistry and for readers' enjoyment I present here two poems, one composed by me and the other by a student. These were presented at the one-day Seminar.

C A R B O H Y D R A T E S Sugars are sweet from aldose to ketose Making the units starch to cellulose Glucose and fructose are parts of sucrose Milk sugar is lactose and malt sugar maltose Fructose in honey and glucose in fruit juice You may drink as often as you choose Eating bread means getting all your glucose Inulin is a fructosan made up of fructose When eaten, they make sugar of body Keep you warm and active and hardy Heat and energy come from all the sugars Hidden in all types of tubers Growing food will make the nation great Lessons learnt from this poem you may never regret.

(Composed by K T )~ugusti)

BA O BAB SEEDS AND TIGER-NUTS Baobab seeds and Tiger-nuts Lesser known as vegetables still poor eats Because they contain some proteins, carbohydrates Which may keep them fit and may not dehydrate A mixture of the two fed to some chickens Increased their bone strength and growth quickened This shows the feed we composed will keep fowls And the man who eat them all live without foul Baobab seeds and tiger nuts will make the poultry great Keeping Nigerians healthy and the nation great.

(Composed by Mr O Mathew)

The graduate assistants made a chart of some land- marks in biochemistry. It started from 1770 with the discoveries of Scheele as given in Lehninger's Biochem- istry. Some additions made to the list are given below.

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1922 Banting and Best

1939 Dam

1955 Ochoa

1962 Wilkins and Franklin

1975 Sanger

1977 Maxam and Gilbert

1979 Nathans

1979 Khorana 1980 Derynck et al 1980 Milstein 1981 Anderson and Diachumakos

Isolation of insulin from pancreas Vitamin K required for blood- clotting RNA-like polynucleotides synthesised and their codon message elucidated Most DNA possesses three dimensional structure Single stranded DNA sequence determined Chemical method for sequencing single stranded DNA Restriction endonucleases in SV40 Total synthesis of a gene Interferon gene Monoclonal antibodies Genetic engineering in mammalian cells.

Science at the Mongolian State University

DAVID MARSH* and SODOVYN DAMDINSUREN§

* 140 Boulevard de l'Hopital 75013 Paris, France and

§Biophysics Department Mongolian State University Ulan Bator, Mongolian People's Republic

Introduction Mongolia has long held a special place in the Western imagination; but what images does it evoke? The Gobi Desert? Genghiz Khan? His grandson's 'stately pleasure- dome'? Or the real Kubilai Khan and his Venetian adviser Marco Polo? These and perhaps more, but experience tells us that for many of our readers Mongolia remains something of an unknown quantity, especially in the last quarter ,of the 20th century. So, rather than plunge headlong into our subject, we believe that the reader's enjoyment will be enhanced by a thumbnail sketch of the history of science in Mongolia.

Background The beginning of the 13th century marked a turning point in the long and often turbulent history of the Mongols. A national culture began to emerge, as Genghiz Khan unified warring tribes and an official Mongolian script was developed, based on the writing of the Turkic Uighurs. The Mongols of this period possessed practical knowledge of metallurgy and rudimentary geology, and applied simple chemistry to the processing of skins and wool, and other raw animal products. Veterinary and zootechnical practices too were essential in the nomadic life of Mongol herdsmen.

* David Marsh was a participant in the British-Mongolian Cultural Exchange Programme at the Mongolian State University.

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In the centuries that followed, cultural influences crossed into Mongolia from China, India and especially Tibet, as Buddhism increasingly captured the popular imagination from the 16th century onwards. A mona- sterial system of education was established find served to introduce teachings from neighbouring lands. Religion dominated this cultural penetration, but sciences such as astronomy and medicine were also represented.

But this was old science, long since disseminated from ancient India, and Mongolia remained oblivious to the exciting advances of world science in the 18th and 19th centuries. It entered the 20th century as a terribly backward nation, still under the yoke of the Qing dynasty of the Manchus, who had subjugated the Mongols at the end of the 17th century.

Following the final overthrow of Manchu authority in 1911, a feudal-theocratic state was established. Economic and cultural contacts increased with the outside world, notably Russia, and brought the Mongols into belated touch with contemporary scientific and technical achieve- ments.

Ten years later, socialist revolutionary forces seized power and set up a People's Government , and the Mongolian People's Republic was proclaimed in 1924. Over the next two decades veterinary, agricultural and medical colleges were opened and scientific contacts and exchanges with the Soviet Union increased.

The Mongolian State University The Mongolian State University was opened in October 1942, in the capital Ulan Bator, and consisted of three faculties: Medical, Agricultural and Educational. Ninety- three students enrolled in the first year, and were taught in Russian by Soviet professors. Since those early days, the teaching has been assumed by home-trained staff, the Agricultural and Medical Faculties have separated to form independent institutes, and the University has expanded to include six faculties (Natural Sciences, Physics and Mathematics, Philology and Literature, Social Sciences and two Economics faculties). These cater for some 3000 students, about 60 per cent of whom are female, and perhaps 200 foreign students, mostly from the socialist countries, but including a small turnover from Great Britain, France, India and Japan.

University entrance begins with the allocation of popu- lation-weighted quotas to each aimak, or administrative region. Schoolchildren choose their subject and compete for places. In Ulan Bator, the school selection process is complemented by an interview at the University, and perhaps by written or oral exams. Education is free and students receive a government grant, which can be supplemented for the more academically successful.

All students take courses in the history of the Mon- golian People's Republic, the histories of the Mongolian Revolutionary and Soviet Communist parties, political philosophy, political economy and world history, in addition to courses in their chosen subjects. Science students spend two and a half years acquiring a back-

The Mongolian State University

ground in general science before they embark on their specialist subject. Since the great majority of teaching texts are in Russian (Table 1), students complement their six years of school education in this language with two years of courses at the University. German or English is studied for six months too, and may be pursued further by interested students at evening classes.

A diploma is awarded after five years of study and is graded according to marks received in four areas: political philosophy, appropriate subjects from previous years, general knowledge of the specialist subject and a final year project. Upon graduation, science students generally find jobs in schools, research institutes, industry or at the University itself, as teachers or scientific workers, al- though a very few do occasionally follow careers outside science.

Table 1 A Selection of Text books used by staff and~or students

D Freifelder Physical Biochemistry D O Hall and K K Rao Photosynthesis B Katz Nerve, Muscle and Synapse S V Konev and I A Volotovsky Photobiology A L Lehninger Biochemistry F F Litvin A Practical Course of Physicochemical Methods in

Biology I Prigogine Introduction to Nonequilibrium Thermodynamics A B Rubin Thermodynamics of Biological Processes A Samdan and D Chultem (editors) Physics (+) M V Volkenshtein General Biophysics M V Volkenshtein Molecular Biophysics

These texts are available in Russian, and in some cases also in English. Text (+) is in Mongolian and includes a chapter on biophysics. Some members of the department have recently begun to prepare a student text on biophysics, in Mongolian.

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The Biophysics Department We shall illustrate some aspects of scientific research at the University by referring to the Biophysics Department , which was created within the Physics and Mathematics Faculty in 1979, with the help and participation of Moscow State University.

The department teaches biophysics to the 35 or so students taking the subject as a subsidiary, or as a main subject together with physics or biology (see Table 2). Four teachers undertake this task, one of whom is the head of the laboratory. A junior lecturer is likely to spend about 720 hours a year with students, either teaching or supervising practicals or projects.

Table 2 Biophysics Department of the Mongolian State University: Syllabus

Biophysics is taken as a combined honours subject with either physics or biology. Courses available and some of the topics covered are listed below:

General Biology Chemical Physics Cell Biophysics

Molecular Biophysics

Theoretical Biophysics Thermodynamics Biochemistry

Molecular Spectroscopy

Photobiology

evolution, genetics, cell biology atomic and molecular structure biomembranes, nerve and muscle function physical properties of macromolecules modelling of biological systems biological systems, kinetics macromolecular structure, function, synthesis UV/visible, fluorescence, NMR, EPR photosynthesis, vision

This massive teaching load (which does not include preparation time) effectively prevents motivated teachers from doing bench science for a large part of the academic year. Research programmes are entrusted to two officially designated researchers and three technicians, who have no teaching duties. Greater flexibility could be injected into this arrangement by implementing a roster, whereby researchers would assume some teaching responsibilities for a specified period, thus freeing the teachers to work at the bench. Research is also hampered by difficulties and delays in obtaining chemicals and equipment, and by lack of access to a wide range of international scientific journals, problems common to many emerging nations.

Mongolian scientists are seeking solutions to these problems and are trying to keep their fingers on the pulse of world science. Exchanges and cooperation with the Soviet Union and other socialist countries form Mon- golia's main window on the scientific world. Other countries and international organizations like the United Nations and its associated agencies also have an important role to play. There are many exciting challenges ahead as Mongolian science comes of age.

Immunochemistry as an Alternative to the First-year Graduate Biochemistry Structure Course*

JOSEPH H DREISBACH

Chemistry Department University of Scranton Scranton, PA 18510, USA

Introduction First-year graduate students in a biochemistry concen- tration usually enroll in a biochemistry structure and metabolism core course sequence. Many of the first-year graduate students at the University of Scranton find the structure course redundant with undergraduate courses in biochemistry. This situation is surely prevalent at other institutions especially when one considers the degree of integration of biochemistry into undergraduate chemistry and biology programs.

One alternative to the traditional biochemistry struc- ture lectures is a course in immunochemistry. The immunochemistry course can be followed by the tra- ditional metabolism course. With minor review students should have sufficient background in carbohydrate and lipid structure to proceed through a rigorous lecture series on intermediary metabolism. The immunochemistry lec- tures I have presented to a group of up to fifteen students include numerous topics normally found in a biochemistry structure course. These topics, however, are presented in greater depth and from a different perspective.

Objectives and Content General objectives for the immunochemistry course are listed in Table 1. The objectives are consistent with those in an introductory graduate class. Developing within each student an ability to utilize the literature and present a contemporary and informative seminar to the group is an essential part of this program and is incorporated nicely.

Table 1 Objectives of the immunochemistry course

Presentation of contemporary biochemical and mol- ecular biological concepts of structure and function

Description of methods involved in protein and nucleic acid research

Discussion of current analytical and research techniques involving immunochemical phenomena

Development of the capability to search for and extract information from current literature and present a well organized seminar to faculty and peers

An outline of the content of the course is presented in Table 2. Protein structure and methods of conformational analysis are presented early in the lectures. Immuno- globulin structure is described using these concepts as a chemical basis for discussion. Antigen-antibody inter- actions are presented using the principles of chemical

*Presented at the 17th Middle Atlantic Regional Meeting of the American Chemical Society, White Haven, PA USA, 1983.

BIOCHEMICAL E D U C A T I O N 14(3) 1986