In chemistry, an amino acid is a molecule containing both amine and carboxyl functional groups. In biochemistry, this term refers to alpha-amino acids with the general formula H₂NCHRCOOH, where R is an organic substituent.^[1] In the alpha amino acids, the amino and carboxylate groups are attached to the same carbon, which is called the α–carbon. The various alpha amino acids differ in which side chain (R group) is attached to their alpha carbon. They can vary in size from just a hydrogen atom in glycine through a methyl group in alanine to a large heterocyclic group in tryptophan.

Beyond the amino acids that are found in all forms of life, many non-natural amino acids have vital roles in technology and industry. For example, the chelating agents EDTA and nitrilotriacetic acid are alpha amino acids that are important in the chemical industry. (more...)

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Titiou Lecoq

• ... that Titiou Lecoq (pictured) only realized that "women did not rule the universe" after she left home?
• ... that Brandiose's design work for the Rocket City Trash Pandas helped the team sell $4 million in merchandise before it played its first game?
• ... that Tupou VI was crowned by D'Arcy Wood, an Australian, in order to respect the tradition of native Tongans not touching the king's head?
• ... that Aleister Crowley's 1941 manifesto controversially asserts a human right to commit tyrannicide?
• ... that Begüm Pusat, a 15-year-old Turkish wheelchair basketballer, was one of the youngest players at the 2019 Women's U25 World Championship?
• ... that by losing her constituency of South West Norfolk in 2024, Liz Truss became the first former UK prime minister since 1935 to lose their seat?
• ... that Carey Wright implemented literacy reforms that led to the "Mississippi Miracle"?
• ... that Upper Ivory Coast was created from the former French Upper Volta to facilitate the provision of forced plantation labour?
• ... that Quintus Quincy Quigley preferred Angles to a ring?

Kasia Niewiadoma

• In cycling, Katarzyna Niewiadoma (pictured) wins the Tour de France Femmes.
• Doctors strike and protests occur across India after the rape and murder of a female physician in Kolkata.
• Paetongtarn Shinawatra becomes Prime Minister of Thailand after Srettha Thavisin is dismissed by the Constitutional Court.
• The World Health Organization declares the mpox epidemic to be a global health emergency.

Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland, located on the Vistula in the east-central part of the country. It has an estimated population of 1.86 million, within a larger metropolitan area of 3.27 million residents, and it is a major cultural, political and economic hub. Warsaw originated as a small fishing town in Masovia, rising to prominence in the late 16th century when Sigismund III moved the Polish capital and his royal court from Kraków. It was the de facto capital of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth until 1795 and then the seat of Napoleon's Duchy of Warsaw. The 19th century and its Industrial Revolution brought a demographic boom. Warsaw was bombed and besieged at the start of World War II in 1939, and its infrastructure and population suffered during the systematic razing which followed the Warsaw Uprising in 1944. The modern city features many historic monuments, including the reconstructed Old Town, designated a World Heritage Site. This 2022 photograph shows an elevated view of Warsaw's Constitution Square, looking northwards down Marszałkowska Street.

Photograph credit: Emptywords

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