Christopher Kemp

Producing selenomethionine-labeled proteins with a baculovirus expression vector system

We would like to thank Wayne Hendrickson for directing our attention to [14xCrystal structure of mouse H2-M. Fremont, D.H., Crawford, F., Marrack, P., Hendrickson, W.A., and Kappler, J. Immunity. 1998; 9: 385–393Abstract | Full Text | Full Text PDF | PubMed | Scopus (75)See all References][14]. This work was supported by NIH grant CA59021 (JC) and an NIH training grant in molecular physics of biological systems (JJB). This work is based in part on research conducted at CHESS, which is supported by the National Science Foundation under award DMR-9311772, using the macromolecular diffraction at CHESS (MacCHESS) facility, which is supported by award RR-01646 from the NIH.

Smarter, stronger, longer

From extreme longevity to photographic memory, unusual individuals push the boundaries of human ability In Superhuman, Rowan Hooper sets out to explore the extremes of human ability, traveling the world and meeting a colorful cast of superlative subjects along the way. An editor for New Scientist, Hooper trained as an evolutionary biologist and is an open-minded and able guide, lucidly explaining the genetic and environmental factors that allow rare individuals to run for days on end, or sleep 3 hours a night long-term, or learn dozens of languages fluently.

Evolution's amazing arms race

A friendly tour of unusual animal adaptations misses many highlights Biologist Oné Pagán introduces readers to a variety of creatures with unusual survival strategies, from cone snails and jellyfish to poison toads and spitting spiders in Strange Survivors.

Back to the wild

Kemp examines what would happen to human if they grew up without culture. In the six million plus years since the human lineage split from chimpanzees, evolution has endowed them with many of the attributes that make them who they are: bipedalism, hairlessness, opposable thumbs, extended childhood and a large and complex brain. But these features alone do not make them human. Many of their defining traits--such as language, art, technology, storytelling and cooking--are transmitted culturally. Although products of their biology, they are not fully encoded by genes. Instead, they pass from generation to generation by social learning, evolving as they go

Walking with cavemen

Kemp talks about the ice age. Scattered across the south-west of Europe are approximately 350 caves decorated with vivid Paleolithic art. A handful of lesser-known ones also contain something just as spectacular: ice-age human footprints, preserved by a thin crust of calcite. The caves are like windows on life during the last ice age. But only to those who can read what was left behind. Seventeen-thousand years ago, southern France was a cold, treeless landscape sparsely populated by seminomadic people.

The beast that shouldn't have been

How did a unique and now extinct wolf-like creature come to make its home in the Falkland Islands? New DNA evidence backs an unlikely explanation

Ambergris: in search of the grey gold

A sperm whales gut is the unlikely source of a treasured ingredient in perfume. Christopher Kemp spent months trying to capture its unique essence