The following problem is based on a notorious article in Nature, which is one of
ID: 480732 • Letter: T
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The following problem is based on a notorious article in Nature, which is one of the most prestigious journals in science (Davenas, E. el al (1988) Nature 333, 816-818), and has ramifications for homeopathic medicine. Degranulation is a response that is affected by a specific antibody on a suspension of human leukocytes, which are white blood cells. It is a normal immunologic response to foreign antigens. In a typical assay for degranulation, 1.5 ml of the antibody solution is mixed with 30 mu l of leukocyte cell suspension and then the cells are examined with a microscope in order to determine if degranulation has taken place. According to this article in Nature, a solution of antibody with a concentration of 2 times 10^-9 M causes the degranulation response. When this solution was diluted by a factor of DF = 10^-100, the degranulation response was still observed. Why do you think that these results evoked incredulity among other scientists?Explanation / Answer
dilution factor = final volume / initial volume = 10-100
which implies that anti-body concentration will be infinite.
1 mol of antibody present in the diluted solution will have 6.023*1023 molecules
which means that infinite mol of antibodies present in the solution will have infinite number of molecules
Therefore we can say molecules of anti-body > molecules of leukocyte cells
Scientists expected degranulation not to happen for the above reason, however it happened
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