In Memory of Il'ya Vasil'evich Berezin (1923–1987), Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences

Applied Biochemistry and Microbiology -     

Igor' Vladimirovich Torgov. Corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. On his 95th birthday

The late 1940s and the early 1950s were marked by an extraordinary rise in the interest of scientists worldwide (chemists, biologists, and physicians) in steroid hormones, one of the types of natural compounds later referred to as low-molecular bioregulators. The steroid compounds constructed on the basis of the cyclopentanoperhydrophenanthrene skeleton turned out to be the most universal of all known representatives of natural compounds, exhibiting a high regulatory activity in the broadest set of physiological processes. At the very beginning of study of this class of compounds, it was found that they are responsible for sexual development and maturation, reproduction, water-salt balance, and exchange of carbohydrates. The spectrum of their activities was extended ever further, and, nowadays, perhaps no known vital function of living organisms remains in which, in some way, steroids are not involved.     

150th Anniversary of the birth of Louis Dollo (1857–1931), a Foreign Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR

December 7, 2007, was the 150th anniversary of the birth of Louis Dollo, a prominent Belgian evolutionary paleontologist. The article briefly describes his life, research, and museum work as well as his work on popularizing science. The main scientific works of Dollo and their international recognition are characterized. Dollo’s high reputation among Russian scientists led to his election, on January 11, 1928, as a Foreign Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR.