Thioglycolic acid corresponding disulfide (2-[(carboxymethyl)disulfanyl]acetic acid or dithiodiglycolic acid): Thioglycolic acid, usually as its dianion, forms complexes with metal ions. Such complexes have been used for the detection of iron, molybdenum, silver, and tin. Thioglycolic acid reacts with diethyl acetylmalonate to form acetylmercaptoacetic acid and diethyl malonate, the reducing agent in conversion of Fe(III) to Fe(II). Scientist David R. Goddard, in the early 1930s, identified TGA as a useful reagent for reducing the disulfide bonds in proteins, including keratin (hair protein), while studying why protease enzymes could not easily digest hair, nails, feathers, and such. He realized that while the disulfide bonds,
Hair cell They have also improved frequency selectivity (frequency discrimination), which is of particular benefit for humans, because it enabled sophisticated speech and music. Outer hair cells are functional even after cellular stores of ATP are depleted. The effect of this system is to non-linearly amplify quiet sounds more than large ones so that a wide range of sound pressures can be reduced to a much smaller range of hair displacements. This property of amplification is called the cochlear amplifier. The molecular biology of hair cells has seen considerable progress in recent years, with the identification of the motor protein (prestin) that