Enzyme unit SI unit, the enzyme unit is discouraged in favour of the katal, the unit recommended by the General Conference on Weights and Measures in 1978 and officially adopted in 1999. One katal is the amount of enzyme that converts 1 mole of substrate per second, so The enzyme unit should not be confused with the international unit (IU); although it is true that both measure chemical activity and that for many enzymes 1 U = 1 IU (because for many enzymes the existing U was adopted as the newer IU), international units can be defined for the biologic activity of
Mental substance Mental substance Mental substance is the idea held by dualists and idealists, that minds are made-up of non-physical substance. This substance is often referred to as consciousness. This is opposed to the materialists, who hold that what we normally think of as mental substance is ultimately physical matter (i.e., brains). Descartes, who was most famous for the assertion "I think therefore I am", has had a lot of influence on the mind–body problem. He describes his theory of mental substance (which he calls res cogitans distinguishing it from the "res extensa") in the "Second Meditation" (II.8) and in "Principia Philosophiae"