Looking Up Corn Pone

Once upon a time CSL and FM needed to look up corn pone in the dictionary. Along the way, they stumbled across polyribonucleotides*, which are defined thus: "ribonucleotides that are not mononucleotides, but are instead polyribonucleotides." Thank you, Mr. Webster, for clearing that up!

For those word nerds (like me) who just have to know: My Webster's doesn't contain a definition for ribonucleotide. However, an appeal an online medical dictionary reveals that it's a nucleotide in which a purine or pyrimidine base is linked to a ribose molecule.

• nucleotides: Phosphate esters of nucleosides. The metabolic precursors of nucleic acids are monoesters with phosphate on carbon 5 of the pentose (known as 5' to distinguish sugar from base numbering). However, many other structures, such as adenosine 3'5' cyclic monophosphate (cAMP) and molecules with 2 or 3 phosphates are also called nucleotides.
• purine: a heterocyclic compound with a fused pyrimidine/imidazole ring. Planar and aromatic in character. The parent compound for the purine bases of nucleic acids
• pyrimidine: a family of 6-membered heterocyclic compounds occurring in nature in a wide variety of forms. They are planar and aromatic in character and include several nucleic acid constituents (cytosine, thymine, and uracil) and form the basic structure of the barbiturates. It is the parent compound of the pyrimidine bases of nucleic acid.
• ribose: a monosaccharide pentose of widespread occurrence in biological molecules, for example RNA.

* Reason "Polyribonucleotides" isn't today's band name: too long to fit on a CD label.