to explain this year with respect to Nobel Prizes, or apparently anyway. Was it me or did the news casters today breathe a sigh of relief as they discussed fiber optics, cell phones and cameras? So much easier than explaining DNA ends and the potential benefits understanding their maintenance and dysfunction might have. This seemed to generate many more ums, but maybe it was the sources I heard as the news first broke. I felt a little dispirited, telomeres being that amazing!
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New York Minutes by Sabbi Lall
Science-related news, culture, characters and curiosities in New York.
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Physics is so easy....
- Date:
- Wednesday, 07 Oct ober 2009 - 02:39 UTC
Last updated: Wednesday, 07 Oct 2009 - 02:39 UTC
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Comments
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Sabby – ¿Waiting another thing?. ¿Give me to an example, please?
I can’t, I’m so excited about the ribosome!
Me too!
Yay for physics being less confusing than everything else for once! Hehe!
I know, we have a double whammy with explaining telomeres and ribosomes now, whereas you can send people to their digital camera and retro-style fiber optic lamp. But still exciting!
+Short Musical Interlude+
Talking of things, “so easy”, here’s a link to a wee ditty named So Easy (this is) I recorded/produced a few years ago. Dunno what “this” referred to in terms of the lyrics of the song, though. That said, I suspect it wasn’t OMNIGENOMICS !!
Is wonderfull the machinery of ribosomes!!
And the clown fish in the blue water.
Is the Nature, maybe!
@Alejandro / Chik Corea / Prof Correa, times may vary, global warming etc….
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I dunno, but here’s another clown fish:
Right. Where were we, sorry.
Pretty cute, but lone clownfish make me sad since you know who was horrifically separated from his loving single parental situation.
So, if these chromosome end thingies are so amazing, could you tell a mere physicist how they work?
The 6 million dollar question! Part of the difficulty in explaining the end thingies is that the mechanisms for how they they work are complex and differ across organisms, and the reasons that you need special ends are complex to explain to start with (to a layperson not to a physicist of course). The rhibosome : ) on the other hand lends itself to cute analogies (I like the NY times- DNA is the “blueprint”, the ribosome “the factory floor” and we can “gum up” the bacterial version specifically using antibiotics). I’ll think some more for a good telomere analogy, there are some!
The ribosome can be danced to be explained!
Right. Where were we, sorry
In the machinery of ribosomes. See Eva up.
¡Very well composer and musican Chik Corea!
I saw that video of translation for the first time relatively recently- that is crazy! Is there anyone out there who participated in it and how did they coordinate everyone? Thanks Eva!! It’d be cool to make a you tube on the making of that video.
Alejandro Chick Corea it is and he is a brilliant composer but I also wanted to thank Graham for the Easy interlude!
Here’s a nice piece of trivia that might come in handy (in case you don’t know and ever get asked the question in a pub quiz): The ribosome is the most abundant object on the planet (err, that’s what it says somewhere in my first year biochemistry notes).
By individuals, i.e. number of ribosomes per se? I wonder who calculated that and how? It could be right, thinking of organellar ribosomes too, but it doesn’t seem right. What counts as an object?
The ribosome is the most abundant object on the planet
And what is the importance?
It’s like saying the most abundant of the world are ants. That means we have more formic acid production in the world.
¿We have more molecules of ATP?
And how many feathers on all the chickens in the world? I guess it’s a wow factor question. Or one that a Bob Dylan song would ask.
Nobel Prize Update
@Eva, that was quite a find !!
One is reliably informed that as an indirect result of the
ramblingsdiscussion on this thread:-A Nobel for Ribosome Structure
Full details can be found on this blog post as of yesterday written by Derek Lowe on his blog, In The Pipeline
About Derek Lowe – "Derek Lowe, an Arkansan by birth, got his BA from Jimi Hendrix College and his PhD in organic chemistry from Duke before spending time in Germany on a Humboldt Fellowship on his post-doc
“This was another Biology for Chemistry year for the Nobel Committee. Venkatraman Ramakrishnan (Cambridge), Thomas Steitz (Yale) and Ada Yonath (Weizmann Inst.) have won for X-ray crystallographic studies of the ribosome”
This answer my friend, depends as be interpret.
No depend of the blowin’in the wind.
Bob Dylan:
Blowin’in the win
Finally: a Nobel prize for the ribosome structure
read on
Prior to above, I spent 1.5 hours working on a para or two reply containing several links directly related to the starting point of the thread. Not for the 1st time, the NN platform let me down. Looked great in preview, but “submit” was a #fail despite checking all code aspects of my online comment.
One is not amused.
@Graham – if you put more than 2 or 3 links in a comment, the spam-filters seem to block it automatically.
@Stephen. Ah, that’s probably why. Thanks.
If that’s the case, how very 1.0 NN – must do better.
Graham – Prior to above, I spent 1.5 hours working on….
In what blog?. Is a long time.
I have had the same problem but Matt has filtered the access at the content of my commentary with link.
Sthepen – if you put more than 2 or 3 links in a comment, the spam-filters seem to block it automatically
Thank you for the information.
Thanks for the link Graham- 1.5h is a long time (as Alejandro says), so I feel we lost out here (the lost opus of NN).
At the link I can’t see the science background part (technology can be so frustrating when it’s so close to being enriching but so far!). But I can see the belly dancing ribosome (good video but it’s not belly dancing, it’s doing some kind of Saturday night fever thing?).
‘Most abundant object’? We’re not thinking of RuBisCO, are we? Which is probably the most abundant protein on earth.
Graham – sorry about that. I was out yesterday and unable to overide the spam filters. I’ve ‘released’ your 1.5 hour masterpiece for all to see.
Thank you kindly, M@.
For the rest is very good work, I am watching, Graham.
According to Wikipedia “RuBisCO is also the most abundant protein in leaves, and it may be the most abundant protein on Earth”, but maybe if we keep cutting down trees we can help the ribosomes win the game?
We’re not thinking of RuBisCO, are we?
lol- I know, Richard’s wheeling out the big gun. That said, chop down a tree, destroy thousands upon thousands of ribosomes (plastid specific ones too!). But yes, it would ultimately change the balance of macromolecular power! : )
I wasn’t talking about (protein) molecules; I said ‘… most abundant object… .’
And what is the importance? Yer kidding, right?
Lee – I wasn’t talking about (protein) molecules; I said most abundant object
Object covering many things, it’s only for that reason.
No is kidding, maybe I’ve don’t understanding.
Hi Lee- you’ve started a discussion in my household about the abundance of nucleosomes (object or not) on the planet! A calculation was initiated, but quickly stalled.
So, if these chromosome end thingies are so amazing, could you tell a mere physicist how they work?Dunno, but I explained telomeres to a carpenter once (my husband). The popular shoelaces / aglet analogy really does work very well! I was absolutely thrilled to hear him repeating it back (correctly) to his non-scientist friends a few months later.
Nice job Cath! My other half is a teacher and an excellent explainer of things molecular biological so has a ton of analogies, but that is a good one!
What does your husband build (that’s really cool)?
Well, when I first met him and asked him what he did, he said “I build spaceships!” He’s in the movie industry and is currently building an old WW2 bomber, but he has also made rocket ships, viking ships, fountains, giant globes, lots of neon signs, and the X-Jet, among other projects!
That is super cool!