Month: September 2022

SOUND VS LIGHT. "Acoustic waves are mechanical, which means that they cannot travel through a vacuum, whereas light waves are electromagnetic and can travel through a vacuum. Whereas a light wave can have two independent polarizations, an elastic wave in a homogeneous solid has three independent polarizations." The key difference between sound and light waves. https://lnkd.in/ehwDYhR View in LinkedIn

90 GHz SWITCHING. "Able to flip on and off 90 billion times a second, a new plasmonic light emitter could form the basis of optical computing. The eventual goal is to integrate our technology into a device that can be excited either optically or electrically. That's something that I think everyone, including funding agencies, is pushing pretty hard for." https://lnkd.in/eQXi_8T View in LinkedIn

"PERIODIC STRUCTURES can block sound waves in certain frequency ranges and directions when interference effects lead to the formation of phononic band gaps. Phononic crystals with diamond symmetry, like this artificial 3D structure, have the largest band gaps." https://lnkd.in/ehwDYhR View in LinkedIn

FRAGMENT IN NATURE continues from last weekend with the molecule called TRPA1. A great deal is known about its structure, function and mechanism, and it is an exemplar of the enormous creativity in nature, using a single molecular motif to achieve a phenomenal range of biological functions, many of which are key for survival. View in LinkedIn

TRPA1, A BEAUTIFUL MOLECULE. https://lnkd.in/evAgKPd View in LinkedIn

TEASING MECHANISM APART. "The functional differences of thermoTRP channels among species have been utilized for understanding the molecular basis for their activation (or inhibition) mechanisms, and amino acid residues (or domains) responsible for the respective channel properties have been identified in various thermoTRP channels." https://lnkd.in/erbAj5A View in LinkedIn

SUPERFAMILY OF ION CHANNELS. "Transient receptor potential (TRP) channels are polymodal receptors that mediate sensory transduction and are activated by a host of stimuli. The TRP superfamily includes 28 genes that are subdivided into seven subfamilies." https://lnkd.in/eTXyYPf View in LinkedIn

INTERFACE WITH OUTSIDE WORLD. "TRPA1 is highly expressed in several neural tissues and is activated by many pungent or irritant compounds, eg, chemicals with alkaline pHs, which can induce acute pain, hyperalgesia, and neurogenic inflammation." https://lnkd.in/eTXyYPf View in LinkedIn

REPEAT MOLECULAR MOTIF. "TRPA1 is named for the numerous ankyrin repeats (ARs) on its notably long N-terminus (∼720 amino acids). ARs are 33-amino-acid-long motifs that are generally involved in protein-protein interactions and targeting to the plasma membrane." https://lnkd.in/e-WBvC9 View in LinkedIn

ANKYRIN REPEATS (AR) "In TRPA1, they have been proposed to be involved in trafficking, mechanical gating and activation by thermal stimuli. Additionally, the ARs contain an EF hand-like motif that may directly interact with intracellular Ca2+, an important modulator of TRPA1 activity." https://lnkd.in/e-WBvC9 View in LinkedIn