Month: September 2022

THE PROTEIN UNIVERSE. “It is increasingly accepted that protein evolution has occurred by shuffling of DNA sequences. If nature explored all the possible sequences for a protein of 100 residues, 2(100) proteins would have been produced. It has been calculated that if only 1 μg of each protein was synthesised, the required starting materials would have a mass (1.27 × 10(124) g) greater than that of the earth (5.98 × 10(27) g).” https://lnkd.in/d5kyh6v View in LinkedIn

I have enormous respect for the legions of anonymous ancient stone wall builders. View in LinkedIn

FRAGMENT FROM NATURE for this and next weekend deals with cone shell patterning. For me, it is a testament to human curiosity that adults can spend lifetimes studying peacock feathers, beetle casings, the patterning of shells, or equally seemingly unimportant things; the reality is that these offer wonderful insights into things like photonic crystals, and the mathematics of chaos, and so much more. Thank you D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson. View in LinkedIn

CONE SHELLS. “This group of sea snails shows a large variety of colors and patterns, and local varieties and color forms of the same species often occur. This has led to the creation of a large number of known synonyms and probable synonyms, making it difficult to give an exact taxonomic assignment for many snails in this genus. As of 2009, more than 3,200 different species names have been assigned, with an average of 16 new species names introduced each year.” https://lnkd.in/dxxf7qQ View in LinkedIn