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Molecular Motors on the Run
Roland Piquepaille writes "In the nanotech world, molecular 'motors' have been heavily investigated during the last decade. And you probably read that these nano-carriers will one day be able to move a useful drug right where it's needed inside your body. But think for a minute to the size gap between yourself and a molecule. It's pretty impressive! Now, according to this news release, researchers from the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces in Germany have developed a theory stating that only a few motor molecules should be enough for directed transport over centimeters or even meters. It's probably a meaningless comparison, but it's like if you were able to walk to the moon and come back."
I want you all to give a wonderful round of applause for the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces. Next, lets hear from the Society of Silly People who Walk Funny!
A good example of a molecular motor is ATP-synthase, a naturally occurring enzyme in photosynthetic plants and bacteria. It is driven by a pH gradient formed due to the splitting of water and charge separation actions of the photosystems, although it can be forced to operate in reverse, by supplying an excess of ATP.
The enzyme itself is elegant, consisting of a rotating and a stationary segment, and has been the subject of much research by scientists eager to replicate its 'mechanics' into a synthetic cargo-carrying molecular machine, similar to those discussed in the article. Unfortunately, the last I heard imitating nature was proving a lot more difficult than expected.
Rather than ignoring people and allowing them to find happiness in what may be an obscure or disgusting manner to us (or just posting friggin blurbs on a board), we comment on it and judge it.
You include this statement (without the slightest sign of intentional irony) in your own judgemental comment on someone else's judgemental comment. Ironically, I feel that I must comment judgementally on this.
This is why I have lunches with Andrea Dworkin and not a bunch of catty women whose sense of humor is so constrained by the mores of society that they don't even laugh at stories of Penis Puppetry.
When you last ate with Andrea, did she happen to mention that she had died in April? I'd have thought that your lunch dates would have been somewhat constrained by that event.