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'Lego' Approach Thwarts Anthrax Toxin
NewScientist is reporting that scientists have discovered complex nanoscale structures that have successfully protected rats from anthrax. From the article: "The technique relies on using tiny 'peptide' molecules, stuck onto one large molecule, which bind to toxins and prevent them from causing damage. They do this in much the same way that two Lego bricks might fit together - with several studs from the binding molecule slotting into, and so blocking, the sites on a toxin molecule which are needed to cause damage."
Doesn't Lego have a patent on the whole block stacking concept? Looks like they're in for a legal battle on this one. :)
All I know is, know one has truly known pain until they have been barefoot and stepped on one of these molecules.
I judt got a nre Kinesis keybiartf so please excusr ant egregiou typos.
Just wait until they patent it and come after your hemoglobin.
KFG
With mint frosting?
Leela: I didn't want to leave them either Fry but what are we supposed to do?
Fry: Well, usually on the show someone would come up with a complicated plan then explain it with a simple analogy.
Leela: Hmm. If we can reroute engine power through the primary weapons and reconfigure them to Melllvar's frequency that should overload his electro-quantum structure.
Bender: Like putting too much air in a ballon!
Just wait until they patent it and come after your hemoglobin.
Oh boy, here goes the movie.
First were the websites. Then the crops. Now, they come for your BLOOD.
ATTACK OF THE KILLER PATENT VAMPIRES.
"This time there's no escape"
You just used the word LEGO to make me read this! LEGOs have about as much to do with this molecule binding as a bowl of petunias does!
Shares of Lego, Inc. go through the roof as hudreds of thousands of biochemists rush to buy Lego products. The question is, which theme will help their research more? The pirate sets or the Star Wars sets? My money's on Star Wars.
Mr. Bond, they have a saying in Chicago: Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time is enemy action.
Great! Just put about a thousand 4-year-olds in a room with a whole bunch of Lego blocks, and a huge molecular model. You don't even have to tell them what to do. Just continuously monitor the state of the room with video cameras, and once they have designed an appropriate antibody, encase the whole thing in carbonite.
Monsanto, here we come!
2006 Breakdown
==============
Thin 2x2's - $52,193.31
Fat 3x1's - $19,493.95
Spinners - $49,128.59
Folders - $23,485.20
1x1 blue see-through squares - $6,921.10
Damage due to separating pieces apart with teeth - $4,129.04
(-1 offtopic, but it was worth it!)
Just wait until they introduce "polypeptides."
Better yet, wait until the next Atkins-like fad hits after some clever nutritionist "discovers" that foods which are high in protein are also high in "peptides"... miraculous molecules that can help protect against anthrax, provide increased energy, and help the body heal.
I won't deny the jackass claim. My post was blunt and insensitive. But based on the topic at hand, it was accurate. The words I used to describe your character were supported by my post, and were not overtly offensive, unlike the word "jackass." Fortunately, as you pointed out, you can rectify these personal flaws. There is no cure for being a jackass.
I have but three serious perturbations: people who stand in the way of scientific progress, the use of logical fallacies, and carnies (you know, circus folk. very small hands. smell like cabbage.)
With that in mind, I only now noticed your sig. Your violation of my first personal peeve is somewhat rectified by your support of my second. If I had seen it earlier, I may have formed my reply using more flowery prose. You have been added to my "friends" list. Unless, of course, you are a carnie.
Besides, this is the internet. Civil discourse hasn't been here since the early 1990s.
A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.