I love slash dot science also. I got reamed on one particular (free gases in biological systems) instead of my general comment. Note, I should have been more clear in my earlier post in reference to free gases- I ment inside of the cell. For example...
1) anaeorbic bacteria 2) extream thermophiles
If hydrophilic/hydrophobic forces are negated in these conditions (no free gases in the system - some thermophiles, or no oxygen - anaeorbic bacteria, depending on the lack of which gas causes this mixing effect) how do the membranes stay intact, or the proteins fold?
This has got to be a dupe. Think of all of the biological effects that would be couteracted by this. Hydrophobic/hydrophilic effects are the basic reason why proteins fold the way that they do, and biological system's don't have free gasses floating around. Not to mention what would happen to all of our membranes (note, membrane formation is also due to hydophobic/hydophilic effects). Gasses in a biological system are all bound to something - example - Oxygen is bound to hemoglobin or myoglobin, if it isn't it causes serious problems. If water and oil mix without gasses present then we're in a world of hurt and I'd just be mush right now instead of typing this.
While these problems aren't trivial, all of them are already basically solved besides the protein folding problem. Protein folding won't be solved anytime soon due to computational restrains.
All of these but the protein folding problem can be viewed by ab initio techniques such as molecular dynamics. While these are very computationaly intensive calculations they are duable on super computers in a short period of time (on the order of weeks/months).
As a side note, we really don't need the folding problem solved. Crystallography has come far enough that by the time we have the computer power avalable to calculate the folding of protein, most of the protiens we know of or are of interest will already have their structures solved by crystalography.
I'm worried about the/. science section. Let me explain -
Two of the current main stories on the science page (this one and the one on influenza) were written as a reaction to science rather than a reporting of science. As an example - the title of this topic is "Be afraid, be very afraid" however, if you read and think about the actual science there is nothing really to be afraid of - just the opposite.
Two points that have been made to counter the opinion of this research being used in the military, and that I agree with are - 1) Humans are way to complex to have one pathway that leads to the fear response - therefore - any drug that inhibits this pathway will not be effective due to the other pathways being available and 2) This article describes the learning of fear, not the behavior of fear.
The same goes for the previous article on looking at the influence virus from 1918. The fear shown in the original post is countered by the actual science.
I don't want to read fearful rants about science. I want to read the science and decide for myself.
The actual address was originally posted at
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=45801&cid=4737 646
by an Anonymous Coward
Post quoted below
Ok.. Heres more details on Ralsky's address (courtesy of www.lexisnexis.com -- its nice being a law student)
Buyer: ALAN M RALSKY
Buyer Mailing Address:
6747 MINNOW POND DR, WEST BLOOMFIELD, MI 48322
Seller: BING CONSTRUCTION CO
Property Address: 6747 MINNOW POND DR, WEST BLOOMFIELD, MI 48322
Sale Date: 8/28/2002
Recorded Date: 9/12/2002
Sale Price: $ 740,000 (Full Amount)
By the way, the patrick road address listed in the other sellers post was sold in 2001 first to Irmengard Ralsky and then to Dan Shammami for $265K
Slashdot Mirror
I love slash dot science also. I got reamed on one particular (free gases in biological systems) instead of my general comment. Note, I should have been more clear in my earlier post in reference to free gases- I ment inside of the cell. For example...
1) anaeorbic bacteria
2) extream thermophiles
If hydrophilic/hydrophobic forces are negated in these conditions (no free gases in the system - some thermophiles, or no oxygen - anaeorbic bacteria, depending on the lack of which gas causes this mixing effect) how do the membranes stay intact, or the proteins fold?
Well, that depends on which gas we're talking about.
oxygen - anaerobic bacteria.
Body fluids are a different than cells/cell interior.
This has got to be a dupe. Think of all of the biological effects that would be couteracted by this. Hydrophobic/hydrophilic effects are the basic reason why proteins fold the way that they do, and biological system's don't have free gasses floating around. Not to mention what would happen to all of our membranes (note, membrane formation is also due to hydophobic/hydophilic effects). Gasses in a biological system are all bound to something - example - Oxygen is bound to hemoglobin or myoglobin, if it isn't it causes serious problems. If water and oil mix without gasses present then we're in a world of hurt and I'd just be mush right now instead of typing this.
While these problems aren't trivial, all of them are already basically solved besides the protein folding problem. Protein folding won't be solved anytime soon due to computational restrains.
All of these but the protein folding problem can be viewed by ab initio techniques such as molecular dynamics. While these are very computationaly intensive calculations they are duable on super computers in a short period of time (on the order of weeks/months).
As a side note, we really don't need the folding problem solved. Crystallography has come far enough that by the time we have the computer power avalable to calculate the folding of protein, most of the protiens we know of or are of interest will already have their structures solved by crystalography.
I'm worried about the /. science section.
Let me explain -
Two of the current main stories on the science page (this one and the one on influenza) were written as a reaction to science rather than a reporting of science. As an example - the title of this topic is "Be afraid, be very afraid" however, if you read and think about the actual science there is nothing really to be afraid of - just the opposite.
Two points that have been made to counter the opinion of this research being used in the military, and that I agree with are -
1) Humans are way to complex to have one pathway that leads to the fear response - therefore - any drug that inhibits this pathway will not be effective due to the other pathways being available and
2) This article describes the learning of fear, not the behavior of fear.
The same goes for the previous article on looking at the influence virus from 1918. The fear shown in the original post is countered by the actual science.
I don't want to read fearful rants about science. I want to read the science and decide for myself.
The actual address was originally posted at http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=45801&cid=4737 646
by an Anonymous Coward
Post quoted below
Ok.. Heres more details on Ralsky's address (courtesy of www.lexisnexis.com -- its nice being a law student)
Buyer: ALAN M RALSKY
Buyer Mailing Address:
6747 MINNOW POND DR, WEST BLOOMFIELD, MI 48322
Seller: BING CONSTRUCTION CO
Property Address: 6747 MINNOW POND DR, WEST BLOOMFIELD, MI 48322
Sale Date: 8/28/2002
Recorded Date: 9/12/2002
Sale Price: $ 740,000 (Full Amount)
By the way, the patrick road address listed in the other sellers post was sold in 2001 first to Irmengard Ralsky and then to Dan Shammami for $265K