Comments on: Amino acid necklace spells out "we are star-stuff"

By: cousin229

cousin229 — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 14:18:00 +0000

Ms Colette Taylor your work is lovely!
I hope we will be able to see again your creations here!

By: gypsyspacemuffin

gypsyspacemuffin — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 22:25:00 +0000

Wow….lovely concept and execution. Seeing this totally made my day!

By: robotnik

robotnik — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 20:55:00 +0000

You got it and missed it, at the same time.

By: Matt Segal

Matt Segal — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 20:43:00 +0000

I dunno how much stable folding there’d be for a 14-mer. Also depends on the pH. The delocalized positive charge on the argenine could do a decent job of mitigating the partial negatives on threonine and serine. I think the main issue would be those phenylalanines at the end trying to get out of contact with the water =p

By: jahahn

jahahn — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 19:54:00 +0000

I love the geeks! That would be a Babylon 5 quote: “We are star stuff. We are the universe made manifest trying to figure itself out.” – JMS

By: aHarshDM

aHarshDM — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 16:22:00 +0000

Everything is star stuff. Literally, everything. There is nothing that is not star stuff. Being star stuff is not special. Being star stuff is a side effect of existence. There’s a Fight Club quote that goes here.

By: Colette Taylor

Colette Taylor — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 15:52:00 +0000

Thanks! Yeah, the U was a weird one, but what’s so awesome about the make-up of creatures is how many little variations there are to tweak the right proteins into place.
Also, I am fairly sure this would not fold well. Too many conflicting charges. :)

By: massspecgeek

massspecgeek — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 12:54:00 +0000

Thanks. Forgot about the (relatively uncommon) selenocysteine.

By: Matt Segal

Matt Segal — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 12:24:00 +0000

Amino acid code for those interested:
W – Tryptophan
E – Glutamic Acid/Glutamate

A – Alanine
R – Argenine
E – Glutamic Acid

S – Serine
T – Threonine
A – Alanine
R – Argenine

S – Serine
T – Threonine
U – Selenocysteine (just uses an atom of selenium instead of sulfur)
F – Phenylalanine
F – Phenylalanine

Being a molecular biology/biochem major has its uses sometimes

By: Noctilucent Studios

Noctilucent Studios — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 11:16:00 +0000

Beautiful work!

By: massspecgeek

massspecgeek — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 10:59:00 +0000

Interesting, but I can’t figure out what “u” is supposed to be. There’s no u in the single letter amino acid code, and the shape of the molecule on the necklace doesn’t look like uracil (the base found in RNA) that does have the single letter code U.

By: Boundegar

Boundegar — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 09:01:00 +0000

I had to look it up too. I’ve seen the 3-letter codes, but not the 1-letter. If you rolled those amino acids into a peptide, I wonder if it would turn you into a newt or something.

By: Chentzilla

Chentzilla — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 07:40:00 +0000

Mendeleev's reply.

By: Stevko

Stevko — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 07:19:00 +0000

I was wondering how that spelling worked but found on wikipedia that there is a letter for each amino acid. I tried to decypher the necklace using wikipedia pictures of amino acids but could not.

By: Bruce Hansen

Bruce Hansen — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 06:33:00 +0000

Ridiculously cool! Outstanding detail!

By: Ian Anthony

Ian Anthony — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 06:06:00 +0000

Relevant to this: http://devour.com/video/the-most-astounding-fact/

By: Amelia_G

Amelia_G — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 05:59:00 +0000

P.S.: “we are golden”?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sH0uR2u7Hs

By: Colette Taylor

Colette Taylor — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 05:28:00 +0000

Thanks!

By: Colette Taylor

Colette Taylor — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 05:27:00 +0000

Thank you! I very agree!

By: Amelia_G

Amelia_G — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 05:10:00 +0000

Oh, how cool! :)

By: spacedmonkey

spacedmonkey — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 04:18:00 +0000

That is fucking awesome. It’s always nice to be reminded.