From Science, the journal of the American Assocation for the Advancement of Science, volume 330, 17th of December 2010, page 1607:
'...to simulate the gyrations proteins make as they fold... is a combinatorial nightmare. Each two neighbouring amino acids in a protein chain can bind to one another at two different angles, each of which can have three conformations. So a simple protein with 100 amino acids can fold in 3198 different ways. Getting at the atomic detail is even scarier. Proteins sort through all those possibilities in milliseconds or less. Computers take far longer.'
Which confirms and underlines the point made often in this blog: biodevelopment is intelligent, it has enormous computational power, it works out the best result, at micro level in milliseconds and at macro level over the aeons.
About Me
- Nobilangelo
- My Christian name is pronounced 'noble-arn-jillo' (i.e., both o's are long, so the first two syllables rhyme with 'noble' not 'hobble'--yes, I know that's obvious, because there's only one 'b' between the 'o' and the 'i', but some people seem to see two b's, hence the English lesson). My surname is pronounced kerra-marliss. I was born, bred and educated in New Zealand, except for an international systems-engineer's course in San Antonio, Texas. I am born-again Christian, a thinker with a very practical turn of mind, a scientist with a particular interest in planet-friendly energy and neuroscience, an engineer (mechanical, industrial and IT systems), an inventor, a Member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a writer and poet, a naturist, a designer in different fields, an arranger and composer of symphonic music, a multi-award-winning IT journalist, a photographer, and a practitioner at various times in other hands-on fields including building, metalwork, woodwork, stained-glass and landscaping.