Structural Grace
by Elio
Francis Crick made several pencil drawings of his concept of the structure of DNA. This one (1953) seems particularly graceful.
Odile Crick's Drawing ©The Wellcome Library, London UK
Other Posts
Behind the Science
by Elio — Recently, I had the pleasure of participating in a program called "People Behind the Science." This is a series of interviews conducted by Marie McNeely, a neuroscientist who hosts this remarkable endeavor. The program aims to provide a candid look at the lives of scientists across a variety of fields and to showcase the human side of science. Marie asks a bunch of probing questions that reveal more than "the person in the white lab coat."
Mind the Frame (also on April 1st)
by Christoph — As you may know, STC has been on Twitter since August 2018. Mostly, we use this platform to announce our Monday and Thursday posts. Occasionally, we comment on tweets that we find interesting, sometimes directly or by re-tweeting them. Twitter being Twitter, not everything we re-tweet is...
Southern Blot
Pictures Considered #21 by Christoph — "... These results, gained with a novel method for blotting (E. M. Southern, manuscript in preparation), have also led to the identification of the Bam Hl recognition sequence". It is rather unusual to find unpublished work referred to in the abstract of a paper, to put it mildly. But this was exactly what readers of the October issue...
Of Terms in Biology: Aptamer
by Elio — Picture yourself looking for a molecule that specifically inhibits an enzyme, impairs the binding of a ligand to a receptor, or does some other such wonder. Classically, one thinks of antibodies, but these require a lot of work and are not easy to come by. Easier is to fish out…
No hiding among the trees: forensic phylogenetics
by Jamie Henzy — Some 50 years ago, Emile Zuckerkandl and Linus Pauling proposed that molecules could be read as "documents of evolutionary history". The molecules to which they referred were proteins, and the sequence of the amino acids that specified each.
Taking Risks: ASMCUE Musings
by Amy Cheng Vollmer — After missing it for several years due to other ASM responsibilities, I had the delightful opportunity to attend this year's ASMCUE, the 'appetizer' course that preceded the ASM's General Meeting in San Diego. The sessions at the ASMCUE included...
Looks like it should be in MOMA