Last night, I was faced with a decision. I had 2 movies to choose from and, after some contemplation, decided to pass on Twilight: New Moon (apologies to the 14 year old girls in my readership). Instead, we went forExtraordinary Measures.
The movie, based on a true story, was about the Crownley family and an underfunded scientist. The family had 2 children born with Pompe, a progressive and (at the time) fatal disease. Their future was looking bleak with no drug currently available. The movie follows the research and scientists responsible for ultimately designing a drug for this disease.
I found the movie quite inspiring. If you feel like you’re losing your ‘oomph’ or passion for your work, this is a great movie to watch.
00:00 Introduction
04:40 Light
09:35 Theory of interaction with light
14:42 Great analogy between checkers and nature
20:20 Explains the theory
23:15 ‘I enjoyed your lecture, but didn’t understand it’
26:15 ‘Nobody understands it’
33:13 Possible meaning
34:45 Describes theory
40:48 Reflection
47:50 Science is based on probabilities
57:10 Answer to the reflection Problem
68:10 Questions
The lecture makes me wonder about the relationship between protein crystal size and the probability of photons being diffracted. I am starting to get uneasy about how much is explained away due to crystal packing.
I had the pleasure of taking my first crystallography course from Dr. Cora Lind. Cora was kind enough to ask me to speak at the American Crystallography Association meeting this year. In addition, she has always been patient and helpful with my crystallography questions.
I have not yet watched all the videos (in total they run nearly 23 hours!), but feel comfortable recommending them since I took the course. Also there are copies of the slides from each lecture to make it easy to follow along at home.
The relevance of the introductory lecture made me smile, ‘you may find publications with crystal data that may not make sense… you need to be able to judge that.’
I am really grateful for Cora putting this lecture series together.
If you find this video series helpful or think the crystallographic community would benefit from more lectures being posted, please drop a comment. Thanks.
BenchflyTM has videos of protocols, tips and teachings some of which are quite relevant to macromolecular crystallography. The video quality is excellent. I will look forward to watching their future productions even though the buzz intro gives me the creeps.
We have discussed the controversy regarding the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry that was given for the structure and function of the ribosome. I was also thinking about what a great accomplishment it was and how we could pay tribute.
Here is the idea: Get together 200 of our closest friends of which many of whom would need to wear spandex and short shorts. We would make it a dance tribute and have people attach a balloon to their head for identification. We would then act out the function of the ribosome to music from the 1970s, you know – flute solos and a lot of cow bell.
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Well, I just found out from Molecule of the Day that this idea has already been done, dang – scooped again. Enjoy.
Fred points us to an eighteen minute introductory video on structural biology, but unfortunately the English version is not uploaded onto a video hosting site (the French version is here for my friend Julie). I lack the rights to the video so can’t post the English version myself.
I would recommend this video to any relatives that glaze over when you describe your job or perhaps to new graduate students. Enjoy.
A point group is a set of symmetry elements that are related to each other about a fixed point. A symmetry element is a point, line or plane around which the symmetry operation is performed. A symmetry operation is the process of transforming into a state indistinguishable from the starting state.
The following link provides a list of the 32 available point groups in Hermann–Mauguin notation. The 32 point groups are generated by performing the symmetry operations listed below:
Note: I am writing the dash over each number as ‘bar’ (how it is pronounced).
Point groups can contain the following operations:
1) Rotation:
Symbol: 1,2,3,4,6
Explanation: The number of times the item repeats in 360 degrees
Example: A three fold requires three rotations to return to its starting position (360 degrees /3; n=3 for a threefold axis)
2) Reflection
Symbol: m or 2bar
Explanation: Created by a reflection across a plane
Example: Place a hand above and below a table with the fingers pointing in the same direction. The table represents the mirror plane while your hands are a mirror image of each other.
3) Inversion
Symbol: 1bar
Explanation: An item is projected through a point that defines a center of symmetry
Example: Put your hands in a separated prayer position, then flip one hand so that your fingers point downward
4) Rotoinversion
Symbol: 3bar, 4bar, 6bar
Explanation: rotate followed by an inversion
Example: Step 1) Think of a fourfold rotation, move to the first position (90 degrees away); Step 2) inversion about the origin
A reflection or an inversion changes the handedness of the molecule and is, therefore, not very common in macromolecular crystallography (most amino acids are L not D in configuration).
I mentioned, in a previous post , a documentary called Naturally Obsessed. I expressed an interest in viewing the movie and encouraged readers to take advantage should such an opportunity present itself. Soon after the post, I received an email from one of the movie’s producers offering to send me a copy of the movie. You guys ROCK!
I’ll start on that positive note and, after viewing the movie, it looks like I’ll be ending on one as well.
Initially (before I received the movie), I thought it would simply be a good way to educate family and friends about the life of a crystallographer or graduate student in this field. Turns out, the movie is not only a great way to introduce people to this line of work, but a beneficial tool that can be used to recruit new students to this area of science.
The movie does not disappoint. It has some very entertaining characters who easily capture and hold the viewers attention.
The movie helped me realize a few things. First, how caught up I can get in my projects. Second, I gained an appreciation for the other researchers out there, as we are all going through the same ups and downs. We may work in separate labs but, ultimately, we all have the same goal: to understand how nature works. Finally, we all eat pizza on synchrotron trips.
Important note:
If you’re having difficulty getting your crystals to diffract properly, try setting up your trays to ‘Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots’ by the Flaming Lips. Seems as though our little proteins have an affinity for good music.
Favorite quote by Kil(partick) Carroll:
“Science is not done in a vacuum. Everything, in some sense or another, is a collaboration…eventually everyone gets stuck. The only way to do it is by talking to other people who have been where you are and can give a relatively logical approach to solve that problem.”
Final note: Naturally Obsessed will be playing at the ACA this year. DEFINITELY worth checking out. I will update you when I hear a specific time and location.
TED: Ideas worth spreading. The slogan really exemplifies what occurs at this conference, namely: high quality topics, speakers and presentations.
I have not seen all the presentations, but wanted to include 3 that I thought would be relevant to this site (each presentation is about 20 minutes in length).
Dr. James Watson: The double helix and today’s DNA mysteries
-How he (and others) discovered the structure of DNA and current DNA research
-I really get a kick out of seeing our founding members still active in research
Bill Gates: How I’m trying to change the world now
-He presents scientific work related to malaria as well as a number of fascinating statistics related to education
Kevin Kelly: The first 5,000 days of the web, and the next 5,000
-Although this presentation is not crystallographic in nature, it is too good to miss
-I enjoy when people make a compelling case regarding what they think will occur in the future
The two books that are mentioned in the above talks are available through Amazon:
If there are any other talks you enjoyed, please feel free to leave a comment!
Naturally Obsessed is a movie that documents the trials and tribulations of a X-ray crystallographic laboratory (if you want to read the two page press release click here). I am doubtful that I will get the opportunity to view this film, but wanted to post about it in case the film ends up playing in your area.
Even if you won’t be able to see the movie, the website is worth looking at especially if you have everyone someone in your life that you have tried to explain what you do, but doesn’t really get it.
The site has a number of video clips, my favorite is under – the science -> X-ray Crystallography -> Prof. Richard Axel (first clip)
I still smile every time I see the student setting up crystal trays with the intense music in the background. I have come across a favorable review about the movie, but would love to hear from others that have seen it.