I played around with the Instamorph this weekend. The major challenge is the heating and reheating necessary when cutting. It is very malleable immediately after heating and becomes hard (at least with thin pieces) in a few minutes. When hard, it is slightly flexible, but not brittle (it seems pretty indestructible). And… I made an alpha helix!!

At the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, you can buy cakes and other desserts in the cafe that are inspired by works of art in the museum. Seeing as we talked about Piet Mondrian, and how his paintings look like aperiodic crystals, I thought I would share his work in cake form.

Mondrian cake by Caitlin Freeman at SFMOMA. Photo by Charlie Villyard.

Here’s an article about the chef who created this cake, as well as multiple other art-themed desserts: http://openspace.sfmoma.org/2010/05/collection-rotation18/.

Art, cake, potential physics of life- what more could you want in a dessert?

-Lauren Pittis

This is an example post.

This is also a great example of an artist’s view of a chromosome! Krista Shapton is the artist.  Her work can be found at kshapton.com

Just a small update on my project. I just powered through 4 leaves and 1 petal of Rubisco, and it’s not taking as long as I thought, which is awesome! Hopefully I can power through another 7 and assemble it before Wednesday, but so far so good!

Hello!

Sorry it’s been so long…

I recently thought about my project again, and I realized that I didn’t like the leaf idea so much. I’m leaning toward the idea of “5 hot dogs”, as I described in class! So, on I’ll wrap the alpha helices with candy wrappers or junk food wrappers in general. I sketched the protein structure, as the full protein is not available on PDB, I found a paper that gave a detailed structure of the 7TM protein and where THC binds. I drew this as a basis for what I will use in my 3D structure.

Good luck!

Bo

Hey guys,

I’ve been thinking lately on how to portray prions in an artistic way. One thing I thought of was origami. Origami is something that I’ve been into for a while, and I think it represents prions well. It’s taking a piece of paper (normal protein) and folding it into a new shape (Prion). I have also heard that prions can come together to form larger structures. In origami, there are pieces that you can make that can come together as shown in the picture below. What do you guys think?

Hey everybody!

Thanks to my wonderful friend, Irena, this account will now have multiple personalities.

So for this post, I’m Michael, and after weeks of many difficulties, I think I finally found a protein!

Rubisco (ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase)!

A lot of my classes have dealt with the carbon cycle, so I’m pretty interested in Rubisco’s role in converting inorganic carbon dioxide into organic carbon through carbon fixation. This process happens REALLY SLOW, making it the most abundant single enzyme on Earth to compensate its inefficiency. I also found this article of some scientists looking increase Rubisco’s carbon dioxide conversion rate so that plants are more efficient at sequestering carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

I found these pictures of collagen on google..I am still thinking this is the protein I want to represent but still not sure how. I think I still need to get a better sense for the collagen structure itself, because I do not think these pictures do much justice. I need to download that app onto my iPad! Here is what I found on google..

Being a psychology major, I am interesting in proteins that affect human thought and behavior. Some common “psychological molecules” that I hear about in my psychology course are cortisol, adrenaline, oxytocin, estrogen and testosterone. This morning I have been looking a lot at dopamine. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that play a part in many psychological conditions including depression and schizophrenia.

I hope this works now..

Hello everyone!

I have been looking through the protein data bank and I’m interested in a few, but I think Myosin is particularly interesting as it is critical for any movement that you make! It was the Molecule of the Month June of 2001. What do you guys think??

Hello! Currently I’m looking at antifreeze proteins, also known as ice structuring proteins, which permit the survival of certain organisms, namely fish, plants, insects, and microorganisms, in subzero environments. I’m very interested in extremophiles and their abilities to survive in environments once thought to be uninhabitable, so I’ll be looking more into the AFPs at work in the microorganisms living in sea ice. These proteins bind to small ice crystals to inhibit growth and crystallization, so I think I may be able to work with that from an artistic standpoint.

I choose RecA. In MB 310, I learned about RecA and its role in DNA repair. It’s also listed as the molecule of the month (April 2014) on RCSB PDB.

Hello!

I have a few ideas in mind…but I’m not certain which protein I should choose.

There are two proteins that are actually in David Goodsell’s “Molecule of the Month”!

One is prolactin (April 2004), a growth hormone present in children and adults. In female adults, the hormone is secreted to stimulate the mammary glands for milk production. Interestingly, this hormone is also secreted in males. Now, why would it be required for men? I’m not sure there are any studies that actually point out the function of this hormone in males, but it has been suggested to play a role in sexual latency.

The other is luciferase (June 2006)! I think many of you know of the anglerfish, a fish that has a little light in front of their head to lure prey, like Marlin and Dory from “Finding Nemo”. Interestingly, the light is actually produced from marine bacteria, such as Vibrio harveyi. Now, to produce luciferase, the bacteria use a strategy called quorum sensing. This is a way for the bacteria to communicate, so once they reach a certain cell density, they’ll all work together to glow by producing this protein.

Lastly, the protein that I may want to explore is Cannabinoid Receptor-1, a receptor present in the central nervous system to inhibit the release of an inhibitory neurotransmitter. I first read about this receptor in my physiology class, and I’ll use the example my professor provided to explain it. Let’s say you’re craving tacos. Your brain will release an excitatory neurotransmitter to another neuron. However, your body will also release an inhibitory neurotransmitter to the same neuron, thus inhibiting the excitatory signal (your body says, no tacos!). When you’re exposed to a molecule such as THC, THC will bind to the Cannabinoid Receptor-1 and prevent the release of the inhibitory neurotransmitter, thus allowing the excitatory signal to continue (eat those tacos!).

Hi All –

After some research, the protein that I seem to be gravitating towards is Ricin. I find it interesting how lethal this protein is and think it would be fun to find a creative way to depict how powerful and destructive it can be. Any thoughts or suggestions? Thanks.