Just when you thought you knew everything about cell organelles it turns out scientists are still studying them and winning Nobel Prizes to boot! Check out the article: Nobel Prize for Ribosomes
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7 comments:
The task of mapping out organelles with hundreds of thousands of atoms seems incredibly daunting. It is really amazing that scientists are just able to do that. It is also very interesting to know that ribosomes are controlled or powered by RNA, not proteins. This makes sense, though, because how could ribosomes have come into existence if they both produce and dependent on ribosomes. (who came first - the chicken or the egg?).
I think that it is really interesting that scientists can use x-ray crystallography to reconstruct the atoms in a Ribosome to understand how they function. This research also shows that not only can science be interesting, but incredibly helpful - understanding how the Ribosome works is now being used to develop new, more powerful antibiotics. And scientists have also found the answer to the long searched question of the origin of Ribosomes - RNA.
I thought it was interesting that the scientists came to, more or less, the same comclusion even though they were all working separately.
It is neat that the xrays they looked at could be sent to computers and analyzed in the computers. I also found it interesting that they found how to interpret the dots to mean something.
With this newly discovered information Dr. Steitz is applying research to develpe and commercialize drugs fot the treatment of multi-antibiotic resistant infections in New Haven Connecticut. And Dr. Berg the active core of the ribosome is made of RNA and the proteins are added later, meaning the ribosome is "an RNA-based machine that evolved the ability to make proteins.
I think it is really amazing the studies that modern scientists are doing. It's really cool that these discoveries, although they seem small, will have such a great impact on our everyday lives, such as with the production of new antibiotics.
Its really cool that scientists were working individually yet they had the same idea and were conducting the same sort of experiments (x-rays.) Also this experiment yielded medical implications in developing new antibiotics. I was also very impressed by the years of labor and number of attempts (25,000) before the first ribosome crystals were created.
That was a pretty interesting article. I think it's amazing how scientists continue to find deeper information about how they believe different things such as organelles evolved. It's interesting that they have found out that proteins evolved later inside of the ribosomes. It's also a lot of money those scientists get for making huge discoveries or developing new and helpful info!
I'm sure a lot of doctors now are very appreciative of the team's efforts--25,000 times to just create the ribosome crystals and another 20 years plus of work! Their dedication has really paid off though, and in the most rewarding way.
The fact that ribosomes are mainly constructed from RNA and then evolved to select those that could produce protein work to support the theory of natural selection. Cool :)
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