Protocell

9 responses to “Protocell”

1. 

   paladinsf

   Jul 21, 2010 at 8:28 pm

   The color and detail are phenom. Beautiful all the best bob have a HAPPY WEEK

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2. 

   Astrocatou

   Jul 21, 2010 at 9:40 pm

   me too

   Good looking, passionate looking…and presumably smart…
   = hot

   More importantly….shoot lots of film of those rockets !!
   (well ,pixels)

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3. 

   PhOtOnQuAnTiQuE

   Jul 22, 2010 at 10:51 pm

   Bring back photos and, BUT, +, Samples !!!! =)

   Was at ICHEP 2010 in Paris today, where most of the talks were about Higgs Boson, but had a great talk with few astro-physicsts about biology and Life. Told them about it, and showed them the links. They loved it, and will be following the results. So will I =)

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4. 

   eastpole

   Jul 23, 2010 at 6:10 pm

   Tag says Karen, but she is in fact Dr. Rachel Armstrong. Interesting TED talk! Thanks!

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5. 

   jurvetson

   Jul 25, 2010 at 3:28 am

   fixed… not sure how my tag got out of sync with my caption.

   Anyway, I’ve been to the desert on a horse with no name… Life is very surreal right now.

   Dave: Shot 1110 photos and also had 4 videocams, two of which are now demolished.

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6. 

   Astrocatou

   Jul 25, 2010 at 3:30 am

   looking forward to it…!!
   I am surprised you do not demolish more stuff…

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7. 

   jurvetson

   Mar 9, 2011 at 9:33 pm

   had lunch with her at TED this year. Here is one of her recent protocell videos… made of just oil, salt and water.

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8. 

   Astrocatou

   Mar 9, 2011 at 10:15 pm

   Well..I looked at the video…and then this one,of her speaking on another topic;
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmraO4GsZxM&feature=related

   So while I confess I only saw the first few minutes,well….its not ….
   Well,anyways….its interesting

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9. 

   jurvetson

   Mar 10, 2011 at 3:48 am

   Ummm… yeah… I see what you mean.

   As fate would have it, I cuddled up with the latest New Scientist this evening, and read something that sounds very related… perhaps explaining the mechanism…

   

   "Simple oil drops show that if you get the conditions right, basic life may emerge almost fully formed.

   Each droplet is powered by a simple chemical process. Oleic anhydride at the surface reacts with the surrounding water to create oleic acid, a surfactant that lowers the droplet’s surface tension. By chance, the reaction is fastest at one point on the droplet’s surface. As a result, this reactive hotspot draws oleic anhydride from within the droplet, setting up internal convection currents.

   Meanwhile, the oleic acid skims across the droplet’s surface to gather on the opposite side, setting up a pH gradient. This, along with the internal convection currents, is enough to force the droplet forwards through the aqueous solution.

   Hanczyc compares the reactions happening in the hotspot to a metabolism, where fuel is broken down to produce the energy that drives the droplet forward.

   Others have shown that similar reactions within oil droplets can help them do more than just move. They can travel along chemical gradients, a trick called chemotaxis which many bacteria use to find food and avoid threats. By doing so, one oil droplet has even managed to "solve" a complex maze.

   Hanczyc’s recent studies show that in addition to moving, his droplets "can sense and respond to the local environment", he says. When two droplets approach one another they change course to avoid colliding, or they circle each other like partners in a Viennese waltz.

   More impressively still, it seems they even have a form of memory. Hanczyc videoed droplets stopping and starting, and measured the times between successive halts. He found that the decision to stop or go did not fit a random distribution. Instead, the droplets’ behaviour at any one point was affected by the behaviour they had displayed previously. Like maze-solving, such crude memories have been observed in primitive life – amoebas, for example, are more likely to turn left if their previous turn was to the right."

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