Holiday songs for the biologist

Interactive visualization tools for the structural biologist

In structural biology, management of a large number of Protein Data Bank (PDB) files and raw X-ray diffraction images often presents a major organizational problem. Existing software packages that manipulate these file types were not designed for these kinds of file-management tasks. This is typically encountered when browsing through a folder of hundreds of X-ray images, with the aim of rapidl...

More hydrogen bonds for the (structural) biologist.

Why does a given protein structure form and why is this structure stable? These fundamental biochemical questions remain fascinating and challenging problems because the physical bases of the forces that govern protein structure, stability and folding are still not well understood. Now, a general concept of hydrogen bonding in proteins is emerging. This concept involves not only N-H and O-H don...

Freud: biologist of the mind

Another example of the inadequate, indeed mistaken, discussion of a partly medical question ofpractical importance is that ofwitchcraft. The beliefthat most witches were women who suffered from melancholic delusions is central to Johann Wier's extremely influential De praestigiis daemonum, and Jean Bodin's refutation of it hinges on the denial that women are prone to melancholy. All this is omi...

The Journey of a Biologist

Challenges for the 'chemical-systems' biologist.

As the field of chemical biology matures, its practitioners are tackling ever more sophisticated biological problems. Chemical approaches, both synthetic and analytical, provide researchers with powerful new technologies to perturb, dissect and even reconstruct complex biological systems. Here we discuss the special challenges and opportunities confronted at the burgeoning interface of chemical...