Surface Lexography

For instance, early molecular models were literally "built" with metal wires to represent bonds, or with plastic spheres for atoms. The age of the computer has brought perhaps less time consuming methods of building such models, as well as expanding our list of representions. These now include such constructs as backbone "worms" and molecular surfaces which, in addition to an increase in physical dimensionality over atoms and bonds, allows for new appreciation of the complexity of protein structure and structures relationship to function.