561)Molecule With Legs Walks Into Cell On Walking Track,Seizes'nDrags Perp Virus Out For Immune System to Neutralize; Conservative Law'nOrder Ideology

"Nature is the great daily book of God whose secrets must be found and used for the well-being of humanity"(Aga Khan III, Radio Pakistan, Karachi, Pakistan, February 19th 1950)

http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/09/400blogpost-four-hundred-knowledge.html


Orestes Brownson's noble hope: "that we have reached the term of our downward tendency; that radicalism has had its day; that a reaction has commenced, and that the mass of our people will recover from their folly, and henceforth not fear to be conservative."

http://www.newenglishreview.org/custpage.cfm?frm=4846&sec_id=4846




"Man-made walkers might be used someday in micromachines to walk up and down walls carrying fans to channel fluid in a desired direction. Or, tiny walkers could bind to viruses and carry them off."(Excerpt from article below)


Tiny molecules walk the track

Artificial walkers may one day haul microcargo

By Laura Sanders

Web edition : Friday, February 12th, 2010

See Picture:
EnlargeWalk this way A newly designed molecular “walker” has one thiol foot (blue) and one hydrazide foot (red). As acidity in it is environment changes, the walker's feet can move from one foothold to the next. S. Otto/Nature Chemistry 2010

In one very small step for mankind, researchers have designed a tiny molecule that can walk on a track. Such artificial walkers may one day carry cargo purposefully, much like natural proteins in the body.

The new walking system, reported in the February Nature Chemistry, is “a pretty big leap forward,” comments chemist Charles Sykes of Tufts University in Medford, Mass.

In the body, motor proteins walk in one direction along molecular tracks inside cells, hauling their load as they go. These biomotors transport big loads, such as organelles, lipids and vesicles, to the desired destinations in the cell.

“Nature is full of tiny molecular motors,” Sykes says. “Mankind hasn’t been able to build anything comparable,” in part, because it’s very hard to scale down to the microscopic level, where ordinary forces such as gravity are negligible, he says.

In the new study, researchers led by David Leigh of the University of Edinburgh designed a two-legged walker made up of 21 atoms and a track made up of “stepping stone” molecules designed to react chemically with the walker’s two “feet.” There are two types of stepping stones for each of the walking molecule’s two feet. Those feet are chemically different — one consists of a chemical latch called a hydrazide and the other is a latch called a thiol. This design allows each foot to grab on to every other stepping stone.

A wash of an acidic solution loosens one foot from its hold on the track and allows it to bind to the next open step. A wash of a basic solution loosens the other foot. As the chemical environment changes, the walker’s legs scissor as they move, a motion the researchers called the “passing leg gait.” This design, in which the walker always has one foot firmly bound to the track, helps to keep the walker on the track.

On average, the walkers took 37 steps back and forth on the four-step track before falling off, which corresponds to a traveled distance of 26 nanometers, the researchers found. In contrast, an important motor protein in the body, kinesin, takes between 75 and 175 steps along its track without falling off, the researchers note.

In the new system, some walkers reached the end of the track, but not all did. In the original design, each loose foot could bind to a step ahead or to the step it just left, yielding no net directional movement. To counter that problem, the researchers then replaced the basic step with an irreversible reaction. This reaction, called a redox reaction, made the walker much more likely to take a step forward than backward.

Using these chemicals to build an artificial walker is “a very clever approach,” comments chemist James Tour of Rice University in Houston. “It’s just the beginning, though.” This system is still a long way from being able to carry cargo in artificial systems.

Man-made walkers might be used someday in micromachines to walk up and down walls carrying fans to channel fluid in a desired direction. Or, tiny walkers could bind to viruses and carry them off. Such ideas are many years off, but the new study suggests that they may one day work, Tour says.

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/56296/title/Tiny_molecules_walk_the_track



Easy Nash
http://apps.facebook.com/blognetworks/blog/science_and_religion_in_islam_the_link/
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/08/500blogpost-five-hundred-is-blogpost.html
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/03/453a-blog-constructed-within.html

In Shia Islam, intellect is a key component of faith. Intellect allows us to understand the creation of God: Aga Khan IV(2008)
The Qur'an itself repeatedly recommends Muslims to become better educated in order better to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
The Quran tells us that signs of Allah's Sovereignty are found in the contemplation of His Creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
This notion of the capacity of the human intellect to understand and to admire the creation of Allah will bring you happiness in your everyday lives: Aga Khan IV(2007)
Islam, eminently logical, placing the greatest emphasis on knowledge, purports to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2006)
The Holy Qu'ran's encouragement to study nature and the physical world around us gave the original impetus to scientific enquiry among Muslims: Aga Khan IV(1985)
The first and only thing created by God was the Intellect(Aql): Prophet Muhammad(circa 632CE)