The Royal Institution - 2017-08-30
Sorry about the audio problems for the first 30 seconds or so - stick with it, it levels out soon. Proteins are arguably the most important biological components in any living creature but only now are we beginning to look into the role water plays in their folding. Subscribe for regular science videos: http://bit.ly/RiSubscRibe From its effect on protein folding to its work as a universal solvent, the unique properties of water make it an indispensable ingredient for life. In this Discourse, Sylvia McLain will explore the fundamental and mysterious role of water in life. Sylvia McLain is a Research Lecturer in the University of Oxford's Department of Biochemistry. She investigates the role of water in protein folding and life. This Discourse was filmed in the Ri on Friday 25 February 2017. The Ri is on Twitter: http://twitter.com/ri_science and Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/royalinstitution and Tumblr: http://ri-science.tumblr.com/ Our editorial policy: http://www.rigb.org/home/editorial-policy Subscribe for the latest science videos: http://bit.ly/RiNewsletter
Best presentation on proteins I've ever seen. Professor Sylvia is a genius and I hope that hydryophobic theory proves true, and she wins a Nobel prize.
I am a Damien Hirst enthusiast from Tennessee on Cocaine and I approve this message.
Another brilliant presentation, but I have an major pet peeve with how RI captures/records them (and I'm not talking about the minor audio glitch at the start of this particular video). It is VERY frustrating when you cut to a slide upon which a lecturer is pointing something out, but with no clue of where it is they are shining their laser. It surely cannot be that hard to find a way to indicate on the slide what they are highlighting... maybe by even just capturing what is being projected up on the large screen rather than cutting to a view of the slide... you are already employing multiple camera angles, how about just adding another one (or changing an existing one)?
8:15
The pedant in me has to point out that there is a 21st amino acid in eukaryotes, selenocysteine. It is cysteine with the sulfur substituted for a selenium atom. It is not part of the standard genetic code, but is implemented by a modification of the tRNA corresponding to the UGA codon, which normally codes for STOP. It doesn't really matter for this talk, but it's still cool, because this type of modification is a biological example of an implementation of the extended genetic code now starting to be used in recombinant proteins for treating diabetes and other diseases.
I will second that comment.
Selenocysteine (Sec) and pyrrolysine (Pyl) are rare amino acids that are cotranslationally inserted into proteins and known as the 21st and 22nd amino acids in the genetic code. Sec and Pyl are encoded by UGA and UAG codons, respectively, which normally serve as stop signals.
What a character! I love this woman.
Amazing lecture! DNA, proteins, biology, particle accelerators- all in one
Extraordinarily interesting lecture leaving me with a new understanding of the requirement for H2O in our search for extraterrestrial life.
I could only get through one minute before pausing and doing a search on Dr. McClain's nation of birth. Her accent is such an amalgamation and hard to pin down. Ah, she is from Appalachia in the US but has been living in the UK for a long time. Now I can watch the rest of the presentation.
Appalachia ! That's way she's só cool ... unpretentious, genious.
So interesting. Thanks for sharing your knowledge!
"..., right?"
This woman is my new spirit animal.
I want to consume mass quantities of ethanol in the West End with her before I die.
That was cool.
"And this is real data"
What a lovely, smart, inspiring and sexy lady.
Would love to hear the Q and A segment of this lecture.
this is an awesome thanks for the nuclear physics lesson
That was most interesting to say the least. Thanks!
Fascinating lecture
I am interested in science and I actually learnt from this.
There are things I am now interested in researching for myself.
Something that needs to be watched a couple of times to grasp some key ideas - the mediation of the hydronium gets a little swallowed as she describes the process and I had to go back to understand its role.
This is what all science should be like - honest, warts and all but most of all credible.
The way Dr. Sylvia McLain organizes her thoughts and ideas here and then shares these with spoken communication reveals a deep intellect, which to me is reminiscent of that which was often demonstrated by Prof. Richard Feynman. I watch a lot of videos on science and physics, and this is an exemplary discussion! - j q t -
Did you just put your initials at the end of your comment on a website that is structured in such a way that it puts your name above your comments for you?
Wow!
why is nitrogen dipicted as Blue? Well why is the sky blue? The answer my friend is shown is a spectroscope of nitrogen.
Excellent
Happy water?!
✌💛💡🙏
This is great
Shadows of Horses
Thanks. Next time please give as much attention to your microphone prep as your synchrotron prep.
That was an interesting one. It went from a fairly regular recitement of common facts to an absolute wealth of information on the combinatory and computational methods involved in this research, and did so pretty quickly.
Would you point out for me when she discusses the combinatory methods. I can't seem to find it in the video and I'm really interested in that. Thanks :)
Wonderful exposition as heard from a non scientist
FTW?
That was an "okay " talk "right" ?
In another video, (Proteins and Particle Reactors), you mentioned the applications to creating better medicines that would be more efficient when used [given certain circumstances]. How might this work? I am doing a Google Science Fair project on the topic of creating better medicines and thought this was an interesting point.
I wish she had slipped the charts and just kept talking. Very fascinating subject.
Now bodybuilders will start injecting DNA because they think it will make more protein do more stuff :V
Bio hackers are litterly trying to do that, check it out
While it seemed Dionysus was influencing this presentation the most astonishing thought was.....Discovering the Periodic table of bio-chemistry...AMAZING!
Sylvia must have the most 'global' English accent i have ever heard :-) Fascinating ! So, if i have this right.. dna connects the bits (amino acids et.)in the right order to produce a protein and then water folds the protein into the shape necessary for it to function.
Archis
Morse Code is translated into letters, which can be, but is not limited to English as you implied.
Her accent sounds half-Southern, half-British, and I have to assume that is exactly what it is. She even uses "y'all," despite pronouncing singular "you" like a Brit.
Bill Todd almost. Dna tells other things how to assemble the amimo acids into proteins. It reads the code but doesn’t actually do the work
Its actually #SelenaGomez uNDERcOVER
@Uncle Elias she absolutely does not sound like shes from Tennessee. I'd guess UK especially since she mentioned it. Lmfao
I feel another Perpetual motion machine comming on!
The folding process only requires certain atoms to be positioned locally to move themselves without an external power source.
Of course you still need energy, all life needs energy!
The protein folds and becomes like a string, but it also has intense surface tension so the amount of energy you would get out of it by unfolding would be the same amount used to pull it into another medium to unfold it anyway. So you would just be breaking even.
you can't make energy from nothing. Even motor proteins are consuming ATP which is just blood sugar
Very good video, thank you. For the entropy aspect: we can surely say that a protein folding decreases its entropy due to becoming more ordered and compact. However, for a protein in aqueous solution, I understood that folding is actually increasing the entropy of the surrounding water (compared to unfolded protein) due to the smaller surface of the protein where hydrophobic interactions with water (= ordered cages of water molecules) can occur. Is that correct?
That wide-angle lens needs to be cleaned so badly
Very enjoyable. Great to hear and see another real scientist, not con artist. Sylvia McLain, well done, you are familiar with your subject. and refreshingly honest. thank you.
RI, get somebody to clean those lenses. it is high definition now, not smoked filled hall. MG1
Ted talks rarely have real old fashioned scientists.
23:23 are we all really just gonna pretend we didn't see that.
i am pretty sure some gym goers will watch this because they saw "protein" in title
Got me
I love the quality of the trolls on this page. This is some slightly more intelligent trolling than most of youtube.
Me 2.
@David Schnell Me2
One of my favorite channels <3
Science (Scientism) is a religon!
So I guess there actually is a religion that's true than.
Water have 75 properties. Humans are 70 % water. Cells have water for its functions. But I thought this is not the water we know as H2O. I am somewhat confused.
Water has been detected multiple time on other exoplanets, as weel as even in our solar system both planets and moons.. Water is everywhere..
One would think that it's actually the water doing all those intricate protein folds at such dizzying & blinding speeds...
Giancarlo Cardillo - 2017-08-30
It was a minor point of a brilliant talk, but that "actin" in the video was actually a kinesin, responsible for carrying vesicles along the microtubules, and not contracting muscles.
Christmas - 2017-09-27
💁ℹ you are indeed correct, the animation early on is demonstrating Kinesin ratcheting along an intracellular microtubule (and not an animation of Actin) but we won't begrudge her this discrepancy because she didn't explicitly claim that was actin per se, and for the purposes of demonstrating her point with regard to structure, function, and mechanism, the kinesin/microtubule and myosin/actin models are sufficiently analogous (basically just different size-scale versions of each other)
Michael Cox - 2019-08-10
I was just getting ready to point that out. I'll bet our pipe cleaners are folded alike too.
Shade - 2019-11-06
I scrolled down to comment on this. Thanks for doing it for me.