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How the “Tumultuous Chemical Heterogeneity” of the Lipid Bilayer Membrane Was Finally Revealed in the Biophysical Journal How the “Tumultuous Chemical Heterogeneity” of the Lipid Bilayer Membrane Was Finally Revealed in the Biophysical Journal

How the “Tumultuous Chemical Heterogeneity” of the Lipid Bilayer Membrane Was Finally Revealed in the Biophysical Journal

Laura Phelan 0 3957

For Biophysics Week, members of the Publications Committee selected a few influential articles from Biophysical Journal to highlight as well as the people who wrote them. This is the fourth article in the series. 

Tags: membrane biophysicsstructuremembrane structurefluid phase bilayerslipid bilayercomplete structure
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SAHELI MITRA:

A must read.

Coronavirus Structure, Vaccine and Therapy Development
Brennan Weaver:

Pretty nice read. I wish I could have written something about Pi. It's my 2nd favorite number value. Also, I don't think Pi is as mysterious as everyone thinks it is. It's just a number with a lot of personalities. And I do believe there is a last digit.

Pi Is Encoded in the Patterns of Life
Harel Weinstein:

Just perused the article "From Dynamics to Membrane Organization- Experimental Breakthroughs Occasion a ‘‘Modeling Manifesto’’ in the August 21 issue. While the Perspective is intriguing, the sheer Chutzpah of writing a "manifesto" about a field of modeling with lists of "demands" based on experiments that in many cases are more limited in scope or reality than any physics-based model, is quite astounding. Neither artificial membrane slabs, nor "live cells" imaged under conditions in which cells have a shabby life that doesn't last long (how much of this is due to the mistreatment of the membrane proteins?) share established behaviors that must be matched or else.... No experiment, computational or using imaging, is meant to mimic reality, only to probe it based on models and assumptions that can be falsified.

As to the role of the cytoskeleton, what does this tell us about the membrane itself, or the behavior of membrane proteins as individual molecules in their interplay with the membrane? And since this unrelated scaffold differs greatly between cells, what is the "correct matching standard"? All models are wrong, some (computational, or on the stage of a microscope) are useful, but in my opinion, self-critical, humble, and rigorous scientific reasoning are preferable to a manifesto in order to foster progress.

In Search of…Protein Interaction Partners
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