Difference between revisions of "20.109(F08): Mod 3 Day 1 Growth of phage materials"
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(New page: {{Template:20.109(F08)}} ==Introduction== Abalone shell diatoms<br> The accomplishments of the natural w...) |
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[[Image:Abalone.jpg|thumb|left|200 px| Abalone shell]] | [[Image:Abalone.jpg|thumb|left|200 px| Abalone shell]] | ||
[[Image:Diatoms.jpg|thumb|right|225 px| diatoms]]<br> | [[Image:Diatoms.jpg|thumb|right|225 px| diatoms]]<br> | ||
− | The accomplishments of the natural world can inspire us to great engineering feats. Biomineralization is one particularly impressive trick nature pulls off. Vertebrates, invertebrates and plants all have ways to precisely position inorganic substrates into crystalline order. For example, calcium carbonate will form unstructured dust in the absence of genetically-programmed organizers, but the same material can be made into the hard and luminous shells of sea creatures. Similarly, diatoms organize silicon dioxide into intricate patterns that manufacturers of electronic components | + | The accomplishments of the natural world can inspire us to great engineering feats. Biomineralization is one particularly impressive trick nature pulls off. Vertebrates, invertebrates and plants all have ways to precisely position inorganic substrates into crystalline order. For example, calcium carbonate will form unstructured dust in the absence of genetically-programmed organizers, but the same material can be made into the hard and luminous shells of sea creatures. Similarly, diatoms organize silicon dioxide into intricate patterns that manufacturers of electronic components can t begin to approach. In one more instance, bacteria align iron inside their cytoplasm to form magnetic rods on the submicron scale. These feats are accomplished without harsh chemicals, without extreme temperatures, and without noxious wastes that poison the nests of the organisms themselves. Humans have a lot to learn from nature s successes. In the upcoming weeks we ll use a virus that infects bacteria, namely the bacteriophage M13, and we'll rely on the self-assembling coat of this virus to template a crystal of iridium oxide. The interaction of iridium with a protein on the phage coat yields nanoscale-particles with useful optic properties, as we ll see (literally). |
− | + | ===About M13=== | |
+ | The bacteriophage M13 is a member of the filamentous phage family. It has a long (~900 nm), narrow (~20 nm) protein coat that encases a small (~6.4 kb) single stranded DNA genome. The genome encodes 11 proteins, five of which are exposed on the phage |