Looking at the 3D models with Ramachandran angles set really challenged my knowledge of protein secondary structure. I mean, I knew that proteins existed in 3 dimensions and they filled space and they had to be pretty tough in order to perform all the functions they do but I did not really understand just how complex and well developed they were. All I saw today was a short alpha helix in isolation yet I was in awe of the sturdiness it seemed to possess. To think that a single protein contains not one but many more such structures further strengthened by other interactions simply astounds me- and that they take on so many different forms! I may never again look at hair, or skin, or nails the same.
Just thinking… if tiny tiny atoms can achieve such grandeur by coming together and ‘giving their best’ by bonding and other non bonding interactions, just what can people achieve if they too come together and give their all?
What still astounds me is how nature could have orchestrated all this organization organically- not in only one cell, or a billion cells, but the unthinkable number of creatures that come and go …..and it’s been doing this for (quite literally) ages….eons!
How clumsy we are as humans! I can’t even properly fold a beta sheet!