so small and yet so big
06/28/07 09:03 PM Filed in: Science
as a biochemist, i often think about the structure of the proteins i work with, thus i have been thinking a lot about KcsA. KcsA is a potassium ion channel and i am currently doing experiments to figure out how it physically moves potassium through the membrane.
KcsA is an extremely well studied protein and this is kind of a learn what electro physiology is all about project for me, to teach me the ways of single channel recording and such. even still i have been thinking about how it works...
the one aspect of a channel that really blows my mind is how small it is and how small the ions are that pass through it. potassium ions are what, 2.2ish angstroms. that is extremely small. it is 220 picometers, 220X10^-12, or 0.00000000022 meters. in other words...they are small.
but the problem i and some people have is what is a picometer? how small is 10^-12 and now big is 10^12? i found these videos one serious one that looks at sizes of things via distance, and one which is a simpson's spoof of the first...maybe it will shed some light on relative sizes, distances, and masses for you as it did me.
KcsA is an extremely well studied protein and this is kind of a learn what electro physiology is all about project for me, to teach me the ways of single channel recording and such. even still i have been thinking about how it works...
the one aspect of a channel that really blows my mind is how small it is and how small the ions are that pass through it. potassium ions are what, 2.2ish angstroms. that is extremely small. it is 220 picometers, 220X10^-12, or 0.00000000022 meters. in other words...they are small.
but the problem i and some people have is what is a picometer? how small is 10^-12 and now big is 10^12? i found these videos one serious one that looks at sizes of things via distance, and one which is a simpson's spoof of the first...maybe it will shed some light on relative sizes, distances, and masses for you as it did me.