Re: Fast track to nanotechnology
- From: Bob <bbx107.XYZ@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 06 Aug 2008 11:56:46 -0500
On Mon, 04 Aug 2008 11:46:23 -0500, "Robert Kent" <rk@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
I understand scientists have modified cows to create milk that contains
human insulin. Could we go one step further and coax biology into growing
nano devices? Could a silk worm be reprogrammed to create super long
nanotubes?
Insulin is a protein. It is a normal (and major) process for an
organism to make proteins. To get it to make new ones requires, at its
simplest, putting the gene in the right place. To get cows to make
human insulin means to put the gene for human insulin into the cow, in
a way so that it is "expressed" (functions) in milk-producing cells.
Nanotubes are not proteins. So that is not something logically
accessible by ordinary biology. The trick is to see if you can define
the problem in terms of protein -- normal or novel. For example,
diatoms make their skeleton on a protein template. Researchers are
experimenting with using those proteins to pattern other materials.
bob
.
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- From: Robert Kent
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