4 ms·

.. the photo in the article is worth a million dollars ...

by dsign 7y ago

bryanrasmussen 7y ago
a reporter once asked me to write a bunch of programming buzzwords on a whiteboard for part of a transmission, you sure this isn't the bioversion of that?
- ksk 7y ago
  Its a screen displaying a protein. One approach to the vaccine is by looking at it as a protein folding problem. They're trying to find a protein that can bind to the 'spike' of the corona-virus and prevent it from attaching to our cells.
  - l33tman 7y ago
    To be pedantic, that would not be a vaccine, that would be an anti-viral drug. What they were doing here is expressing parts of the actual corona virus antigens on a "baseplate" that could contain many copies of it, in the hope that the human immune system would catch up on it if presented to the body and the resulting antibodies would possibly be effective against the coronavirus. Regarding antiviral drugs for this, the corona-virus entry mechanism was elucidated and candidate inhibitors for this were located in previous articles during the last week ( https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(20)30229-4 https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(20)30229-4 )
    - ksk 7y ago
      Yeah, I should have known better than to say that given that I work in the vaccine field, but not as a scientist. I guess I deserved that :P
- wyldfire 7y ago
  There are two photos in the article. `dsign` refers to the one with President Trump, not the laptop displaying the protein. Caption is "President Trump is shown a vaccine model during a tour of the National Institutes of Health’s Vaccine Research Center in Bethesda, Md., on March 3. BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES"
  - bryanrasmussen 7y ago
    fair enough, but why would that be worth a million? Even using the phrase in a jocular fashion - it's not that interesting of a photo. Being pedantic if I look at his photos on Getty Images and choose something about the same quality (I didn't find the exact image) and selecting for both web and print newspaper editorial front page I'm thinking about $4000 Is it actually a million on Getty Images? Or is it worth a million as in the common vernacular usage because it is amusing or has some worthwhile quality I cannot discern?
    - wyldfire 7y ago
      > amusing or has some worthwhile quality I cannot discern The President's concerned/confused/concentrating look is definitely amusing, especially given his previous skepticism/criticism of vaccines. But among the punchlines his presidency has given us, this photo is merely a chortle.
      - bryanrasmussen 7y ago
        I feel the same, hence my confusion and deciding it can't be that photo that¨s worth the money. must be the other one.
- TeMPOraL 7y ago
  It seems so. It's fold.it. It's a bit more relevant than the movie equivalent of webpage sources on the screen, but a vaccine it isn't.
rsynnott 7y ago
It's certainly very caption-able. From the expression on her face, I get the impression he's just asked if it's 1:1 scale, or something.
gilleain 7y ago
On the laptop is a screenshot from fold.it ... of a sheet wrapped round a helix. Not sure what structure it is.
TeMPOraL 7y ago
Isn't that thing on the screen just fold.it? EDIT: pretty sure it is. https://fold.it/portal/files/newcompetition.png https://fold.it/portal/files/newcompetition.png

.. the photo in the article is worth a million dollars ...

by dsign 7y ago

.. the photo in the article is worth a million dollars ...

a reporter once asked me to write a bunch of programming buzzwords on a whiteboard for part of a transmission, you sure this isn't the bioversion of that?

ksk 7y ago
Its a screen displaying a protein. One approach to the vaccine is by looking at it as a protein folding problem. They're trying to find a protein that can bind to the 'spike' of the corona-virus and prevent it from attaching to our cells.
- l33tman 7y ago
  To be pedantic, that would not be a vaccine, that would be an anti-viral drug. What they were doing here is expressing parts of the actual corona virus antigens on a "baseplate" that could contain many copies of it, in the hope that the human immune system would catch up on it if presented to the body and the resulting antibodies would possibly be effective against the coronavirus. Regarding antiviral drugs for this, the corona-virus entry mechanism was elucidated and candidate inhibitors for this were located in previous articles during the last week ( https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(20)30229-4 https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(20)30229-4 )
  - ksk 7y ago
    Yeah, I should have known better than to say that given that I work in the vaccine field, but not as a scientist. I guess I deserved that :P
wyldfire 7y ago
There are two photos in the article. `dsign` refers to the one with President Trump, not the laptop displaying the protein. Caption is "President Trump is shown a vaccine model during a tour of the National Institutes of Health’s Vaccine Research Center in Bethesda, Md., on March 3. BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES"
- bryanrasmussen 7y ago
  fair enough, but why would that be worth a million? Even using the phrase in a jocular fashion - it's not that interesting of a photo. Being pedantic if I look at his photos on Getty Images and choose something about the same quality (I didn't find the exact image) and selecting for both web and print newspaper editorial front page I'm thinking about $4000 Is it actually a million on Getty Images? Or is it worth a million as in the common vernacular usage because it is amusing or has some worthwhile quality I cannot discern?
  - wyldfire 7y ago
    > amusing or has some worthwhile quality I cannot discern The President's concerned/confused/concentrating look is definitely amusing, especially given his previous skepticism/criticism of vaccines. But among the punchlines his presidency has given us, this photo is merely a chortle.
    - bryanrasmussen 7y ago
      I feel the same, hence my confusion and deciding it can't be that photo that¨s worth the money. must be the other one.
TeMPOraL 7y ago
It seems so. It's fold.it. It's a bit more relevant than the movie equivalent of webpage sources on the screen, but a vaccine it isn't.

rsynnott 7y ago

It's certainly very caption-able. From the expression on her face, I get the impression he's just asked if it's 1:1 scale, or something.

gilleain 7y ago

On the laptop is a screenshot from fold.it ... of a sheet wrapped round a helix. Not sure what structure it is.

TeMPOraL 7y ago

Isn't that thing on the screen just fold.it? EDIT: pretty sure it is. https://fold.it/portal/files/newcompetition.png https://fold.it/portal/files/newcompetition.png