Link here to SeekingAlpha -- headline says it all; nothing else needs to be said; go to link if necessary.
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A note to the granddaughters
On the way to school today, the 8-almost-9-year-old granddaughter continued her discussion from yesterday afternoon trying to think of a subject on which to write her "research paper." Yesterday it was going to be on "space" but someone else had selected that subject and now she was back to square one. I suggested perhaps a narrower subject than "space." She said that she already had narrowed it down: her first idea was to write on "the universe."
This morning she said she had finished reading her book on Pearl Harbor/WWII, and had decided that she would write her paper on "submarines." So, she's making progress on narrowing down her subject. She says she can't wait to read "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea."
Meanwhile, I'm continuing to read Richard Fortey's
Horseshoe Crabs and Velvet Worms. I noted in passing a week or so ago that it had been reviewed in both the
WSJ and the
NYT. I've been spoiled by Stephen J. Gould and Richard Dawkins (despite his baiting). Leafing through Fortey's book, somehow it didn't seem to catch my interest. Because I found it at the Yellow Umbrella Bookstore in Chatham, Cape Cod, is probably the real reason I ended up buying it. I don't care for the rambling style of the author -- he digresses as much as I do -- but when he gets to the nut of his argument in each chapter, it is absolutely delightful. I've learned to skip a lot of his ramblings.
He introduced me to Rubisco. Rubisco is the most common protein on earth; it catalyzes the primary step of photosynthesis, and, coincidentally, is the rate-limiting step of the Calvin cycle. Years ago for one summer, I participated in a research project under
Dr Larry Tieszen, Augustana College, on the efficiency of photosynthesis of Arctic plants. It was either the summer of 1970, 1971, or 1972, I forget. I could narrow it down, I suppose if I gave it a bit of thought or looked at my journals, but....
It appears researchers were close to identifying Rubisco in the late 1970's and it looks like the paper giving credit to its discoverers was published in 1985. It's hard to believe I was so fortunate (?) to have been part of that global research. At the time, for me, it was mostly drudgery. I had no idea where I fit in the bigger process.
From wiki:
Some enzymes can carry out thousands of chemical reactions each second.
However, RuBisCO is slow, being able to fix only 3-10 carbon dioxide
molecules each second per molecule of enzyme. The reaction catalyzed by RuBisCO is, thus, the primary rate-limiting factor of the Calvin cycle during the day.
Efforts to increase the efficiency of this cycle could be instrumental in fixing atmospheric CO2. Funny how paths cross in life. God has a sense of humor.
