Ribosomes

I don't usually seem to manage to get to the Tuesday lunchtime seminars organised by the Biochemistry department, but I made an exception today for Venki Ramakrishnan's talk on 'Structures of Functional States of the Ribosome', not least because that's exactly the topic I've been revising for the past three days. Venki's lab produces some really amazing videos which I personally find not only scientifically interesting but also quite beautiful.

The fact that cellular processes can be so elegant and yet so reminiscent of mechanical production lines can't help but be good news for nanotechnology too. I begin to understand why some people find it necessary to dream up 'intelligent designers' to explain away the otherwise quite awe-inspiring complexity of life.