Prof. Bog Stec
Burnham Institute for Medical Research, CA
Monday, February 23, 2009
4:00 p.m.
Cardwell 102
And God Said: Let It Be Life
Every person having even casual encounters with a protein (or any other biological macromolecule) must have wondered at certain point in time, what makes it special, what makes it "living". From a physical standpoint, proteins are chemical molecules that we consider as nonliving (unanimated) matter, subject to study by physical and chemical methods. We will try to shed light on this fascinated but difficult to answer problem. The answers to these questions would project on what we consider life and how it emerged.