It’s important in our world to have a good understanding of our own organism and organisms around us.
“Identify the molecule” contest is an attempt to motivate people to learn/investigate scientific information about these organisms.
Note that I intentionally named this contest “Identify the molecule”, and not “Guess the molecule”.
It’s not just about guessing. It’s more about making conscious choice, when you infer from the information provided.
In spite of that, I still want to leave people a chance for just guessing the name of the molecule. I hope that will motivate them to learn more about molecules they suggest.
The prize here is 100 STEM.
This contest is an attempt to promote scientific knowledge among community in a fun and interesting way through/via molecules.
(Haemoglobin / Hemoglobin / Hb / Hgb.
The hemoglobin shown on the images above (cartoon representation) is the most common hemoglobin.
It's an iron-containing metalloprotein responsible for oxygen transport in red blood cells (erythrocytes).
It consists of 4 sub-units with 4 heme molecules (highlighted with marine) which carry 4 oxygen molecules (highlighted with firebrick).
The images were created by me with the help of PyMol - open source tool for molecular visualization/exploration. PDB-file was obtained from PDB)
In subsequent posts I’m going to provide illustrations of molecules found in our own (human) organisms and organisms of some other species.
Even though I’ll do my best to say “a thousand words” with images, I still will accompany them with some text.
All that should serve as clues for you to guess a riddle (molecule name in this case).
For example, I’ll try to provide information on what species / organisms / tissues have the molecule that you need to identify.
Cross Organism Search tool helps to identify in what organisms / species the molecule is present.
(The screenshot above was taken from BioCyc)
And Metabolic gEne RApid Visualizer tool helps to identify in what tissues the molecule is expressed the most.
(The screenshot above was taken from Metabolic gEne RApid Visualizer)
Well, I know about Reverse Image Search technology and services like TinEye or Google Images.
And I’ll do my best to create such images with the help of PyMol, so that those services would be of no use in the case of this contest.
(Also I hope it would be just not interesting for you to try to cheat in any way)
This contest starts on Saturday, August 31, 2019, 20:00 ± 2 minutes UTC.
-> https://time.is/UTC
UTC / Universal Time Coordinated / Coordinated Universal Time / Universal Time / Greenwich Mean Time
(if everything is OK with electricity in my region/on my street)
I’m planning to run this contest every week. So, you should expect to see the 3rd post of this series (2nd task/riddle) on Saturday, September 7, 2019, 20:00 ± 2 minutes UTC.
(if everything is OK with electricity in my region/on my street)
Rules
Leave your guess (1 guess only) in the comments section of the next post.
Don’t edit your comment.
The first user with correct answer is the winner.
That’s it (for now).
Resources you might find useful to participate in this contest
1/ National Center for Biotechnology Information
2/ PubMed
PubMed comprises more than 30 million citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books.
source
3/ Wikipedia
4/ PDB-101
PDB-101 is an online portal for teachers, students, and the general public to promote exploration in the world of proteins and nucleic acids.
source
a global resource for the advancement of research and education in biology and medicine.
source
Important
This contest is the work in progress.
This is just the beginning.
A lot can be changed in the future.
Any recommendations/suggestions are very welcome.
All images (without the license specified) are used under the doctrine known in USA as "Fair Use" (similar doctrines are used in other countries). For more information visit the US Gov website