the plexus — a new science-centric blog


First post. Definition of the plexus mission.

Shine a laser at a protein, and it may very well react in some way--it might change shape, or something might pop off of it. Run a gel and extract a mutated protein that has a totally different enzymatic activity than the wild type. Pull a coiled DNA segment and you just might be able to measure the microscopic forces using a very unmicroscopic microscope. Compute a molecular dynamics simulation of a protein bound to a stretch of DNA and you might learn something about translation factors.

Who are you in each of these scenarios? I think we all know the canonical answers. Physicists use lasers, don't they?

Science is arcane, and is now more hyperspecialized than ever. I see no signs of any abatement, either. It is obvious to me, however, that the most interesting discoveries are taking place at the overlaps and intersections between historically disparate disciplines. Another word for this is "plexus":

plex•us n. pl. pelxus or plex•us•es

1. A structure in the form of a network, especially of nerves, blood vessels, or lymphatics: the cardiac plexus; the pelvic plexus.
2. A combination of interlaced parts; a network.
[New Latin, from Latin, braid, from the past participle of plectere, to plait, See also plek- in Indo-European Roots.]

I hope to make the plexus a blog that takes a look at how the sciences are intermingling. Sometimes there will be questions, sometimes advice. I also intend to put my own fully unformed thoughts about papers and research topics I find interesting. We are taught scientific "discipline" very well in our education system, but it seems as though we need to teach ourselves interdiscipline.

So there you have it: the plexus, a blog for scientific interdiscipline.

Wish me luck!

Posted: Mon - November 15, 2004 at 03:46 PM         |

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