[lbo-talk] Jargon in Science

Chuck Grimes c123grimes at att.net
Thu Mar 1 12:30:22 PST 2012


For fun this morning I sent my old biophysics buddy the following abstract:

I was wondering around, more or less in boredom and thought, gee, how are the auxin boys doing these days:

``What are the underlying regulatory mechanisms in plant phyllotaxis? Here, the authors present an interesting model to account for the role of auxin transporting proteins in pattern formation.

Based on expression studies of the putative Arabidopsis auxin influx carrier (AUX1) and efflux carrier (PIN1) they show that auxin is transported upwards into the apical meristem through the epidermis and the outer meristem layer.

Leaf primordia act as auxin sinks and generate a heterogeneous distribution of auxin by redirecting the upwards auxin flux. While this model addresses the mechanisms that can account for the maintenance of the phyllotactic pattern, the question of the de novo formation of these patterns remains to be solved.''

AUX1 and PIN! are supposed to be carrier proteins. Did we know Auxin was physically carried? I thought we just assumed some unspecified diffusion.

CG, laughing

To which he answered, ``Now You're giving me the cold sweats.''

In other words, he had completely forgotten what all those terms meant....

Stack? I had a hard time deconstructing Stack. Stack of punch cards for the reader, memory stack, instruction stack. What's confusing is the merger between the physical and the virtual. Array and buffer have the same problem. Port is another. Device?

CG



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