SCI-ART LAB

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It seems, given the swarm of heavy tRNA - 64 types carrying amino acids - around the mRNA-loaded ribosome, that it would take longer for the correct tRNA anti-codon to find the mRNA codon at the ribosome. I have seen video simulations showing that the Amino Acids zip together at the ribosome at about the same speed of zipping up a zipper, which, by just random thermal collisions, seems too fast. I need to do the math to find out just how many collisions there should be per second, given the mean path and the speed of the amino acid carrying tRNA. Even if the collisions rate is high, don't they have to hit at just the right place for the codon/anti-codon match to grab. Maybe it has something to do with the helper proteins? This is the type of question that science arts interaction brings up for me. I asked the director of a biotech college at CSEB (Cal State East Bay), and he said it is a mystery. I also asked a site called Physics Forum, and they smugly acted like thermal collisions explained it... What do you think?

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