By controlling the localization of frac-ture at the nanoscopic and microscopic scale, S. purpuratus con-trols the macroscopic morphology of the tooth tip, resulting in the maintenance of a robust and sharp tip.
Kind of like sharpening a knife but more intricate.
Figure 4B shows that the shedding of the plates and the polycrystalline matrix between them at the convex side of the tooth does not start at the tip, as would be expected if their breaking-off was the result of compressive force at the grinding tip caused by radial motion. Rather, the fracture starts from behind the tip.
This is kind of weird, but interesting. Simply because I also thought it would be from the tip or the side, not from behind.
echinoderm
(From Dictionary.com) Def: a marine invertebrate of the phylum Echinodermata, such as a starfish, sea urchin, or sea cucumber.
But how exactly does the sea urchin tooth maintain its sharp tip, given the relatively hard and harsh environment in which it exists?
In addition to the slow growth of their tooth, this question is particularly significant because if their tooth does grow 150 micro meters, then if you add that up to 1 years, it is only about 2 inches or .05 meters every year. In other words something else has to be maintaining the sharpness and sturdiness of the tooth other than the consistent growth of ~2 in per year.
in the construction of a cut-based free energy profile (64, 65), inwhich clusters are partitioned into two disjoint sets in a way that minimizes thepartition function of the barrier between the sets;
Could we utilize the replica exchange methodology in this same way considering they share aspects of sampling on potential energy surfaces of proteins?
transition path sampling to study the mech-anism of folding/unfolding transitions in Trpcage, finding that the dominantfolding pathway involves formation of secondary structure elements only aftertertiary contacts are anchored.
Why is it more energy cost efficient to form secondary structure elements only after tertiary contacts are anchored, and not secondary structures initially?
Replica exchange simulations
What are the necessary steps in achieving this methodology with regards to protein folding prediction and a reduction of time in overcoming large energy barriers, or even collecting free energy difference data?