• Question: What's the most interesting thing you've learnt about the machines in our bodies?

    Asked by x.kayleighanne to Sam on 10 Jun 2019.
    • Photo: Sam Gaughan

      Sam Gaughan answered on 10 Jun 2019:


      I think one of the most fascinating things about enzymes is how many things they can potentially do, and how simple they seem on the surface. They are just made up of strings of molecules called amino acids, and there are 20 different types that you usually see. If you know what you are doing, you can change what the enzyme does just by changing one of the amino acids to a different one. When you get really long chains (one enzyme is often 300+ amino acids in a row) there are a huge number of possibilities.

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