Proteins - more than just the Atkins diet...

So what do you know about proteins? Women-folk tell me that what proteins are is what you eat when you're on the Atkins Diet. They make you smell of wee.

To other people, proteins are folded three-dimensional chains of amino acids that are the basis of molecular biology and the whole point of DNA (which is basically a jumble of code for how to make proteins).

I'm at present spending my working time separating the chloroplast proteome (the catalogue of proteins in the plant chloroplast) according to the size and charge of individual proteins. The whole point of this is to identify different versions of pFNR (a key enzyme that controls the separation of photosynthesis energy into three different products - ATP, NADPH and ferredoxin, which then go on to do all the metabolism the plant needs).

Do you want to see a picture of a two-dimensional gel? Look here.
Do you want to see five different pFNR protein spots detected by an antibody? Look here.

Apart from that? Well, it's cold... United beat Sheffield Utd 2-1... we're going to Glasgow on Tuesay... I have a dodgy wire somewhere on the ignition circuit of my Midget... and I'm going to bed.

An excellent felt tip drawing of a hedgehog

United go from bad to worse and then to brilliant... and, for some reason, back to bad again.

Crewe was a nightmare - but was followed by possibly our best performance in half a decade at Bolton three days later (Rooney hat trick, 4-0). Then we lost 1-0 in Copenhagen (which has the most expensive beer in Europe unless you're in a bar called the Happy Pig). Pompey was alright (3-0 at Old Trafford) and then we got sunk at Southend in something of a (deserved) upset.

More importantly, I'm full of a cold and in a bad mood. Though I have done a little update to my website with a page for Joe Baranski (age 6) and his excellent felt tip drawing of a hedgehog.

And more bad news - my car won't start and my sunflower plant is dying.