In article <v01510100af22728f9e38@[192.73.4.125]>, "Paul M. Schlosser"
<schlosser at ciit.org> writes
HS wrote...
>>Anyway one of the crazy ideas that one of these
>>biochemists had was that there couldn't be any product inhibition in
>>metabolism (the killer of rate-limiting steps) because as soon as a
>>product is produced by a step it is 'swept' away by the next enzyme
>>before it has time to inhibit.
>He wrote...
>Which goes to show that "the basic 'knowledge' biochemists have collected
>over the years" is not always trustworthy.
>I wasn't too clear, that wasn't the sort of 'basic knowledge' I was
thinking about. By basic knowledge I mean't experimentally derived
knowledge, the 'knowledge' he was expressing was a feeble attempt at
some sort of deduction from what he knew about pathways, i.e. it was an
attempt at theory which went wrong.
Here is some basic knowledge: enzymes A, B C have be found to exist,
they appear to form a pathway A -> B -> C, they seem to have kinetics,
f(A), f(B), f(C). Until the advent of BST and MCA there was no way to
formally analyse such a system, the only approach was numerical
simulation, which has its limitations. The guy on the train had
presumably deduced the 'swept away theory' using qualitative principles.
Hopefully if he'd used a more logical approach he wouldn't have had made
the mistake.
I still use numerical simualation but I've given up on the idea of
simulating the cell or even part sof a cell. Instead I find it useful
for simulating hypothetical situtations to help with the formal
analysis. In terms of understanding what's going on, its the formal
analysis that wins every time.
>>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>ON PROBLEM SOLVING
>When the only tool you own is a hammer, every problem begins to resemble
>a nail.-- Abraham Maslow
Herbert
--
Herbert M Sauro
email: HSauro at fssc.demon.co.uk
Telephone: 01974 282428
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"He who cannot draw on 3000 years is living from hand to mouth" Goethe
"Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, or what's a heaven for?"
R Browning.
