this post was submitted on 07 Feb 2024
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2024-11-11

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Review of 2023 book: How Life Works: A User’s Guide to the New Biology Philip Ball. ISBN9781529095999

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I linked to this in another comment, but figured you'd dig it.
https://www.subanima.org/veritasium/

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Sure large proteins have multiple forms and functions, but we do know the exact makeup shape and function of a lot of the smaller ones, like the ones that are small enough to get between either strand of an opened helix to read, transcribe, and send for translation the code for the larger proteins (anything inside the nucleus). Saying all proteins are inherently not understandable because there are large proteins that we don't have full understanding of, is just as incorrect as saying we know every function of every synthesized protein.

Also I can't stand veritasium, he gives over simplified, easy to latch onto, "explanations" of questions and misses out on a lot of minutia that would actually lead to a better understanding of why these questions exist. But people on the Internet love that stuff because they get an answer and are enabled to say "well actually" next time the topic comes up even though they've barely gotten any of the details of the problem itself. Pop science at it's worst. Him and numberphile both

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

veritasium has also had some controversy around misleading half truths for click bait right?

i think it’s worth knowing the creator so you can appreciate it for what it is: not a source of truth, but a source of entertainment that if you find something fascinating you can look for other sources on… he does do entertaining videos with a science twist quite well, and uncovers some interesting topics… just not the be all and end all