All living organisms on Earth owe a debt to these protein-based 'Legos of life'
January 27, 2018
by Ned Dymoke
Picture a tub full of Lego bricks. Now imagine that tub full of Lego is the basis of life on this planet. According to researchers and scientists at Rutgers University, it turns out that analogy isn't too far off. They've been "smashing" proteins and seeing what shapes these smashed proteins fall into, and they've discovered that many fall into four distinct shapes not dissimilar to Lego building blocks.In short, most of the life on this planet owes a debt to these so-called "Legos of life" - four types of simple proteins that latch onto each other to form increasingly more complex protein structures. Just like real-life Lego blocks.
http://bigthink.com/articles/all-living-organisms-on-earth-owe-a-debt-to-these-protein-based-legos-of-life
