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my school won nationals :O in this trial event**

does anyone have any idea how they choose the proteins each year or is it just random

GCXC wrote:does anyone have any idea how they choose the proteins each year or is it just random

I assume, given the selection of influenza hemagglutinin and neuraminidase this year, that they choose the year's proteins to be vaguely relevant to current events (in this case, swine flu). If there's a major disease outbreak, or a new protein-related scientific development, or if Thread starts falling (sorry, outdated sci-fi reference, anyone? No?), the proteins involved might be a good guess for next year's event.

Phenylethylamine wrote:

GCXC wrote:does anyone have any idea how they choose the proteins each year or is it just random

I assume, given the selection of influenza hemagglutinin and neuraminidase this year, that they choose the year's proteins to be vaguely relevant to current events (in this case, swine flu). If there's a major disease outbreak, or a new protein-related scientific development, or if Thread starts falling (sorry, outdated sci-fi reference, anyone? No?), the proteins involved might be a good guess for next year's event.

I think we can discount Thread. They have to write the rules this summer, and if there were any unusual Oort bodies close enough to perihelion to drop Thread by then, we'd already know about it.
Beta amyloid, perhaps?

Flavorflav wrote:

Phenylethylamine wrote:

GCXC wrote:does anyone have any idea how they choose the proteins each year or is it just random

I assume, given the selection of influenza hemagglutinin and neuraminidase this year, that they choose the year's proteins to be vaguely relevant to current events (in this case, swine flu). If there's a major disease outbreak, or a new protein-related scientific development, or if Thread starts falling (sorry, outdated sci-fi reference, anyone? No?), the proteins involved might be a good guess for next year's event.

I think we can discount Thread. They have to write the rules this summer, and if there were any unusual Oort bodies close enough to perihelion to drop Thread by then, we'd already know about it.
Beta amyloid, perhaps?

Thank you, I was a little worried I might be the only Anne McCaffrey reader here .

That's not a bad guess (it's a protein that forms plaques in the brain implicated in Alzheimer's, to anyone who hasn't obsessively read Science News for the past several years). It's a fairly short chain, though- only around 40 residues, if my very quick cursory research is correct. That's probably on the small side for the pre-build model, and I can't think of any obvious corollary to be the on-site model (or the pre-build, were beta amyloid to be the on-site). It's certainly relevant to recent research, though.