Origin of icosahedral symmetry in viruses

[Mr Liver]

As many of you know HCV is icosahedral in shape. Understanding the properties of viral construction is very important and may end up one day breaking the "code" necessary in order to develop 100% cure rates. Biology, physics, math, and chemistry are all integral sciences in understanding the HCV virus, its structure,  what holds it together, and most important of all, how can it be taken apart ?  Mathematical modeling suggested an icosehedral shape before an HCV particle was ever seen, proving its value in virology.  Chemistry and physics  hold that chemical bonds at the vertices of the faces of the icosahedron are what hold the icosahedral structure together. Finding a way to break just one bond would render the virus incapable of existence. This is one of many investigations into the area of viral structure that are taking place. The means of capsid self-asembly is another area of interest. How do the proteins gather on the surface of the capsid and assemble into a perfect (most of the time) geometric order ? Are there specific instructions encoded for each protein or is it a game of musical chairs which ends only after the last protein has found a place to resideon the capsid ? Understanding how the virus is put together can lead to novel ways to take them apart. (destroy them) below are some links for anyone who might be interested in exploring this "side" of the virus.


http://buckminster.info/Ideas/07-IcosNatureVirus.htm
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=524855

I will not pretend to understand all of the equations in this article below. Despite this fact , I found that I still learned quite a bit more about the topic.
http://www.pnas.org/content/101/44/15556.full

[Mr Liver]

Bill-

All of the Dymaxion designs were really ahead of their time, weren't they ? You don't have to understand (which I don't) all of the work he has done to appreciate how prolific he was. This guy's mind must have never shut off.

pigeon-

Bucky was concerned his geodesic dome designs wouldn't become popular because of the reputation they were developing concerning their propensity to leak, a result in his mind of inexperienced builders using inappropriate materials. His domes were very popular with those in the subculture (re:hippies). Fuller once said "Leaky roofs are the results of leaky minds."

From some of the material I have read on the topic it wasn't entirely the fault of the builders as Bucky asserted , and was a real problem at first. It wasn't too long though before the builders learned how to tackle the problem of leaks through better materials and construction methods. I've been inside of some very nice ones in the mountains .

Mr Liver

[Bill1954]

LOL, I never claimed he was anchored well in life, just a visionary :o)! (Of course, with enough beer, I become visionary too).

Thanks for the article, seriously—

Bill

[pigeonca]

There was an article about Bucky in The New Yorker a few weeks ago.  Seems his geodesic domes are very leaky and don't stand up to any kind of weather.  Nonetheless, he was certainly brilliant and a visionary - and quite a character.

There's going to be a Buckminster Fuller exhibit at the Whitney Museum later in the month.

For the New Yorker article:
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/06/09/080609fa_fact_kolbert

[Bill1954]

I had the good fortune to meet Buckminster Fuller in the mid-60’s. He arrived at the grade school I was attending and spent a week with us constructing a room-sized geodesic dome using ordinary garden hose and plastic pipe fittings. For a coke-bottle eyed geeky guy, he sure was a visionary. His Dymaxion car would be considered advanced by today’s standards.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dymaxion_Car

Where are his contemporaries today, I wonder?

Bill

[Mr Liver]

Don't mind me and my ramblings on theoretical biophysics. I hardly understand it that deeply myself.
If you want to learn about HCV, literature is not such a bad background to have. It means you are a reader and I've never read so much in my life as I have since my diagnosis. But as you may have already discovered, much of it is pretty dry stuff. On the other hand some of it is absolutley fascinating. There's a catch, of course-- in order to realize how fantastic some research is, it can be necessary to have previously slogged through a mountain of dry reading.  best of luck and try to get your info from trusted sources
ML

[Mr Liver]

I believe your memory is spot on. And the moral to your story is funny and true.
I saw something recently on Bucky Fuller on cable. That guy sure had his hands in a lot of areas, like an Edison. He was an interesting guy.

I can picture some funny scenarios when I think about someone with their kid trying to make one of those things. The scenarios turn to hilarious when I add tx to the picture. Thanks for the grins.
ML

[FlGuy]

A long time back, and I thought you were involved, was a discussion about buckey balls. Although I'm not sure, the genesis of the discussion was LLoyd Wright that morphed to Frank Llovd Wright and then to Buckminster Fuller and geodesic buildings and then arriving at Buckey Balls.  To complete the circle, my son had a Physics project to construct a dodecahedron.  Not only incredibly difficult to destruct, they are almost impossible to build in the proper proportions with the correct angles.  Once constructed in socceer ball scale, the thing was quite rugged.  The real tie-in to hcv was that I helped while on tx and the stress and rage the project instigated almost killed up both.  The moral of the story: no matteer what shape you're in, there's always a tougher shape that you could be in.

[Wilful1]

Say what?  I'm still learning the acronyms for this disease lol.  I did enjoy reading your post, as the body is a fascinating structure, miraculous in fact.  As I journey through, I will be looking forward to learning all I can.  Literature was more of a calling for me, but now I'm very interested in anatomy lol.
Wilful 1
Thanks for the website.