The Schneid Man Himself
This is the second episode of Lex Education. It's the comedy science podcast
Laura: Foreign.
Laura: Foreign. Hello and welcome to another episode of Lex Education. It's the comedy science podcast where comedian me, Laura Lex, tries to learn science from her. Huh? Nerdy. Normal. Back, back from gallivanting, brother Ron.
Ron: Heeey. What are we doing? Do we do a podcast together? It feels like I can't remember any of this.
Laura: It's been so long, hasn't it, Ron?
Ron: Maybe our longest ever break.
Laura: Yeah, I think so. And spoiler alert. I, uh, just opened my notepad to remind myself to get ready for the quiz, and there's a big box that says homework and then some stuff listed underneath it that I have absolutely no memory of what that was about, and nor are there any notes that would suggest what I was supposed to do with all that information. What was the homework, Ron? It just says NH4. So 4. 2. Oh, CO3. 2. No, 3.
Ron: Oh, yeah, you had to learn those, I think.
Laura: What do you mean learn them? Anyway, that's coming up in a quiz in your futures, guys. Uh, don't turn off. You're excited.
Ron, how was your trip? My trip was amazing, thank you
Ron, how was your trip?
Ron: My trip was amazing, thank you. Oh, next we could do. We should, um, we should do a Geography Norway.
Laura: Oh my God, you should read the fucking spreadsheet of episodes that I have planned.
Ron: Why would I just go through and be like, oh, I wonder what we're doing sometime?
Laura: Because then you come to me and you go, just a reminder, uh, we need to do X and Y. And I think, well, instead of just yelling it at me, why don't you put it in the spreadsheet? Or better than that, go to put it in the spreadsheet. Like you co run this podcast with me and notice it's already there because I've already done it.
Ron: What are you doing that I've wasted so much of your time. It's impacted your day. By just saying that I wasn't horrible about it. I wasn't accusing you of anything. I was just saying, oh, we need to do that.
Laura: Yeah, but, uh, when will other people understand that reminding somebody else that they need to instigate and run something is not taking any of the weight of a project?
Ron: Wasn't saying that I was.
Laura: Okay, so that's, that's, there's the negative there that you do weren't helping shoulder the burden of the planning?
Ron: Yeah. But also, like, you know, it's fine.
Laura: Cool. Good talk, Ron. Um, yeah, I'm, I'm excited to hear all about your trip.
Ron: Yeah. Now in an intro.
Laura: Fucking hell. Should we just stop. Should we just stop doing this podcast? Are we done I was gonna save.
Ron: It for a Norway episode.
Laura: Oh, I see. We're enticing patrons with this passive aggressive argument.
Ron: Well, I wasn't being passive nor aggressive.
Laura: No, you were being passive flaky.
Ron: I was being passively pleasant.
Laura: You weren't being pleasant. It's not pleasant to lump work on other people. Hello. Hi. You're cleaning your hands. That sounds like a good idea. Yeah, you can come and say hi to Uncle Ron. Oh, Daddy said no, darling. Okay, go say hi to Uncle Ron. Hey. Okay.
Ron: Hey, kiddo. How's it going? Good.
Laura: Can you see Uncle Ron on the computer?
Ron: Hello. Uh, hello. Are you having a lovely time?
Laura: What did we do this morning? Tell Uncle Ron. What did we do this morning?
Ron: I don't know.
Laura: What did we go and see in the garden?
Ron: What did you go and see?
Laura: A frog. Was it a mouse?
Ron: A puppy. Oh, my goodness. A puppy. What are you gonna call the puppy? Can I hold it?
Laura: Yeah. Well, we're not gonna get that puppy, are we? That puppy was just a test.
Ron: When you get a puppy, what are you gonna call it?
Laura: Can you say Miso? Um, I.
00:05:00
Laura: Okay, I think you need to go and have dinner now. Here's my suggestion of a name for the puppy. Miso.
Ron: Yes. Very middle class.
Laura: Look, we like the food theme. Yeah, the food Maki theme's fun. We went through a lot of other, like, Japanese foods to see what fit.
Ron: What about Mochi?
Laura: Mochi we liked. But we, um, we have a friend with a dog called Moshi. And, um, it's very close to Maki. Here are my two that I've.
Ron: Are there any other good. Are there any other good sushi names?
Laura: There are, but they're kind of like, hard to say. Like, Sashimi's cute, but you can't be yelling that.
Ron: Sashi. Sashi's cute.
The two names I quite like for our dog would be Sawyer and Miso
Laura: Yeah, Wasabi's cute. Um, Fugu I particularly like.
Ron: What about Gunkan?
Laura: Yeah, right, Gunkan. But that sounds like some sort of stalwart spaniel that's been by your side. You know, if you're in Monica the Glen.
Ron: Yeah. I love Gunkan. Job done.
Laura: I think you just spend your entire life with people going, duncan, Gunk.
Ron: Yeah. Are you telling me that you wouldn't get a bit of sick pleasure from that every time it happened?
Laura: Are you saying Duncan? No, Gunkun.
Ron: Gunkun? Yeah, you know, like the type of sushi. No, I've never heard of that. Well, it is one.
Laura: Oh, I just liked Gunkan as a noise. I don't think I can shout Gunkon across a Field Gunkan does sound a.
Ron: Bit like it could be a slur.
Laura: Yeah, well, see, originally we were looking at a dog that was a sausage dog crossed with a jug, and they're called sausage jugs, so I wanted to call it Fanny.
Ron: A sausage dog crossed with what?
Laura: A sausage dog crossed with a jug. A Jack Russell pug.
Ron: You can't just drop that in as if people are supposed to know what that is.
Laura: Other people know what jugs are.
Ron: Yeah, um, uh, Fanny, because sausage in jugs. What?
Laura: Yeah, because your fanny is basically a jug for sausage. The two names I quite like for our dog would be Sawyer and, uh, Miso.
Ron: Sawyer's kind of cute. It sounds kind of like a Republican American kid's name.
Laura: Yeah, but it actually.
Ron: Sawyer.
Laura: S O Y A. Yeah.
Ron: What about, uh, Uzu?
Laura: Uzu's cute.
Ron: Uzi.
Laura: Yeah, Zuzu. Yeah, Uzu's cute. Yeah, on the list. Um, anyway, um. Right.
I have no idea what this episode's about, Ron, and you haven't edited it
I have no idea what this episode's about, Ron, and you haven't edited it, so there's no notes. So we just. I've got protein levels of structure written in the. Oh, greater. Let's have a look at my notes for 220. Primary, secondary, tertiary and quaternary, multiple polypeptide chains.
Ron: Gosh, I think you did really well.
Laura: Alpha and beta sheets.
Ron: Yeah.
Laura: Okay.
Ron: Alpha, alpha, helices and beta sheets, tertiary.
Laura: R groups and all of this stuff. Crikey. Crumbles.
Ron: I think you did really well.
Laura: I doubt it, but maybe. Well, for me. Anyway, you have a listen. We'll see you afterwards. Bam.
What random film shall I take 10 hours to watch on the flight this time
What random film shall I take 10 hours to watch on the flight this time? Ron?
Ron: I think, um, based off the. The episode that we've just done, the intros, outros for, it should be Rob Schneider's the Animal.
Laura: Yeah. Okay. Be on there. Do you think someone would come over and check if I was okay if they saw me watching that?
Ron: They saw you watching it.
Laura: For 10 hours you've been really trying to finish this film. And we can't help but wonder why.
Ron: Why? Because Marvin Main just hasn't got the girl yet.
Laura: Should we reach out to Rob Schneider and see if he wants to come on the podcast?
Ron: No.
Laura: He's probably a terrible person, isn't he?
Ron: I feel like he's right wing.
Laura: Yeah, a hundred percent. Hey, Ron, it's occurring to me that after this episode, the next one ought to be our third anniversary.
Ron: Oh, bloody hell.
Laura: We should sort out Guest.
Ron: Yeah. Who should we have as the guest?
Laura: Okay. I, uh, will reach out to Rob Schneider first, and if he Says no. It might be dad.
Ron: We haven't had dad on in a while.
Laura: No.
Ron: Why not?
Laura: No.
All right. Biology today, Ron. Um, and before you ask, Ron, we were discussing proteins and amino acids
All right. Biology today, Ron. It's your fave.
Ron: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Laura: Um, and before you ask, Ron, in the last biology lesson on the 15th of May, 12 days ago, we were discussing proteins and amino acids, carboxyl groups, amine groups, uh, peptide bonds, hydrolysis reactions, and variable R groups of non polar, polar and electrically charged types.
Ron: Oh, well done, Laura. There's something about that New Zealand air. The. The. The. The fresh driven snow has now been trod. It's. Things are. Things are retaining.
Laura: No, I just read that out of my book.
Ron: I know, but you knew I was gonna ask and you looked.
Laura: Yeah.
Ron: That's something, isn't it?
Laura: Yeah.
Laura: Who would you cast as Ron in the remake of this podcast
Ron: Um, all right, Laura, what's a peptide bond?
Laura: Peptide bond is where the neutron of one.
Ron: Uh, M. If you had to cast. Not neutron, someone to play us, uh, in the remake of this podcast, who would you cast for each?
Laura: Rob Schneider for both roles, obviously.
Ron: Well, you. You can be played by Rob Schneider, and I'll be played by the Drunk Women Solving Crime podcast.
Laura: No, I think you, um, who would play you? Maybe. Maybe one of the Wayans brothers.
Ron: Okay.
Laura: They've got your comedic drollness.
Ron: The Wayans brothers? Yeah, like coach from New Girl.
Laura: Yeah. What about if we let Timmy Chalamet age really badly? Could he play you?
Ron: That's quite rude.
Laura: Yeah. I'm being played by Rob Schneider in a wig. What did you think I was gonna do, say, Bradley Cooper 30 years ago?
Ron: I assumed we were recasting you as well.
Laura: I'm quite happy with my cast. I don't know who's gonna be able to capture my range of emotions better than Rob Schneider.
Ron: Yeah, and all of your right wing views.
Laura: I know. That's why I'm a hard task. And there's only one master that can do it.
Ron: Yeah, the Schneid man himself.
Laura: I think he really is terrible. I do think we should stop joking about it. Um, who would I cast as you, Ron? It's got to be somebody who's a bit grumpy. M. You know that guy that played, um, Cece's massive boyfriend in New Girl?
Ron: I love that guy.
Laura: He's got big U energy.
Ron: Yeah, Robbie.
Laura: Yeah.
Ron: That'S such a great bit. Uh, when Schmidt says he's shaped like a bell. Yeah, I love that guy. He's also a really good character in the Office and in Scott Pilgrim.
Laura: Yeah, I think he could play you.
Ron: Yeah. Okay. Um, and you can be played By I m mean Amy Poehler's the. The obvious choice.
Laura: Maybe Daniel Day Lewis.
Ron: No, no, I was, um, I was watching an episode of that Mitchell and Web look the other day, and in the background of a sketch about, um, a level results, there was a very young Daniel Kaluuya. Yeah, um, maybe Daniel Kaluuya for you.
Laura: Yeah. Bit serious.
Ron: Yeah, he's good, though.
Laura: Yeah, well, they all are, these Oscar winners.
Ron: Yeah. Yeah. Um, Daniel Day Lewis is obviously a barrel of laughs in every performance he's in.
Maybe what we could do, Ron, is let Katy Perry play me
Laura: Maybe what we could do, Ron, is let Katy Perry play me. And this could be her salvation role, you know, that brings her back to.
Ron: Being adored after the disastrous space flight.
Laura: Yeah. And her last album was a flop. And, you know. Yeah, there's lots of gander about her having killed a nun.
Ron: What?
Laura: Have you not seen all this online?
Ron: No, I don't really have social media.
Laura: She like, sued some people for a house or something and a nun died during the court trial.
Ron: What happened with Katy Perry and the nuns?
Laura: Yeah, yeah.
Ron: Interesting, interesting.
Laura: She, like, wanted the house or something and they didn't want to give it up and boom, bam, somebody died.
Ron: Yeah, the, um, M. That's interesting. Okay, why are we trying to rehabilitate Katy Perry?
Laura: Oh, Everybody deserves a 91st chance.
Ron: Okay. Yeah, I suppose the universe does have to sort of give her a couple of do overs. She did marry Russell Brand. That's. Yeah, that's gonna earn you some cosmic sympathy.
Laura: And now she's married to Orlando Bloom, who isn't he fascinating that he was just like Legolas and pirates and then just went, I've done enough. Goodbye.
Ron: I am handsome enough to just live off these two things.
Laura: Boop, boop, boop. Goodbye. Wow, he just stopped, didn't he?
Ron: I think the sad part about it, though, is it must not be that he doesn't want to work anymore because he did come back for the Hobbit.
Laura: Did he?
Ron: Yeah. Uh, in fact, Legolas is not in the book the Hobbit, but Legolas is in the film.
Laura: Interesting. I don't think I've seen all of the Hobbits.
Ron: They are dog shit.
Laura: Did I tell you, though, I went to Hobbiton? No, we went.
Ron: Send me a single picture.
Laura: Oh, did we not? Sorry about that. No, um, we went to Hobbiton Run. It was amazing. Tom cried.
Ron: Really?
Laura: Yeah. It was so atmospheric to be there and so wonderful and so beautifully done. And you got to go up to all the Hobbit doors and take all pictures and stuff and, uh, Child of The podcast kept referring it to it as Hobbit Town. And nephew, um, of the podcast, got to pretend to be Bilbo and go running through the bit going, I'm going on an adventure. Uh, and then.
Ron: Has he seen the Hobbit?
Laura: Tom made him watch bits of it before we went so that he would be slightly excited. I think it's still a bit old for him. He's only seven.
Ron: I was watching those films at that age. That'll be fine.
Laura: Yeah, but you're not fine now, Ron. You are riddled with angst.
Ron: I'm not.
Laura: And you're shaped like a bell.
Ron: Uh, I'm looking at pictures of Keira Knightley.
Laura: And we got to go in a hobbit house as well. Ron and I did knitting in a hobbit house.
Ron: Did you listen to Concerning Hobbits while you were going around?
Laura: No, because it was a tour. It was a guided tour. And so we got told all this different stuff, and you got to see how it was all made. And in the hobbit house, they've done it really cleverly. Where they've gone. This isn't movie set at all. This has been made so that you can come in and rummage around a hobbit house. So you just got to interact with everything. It was great.
Ron: Yeah. Uh, that's a good place to go. Uh, that's very, very cool.
Laura: Yeah. And then we went to the Green Dragon and had, um, cider and beer and pies. And the pies were delicious.
Ron: Oh, you can keep your fancy ales. You can drink them by the flagon. But they only brew for the brave and true comes from the Green Dragon.
Laura: Hey, it was amazing. I'll send you some photos.
Ron: Yeah, that'd be nice.
Ron: I was thinking about this last night, Ron
Um, yeah, we're doing biology today. Yay. Sorry to interrupt you to go on that tangent. Um, we've not been focused recently.
Laura: That's not true. The last episode was a slammer where I learned all about the radiations.
Ron: Maybe. But we went on a lot of tangents. I think maybe it's. We need to do less constant. Well, uh, more concentrated bursts of learning.
Laura: I was thinking about this last night, Ron. I've been having real trouble sleeping the last few nights because this bed is made of weasels and I.
Ron: Why didn't you keep the air bed that Tom was sleeping on?
Laura: Oh, uh, it's here, but I don't know why I didn't sleep on it. Good idea. Um, I'm not smart. Um, I finished the next book in the Siblings Book Club that Nobody else started, though. Last night. Tree grows in Brooklyn. Completed it, mate.
Ron: Really good.
Laura: That's the next one on the list.
Ron: I don't know.
Laura: I'll find it. Um, where's the pinned message?
Ron: You couldn't sleep?
Laura: The Hiding place by Corrie10. Boom is the next one. Um, yes, I couldn't sleep, Ron, and I was thinking maybe we should be approaching the learning in a different manner for a level. Yeah.
Ron: You know, talk to me.
Laura: Well, I don't know. That was as far as I got, but, like, trying to cram it in in the same way we crammed in.
Ron: Hey, hey, hey. Have you thought about. Not this.
Laura: But, like, the
00:20:00
Laura: last few lessons, I feel like I've really learned and I've smashed the quizzes, so.
Ron: Yeah, because we're doing less each lesson.
Laura: Yeah. And I think that. That's right.
Ron: Yeah.
Laura: Because it's harder stuff.
Ron: The cup doth runneth over after not so long.
Laura: Yeah.
Ron: Yeah. Um, but anyway, we should do something.
Stop typing. What are you typing about? Nothing. Just edit it out
So. Laura, we're doing. What's a peptide bond? Laura?
Laura: Peptide bond is where the. What's nice? Navantron. What's N called?
Ron: Nitrogen.
Laura: Nitrogen is connected to the. The nitrogen of one, um, amino acid is connected to the. Stop typing. Stop typing.
Ron: Just edit it out.
Laura: No. Uh, how am I supposed to talk to you when you're doing other. What are you typing about?
Ron: Nothing.
Laura: What you doing?
Ron: I'm prepping the lesson. Prep Ing the lesson.
Laura: Prepping. Prepbing the lessenings. Sometimes you have to tweak on the. Is it Monday night for you?
Ron: It is 20 to 11 on a Monday night.
Laura: Yeah. Okay, listen. It's where the nitrogen of one amino acid connects to the carbon of. Stop typing. You're not prepping the lesson.
Ron: I am.
Laura: Uh, you're not. You're messaging girlfriend of the podcast or the people you're going on holiday with.
Ron: No. Yes, I was prepping the lesson. I was prepping the lesson.
Today on Peter sheets and alpha coils. What did you prepep?
Laura: What did you prepep?
Ron: Uh, just a little bit that we're going to cover in a bit.
Laura: Yeah, tell me about it.
Ron: Uh, yeah, it was about beta sheets and alpha coils.
Laura: That's a lie.
Ron: No, it wasn't.
Laura: Beta sheets and alpha course feels like a podcast that would get a million listeners a week.
Ron: Yeah.
Laura: Today on Peter sheets and alpha coils. The alpha coils led by my man Tony here. They're gonna be looking at whether eating the placenta of a baby that was recently born near you is actually good for your biceps or your triceps.
Ron: Your last reference for masculinity was The Sopranos. Your boy Tony.
An R group is a functional group and the R is used to represent it
Um, okay, Laura, what's an R group?
Laura: An R group is a functional group and the R is used to represent it. And they. They come in three different types. Non polar, polar and electrically charged. And they have different properties. Like they're hydrophilic or hydrophobic.
Ron: Sort of in proteins. Yes, the. In our group, like heart groups don't just come up in proteins, remember, we use them for fatty acids as well. Um, to represent just a variable length of chain of hydrocarbon.
Laura: I feel like that's the answer I gave last time you asked that. And then you went off on one about. No, that was completely the wrong idea. They weren't just a placeholder. They were specific things. So now I've given the other answer and now you're mad about that. Also, in my head I'm singing. A group is a very, very, very fine group with proteins in the yard Life used to be so hard. Uh.
Ron: No, I wouldn't have gotten cross about that answer because that answer would be quarrect.
Laura: I'm so sure you change what an R group is every time we discuss it.
Ron: I just don't think that's likely because I know things you don't.
Laura: But we didn't have a tricko this year, so I know that there's one somewhere out there owed me in the ether.
Ron: Laura, it's all been tricko.
Laura: I believe ya.
Ron: Um, so, Laura, sorry, I am gonna sneeze for a while longer.
Laura: You sound like Tasmanian devil. I cannot work out if my child is in the wardrobe or not. Something is creaking about over there.
Ron: Christ, I hate my life.
Laura: You must be a really inefficient sneezer.
Ron: What do you mean?
Laura: Well, I only ever sneezed once. Twice. Done. Got whatever it was that was tickling out. Whereas you're sneezing away. Your nose must really hold on to this stuff. Um, I think you've got bad sneezing.
Ron: Well.
Laura: See, look at it. Disgusting.
Ron: I don't know. I think I sneeze with some force.
Laura: Um, it's clearly not working.
Ron: Well, I wouldn't be surprised if your body just tried twice and gave up, even if there was still a fucking cobweb up there or something. But I do get your point.
We're learning about the different levels of structure of a protein
All right, so we're gonna learn about the different levels of structure of a protein. Okay.
Laura: I never thought biology would become my least favourite, but here we are.
Ron: That's crazy to me because this is the interesting bit. No. Uh, so we've got primary, secondary, tertiary and, um, quaternary. Structure. Okay.
Laura: Primary, Secondary. I know those from schools.
Ron: Tertiary.
Laura: Always makes me think of a wading bird. What's the other one?
Ron: Tertiary.
Laura: Quatery.
Ron: Quaternary.
Laura: That sounds made up.
Ron: Quarter. Nuri.
Laura: Okay.
Ron: Um.
Laura: Oh my God.
Ron: One Played some Boggle today. Yeah, Three letter word. Awk. A, W, K. The bird.
Laura: Real orcs.
Ron: No, no, no, like a great orc.
Laura: I thought that was a uk. No, um, we completed a whole puzzler.
Ron: I saw in, uh, the thing I. Ah, ah. On play up. I am, um. I got to. Oh, you're right. That is how you spell orc. That's sad. That means I was, uh, probably have to seed that win anyway. On, um, plate up. I got to a tier 5 franchise on my own and my game just didn't save it.
Laura: Oh, Ron.
Ron: Yeah, I was really sad about that actually.
Laura: That is sad.
Ron: Yeah, it's just making so many turkeys.
Laura: I can't wait to play it up again.
Ron: Yeah.
Proteins are made up of polypeptide chains
Anyhoo, um, so wonder if the listeners.
Laura: Have missed us mentioning plate up.
Ron: I doubt. Um, a protein molecule, um, Laura, as you know, um, are made of these polypeptide chains, these chains of amino acids. Okay.
Laura: Mhm.
Ron: The first three levels of protein structure, Primary, secondary, and tertiary. Those all relate to a single polypeptide chain. And the structure of that. Okay.
Laura: Mhm.
Ron: Quaternary refers to the fact that some proteins are made up of multiple different polypeptide chains. They have different sort of structures that join together to make one protein. Okay. Proteins can vary massively in their size because of this. Because of the chain structure of it. The smallest protein is three amino acids long.
Laura: Hang on, that feels important.
Ron: Not really. This is just flavour. Oh.
Laura: Uh, well.
Ron: Have you committed that to memory?
Laura: Smallest protein is three amino acids.
Ron: The largest one is more than 34,000.
Laura: Whoa.
Ron: That's a protein called titin.
Laura: Can you eat that?
Ron: Yeah, it's a muscle protein.
Laura: Nice. Um, that's what the beta coils need to be getting involved with.
Ron: Yeah. Tone, pass the GABA girl. I'm a walking here.
Laura: Oh, no, you really can't do that.
Ron: P.S. the Gaba girl.
Laura: Uh, giddy, giddy.
The primary structure of a protein is the sequence of amino acids
Ron: Um, okay, Laura, primary structure of a protein. And it's simp. What. What's the. The most simple aspect of that polypeptide chain? What. What's going to be like the. The first thing that you've got to know about it basically before you could work out anything else.
Laura: Oh my God, Ron, I have no idea what you're talking about.
Ron: Well, it's going to be
00:30:00
Ron: the Sequence of amino acids. Because those are all different. Sure, yeah, yeah, don't worry. No more questions for you today.
Laura: I've, uh, written down almost everything you've said, but. But if I'm totally honest, I don't know what a polypeptide is.
Ron: It's a string of amino acids. It's basically a protein.
Laura: Yeah, yeah.
Ron: Okay, so the primary structure is the combination of amino acids, the sequence of amino acids.
Laura: Okay, so, so that, uh. So when we're saying primary, secondary, tertiary, we're not talking about different layers, we're talking about like the different things that make up what it is.
Ron: Yeah, it's the. Yeah, different. It's almost kind of like, I suppose if, if you were to think about like the primary, secondary, tertiary, whatever structure of a country, like the, the primary structure of it might literally be like a road map where you can see every individual road. Then the secondary structure might be the neighbourhoods and then the tertiary structure is the cities or something. See? So like they all build into each other, but kind of at different scales and sort of referring to different parts of it. Yeah, it should make sense by the time we get to the end of it. So. Yeah. Primary sequence. The, uh, primary structure is the sequence of amino acids. What is at, ah, either end of that polypeptide chain, Laura?
Laura: Um, hydroxyl and carboxyl groups, almost an.
Ron: Amine group at one side and a carboxyl group at the other side.
Laura: Yeah. Okay.
Ron: Um, where does this sequence of amino acids come from?
Laura: Spain. No, it sounds like a Spanish word, doesn't it? Amino.
Ron: Hey, uh, don't. Mao.
Laura: No, that's Italia.
Ron: Not the way I did it.
Laura: I don't know why you slowed down so much when you're Italian American. Hey, ah, stone.
Ron: Basa. The gabagar.
Laura: Gabagool.
Ron: Gabagal.
Laura: Gabagal, Gaba. Gal. Sounds like what polypeptide gets called when they're mad at her.
Ron: Yeah. Um, where does the sequence of amino acids come from?
Laura: What do you mean where does it come from?
Ron: What determines it?
Laura: I don't know. What amino acids are around, I guess.
Ron: No, DNA, isn't it?
Laura: Is it? What? Where's DNA coming from?
Ron: Your DNA holds the recipes for all of the proteins. Something that you know. You should have known. You should have known.
Laura: For years now I didn't know that's whereabouts in science we were. It's all connected in the great circle of life.
Ron: Yes. Uh, um, that's the primary structure, Laura. Okay.
Laura: Okay, okay.
Ron: Secondary structure, Laura, are the two bits of structure that we've Talked about before. Um, the alpha coil, or the alpha helix, it's sometimes called. Um, and the beta sheets.
Laura: Hi. We're the beta sheets. And today we'll be doing acapella. That sounds like something from Pitch Perfect, doesn't it?
Ron: Sneaky, wet family.
Laura: Yeah, I don't think she's wet, but I do think she's trying to be sneaky. What are you doing? No, are you doing good? Listening to Auntie Meg using up Auntie Meg's last shred of patience. And Auntie Meg is a turning patient, so it's quite impressive.
Uncle Ron: She'll sleep after 30 hours on a plane
30 hours on a plane.
Ron: Yeah. She'll be tired though, so she'll sleep.
Laura: Good one, Uncle Ron.
Ron: I m can't believe you've been telling her this whole time. This is important work.
Laura: She's.
Ron: She's gonna be fucking livid one day. I couldn't come in and pull your hair because you were doing that. Um, all right, Laura, we'll whiz through this so that you can go attend to the babbins.
Two structures that are supremely common within proteins are hydrogen bonds
But, um, we have your tertiary structure.
Laura: Hang on. So, secondary was, I got alpha helix and beta sheets. I don't really understand what those are.
Ron: So those are just two structures that are, ah, supremely common within proteins because they are formed by hydrogen bonds, which is a, um, weak sort of intermolecular bond. Um, and they form
00:35:00
Ron: between the amine group of one amino acid in the chain with the carboxyl group of a different amino acid in the chain. Um, which, what that means is because all of the amino acids have these, these bonds form a lot. So these are very common structures, you understand?
Laura: Okay.
Ron: Um, and if you look at that diagram I've just sent you, you, um, can see, like the alpha helix is literally what it sounds like. It's a coil of amino acids going round. I think it's every four amino acids, one of these, um, one of these bonds is made.
Laura: Wow.
Ron: Those bonds, those bonds come about because of, um, you know, we've talked about the electronegativity. So the oxygen on the carboxyl group is pulling, um, the electrons away from the carbon becomes negatively charged. And then on the amine group, the nitrogen is pulling the electrons away from the hydrogen so that hydrogen becomes positively charged. So the oxygen and the hydrogen are attracted together. They form a weak sort of bond called a hydrogen bond.
Laura: Okay.
Ron: The beta sheet is where they kind of fold up really. Um, almost like a Viennetta. Um, and you get these pleats in, um, the chain. Um, and again those pleats form the, uh, the hydrogen bonds between them. Okay. That secondary structure. Okay, Easy, easy peas. Tertiary structure is where the R groups come into this. And do you remember we were talking about how you've got polar R groups and charged R groups and hydrophobic R groups?
Laura: Yeah.
Ron: So the tertiary structure is where those R groups are interacting with each other within a protein. Can you think how any of those things that I've just listed off there, the different types of R group might interact with each other?
Laura: Where all the hydrophilics and hydrophobics get their feet and heads together.
Ron: Exactly, yeah. All of the hydrophobic ones are going to group together. Um, and especially, like, you know, we've talked before about them being embedded in membranes. Really good, Laura. That was a very smart thing to say. Um, and hydrophobic often means polar or charged. And the ones of opposite charge are going to be attracted together as well. Um, there's a special type of, um, bond that forms between. I can't remember the name of the amino acid. There's an amino acid that's got a sulphur in it. And, um, between two of those, you get what's called a disulfide bond. I don't know if you need to know that at a level. Um, but I can send you a picture of kind of all of these things wrapping together because it, um, illuminates where all these things are coming in. Oh, Ah, cysteine. That's it. Yeah. Between two cysteine amino acids, you get the disulfide group. And then the last thing that we need to go through today is the quaternary structure. Okay. Remember M, what I said this was before?
Laura: Multiple polypeptide chains.
Ron: Absolutely. So essentially, everything that we've just talked about there, and then you have multiple chains, and then those come together and those, um, uh, can interact with each other. So the example that, um, might be a protein that you've heard of would be haemoglobin.
Laura: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. In your blood.
Ron: Yeah, yeah. Carries the oxygen around your blood. So haemoglobin. Each haemoglobin protein is made up of four polypeptide chains. You got the alpha and the beta globin subunits, two of each. Um, each of those has an iron molecule in it. An iron ion in it, rather, that can then hold on to some of the oxygen. Um, and that would look something like this. There we go. 30 minutes of pissing around, 10 minutes of science at the end. Perfect.
Laura: Yeah. If you squint at that, it says Goblin unit, Haim group. And then the other side, it looks like it says Goblin Sub Nut.
Ron: Maybe don't squint, then.
Laura: Yeah, all right. I really need a wee now.
Ron: Have a safe flight.
Laura: Yeah. Bam. Um, see you in Britain.
00:40:00
Laura: Is that cat trying to take off? I guess that's my main question.
Ron: She's just very happy she's missed you. She's happy because, um, she's been ignoring me all morning.
Laura: Yeah.
Ron: And then, uh, she got her sixth sense that I was about to do something nice. Now she's got to come lie on my lap.
Laura: She's a sweetheart. Um. Oh, God, there are so many tabs open. My computer looks like the inside of my brain and it's horrifying.
Ron: I think we should have done the record right when you woken up, because apparently all you've done in the hour since then is fluster yourself.
Laura: No. Hey, Ron, guess how many bashes I'm holding. Uh, no, no. Do you know what? I've been absolutely unable to say the right words for anything.
I had a bad dream about Tupperware last night
Um, I can't remember what I've got wrong now. Um, if I said to you, Tom.
Ron: Yeah?
Laura: What did I say? Sparkle Bridge. Did I call it anything? Was it just Sparkle Bridge? Yeah. I was trying to talk about Stardew Valley and, um, I called it Starbridge Farm or something and I couldn't remember what we were talking about. And then I was trying to talk about Tupperware and apparently I called it Tuff Wet Tupperware without realising at all. And younger sister of the podcast Meg, and husband of the podcast Tom, were both just staring at me like, what? What Tupperware? Tupperware. Because I had a dream last night that I was talking to Danny Ward and Mark Simmons about some possible material about Tupperware and we were both saying, like, God, that would be a banging bit about how Tupperware is really not, um, not improved upon its stance. It's just never improved what it does. And we had loads of ideas for how Tupperware could be better. And then I woke up and like, well, no, that would be terrible stand up material, but terrible stand up material.
Ron: I'm sure there's been loads of improvements to Tupperware since it was first invented.
Laura: But in the dream, you could plug Tupperware in and then make it vacuum sealed and you could do all sorts of stuff to it. It's bad. It was a bad, bad idea.
This quiz is going to be a bloodbath, so be prepared
Uh, anyway, I've realised I've left my notebook in my suitcase too, so this quiz is going to be a bloodbath.
Ron: Yeah, it is.
Laura: Oh, shit, do I need my notebook? Should I go and get it.
Ron: Depends how many notes you made.
Laura: Probably good ones. Am I gonna have to draw out any answers?
Ron: No, you're giving me one long answer that's worth 13 marks.
Laura: Shit, I'm always bad at those. Should we just call this episode Daddy? I did a Big Big Poo Poo. Even though it didn't record.
Ron: No, because it's so sad that they didn't hear that.
There are four types of protein structure: primary, secondary, tertiary
Okay, Laura, what are the four types of protein structure? And a small description of each, please. There's 13 things that you need to say.
Laura: Okay.
Ron: Mhm.
Laura: There is primary protein structure, primary, secondary, tertiary, and quaternary. Quaternary.
Ron: There's actually 15 marks available.
Laura: Why would you interrupt my brilliance with that? And quaternary or something? And the structures work a bit like an atlas where each structure adds a layer of complication to what we're discussing. We're bringing some blankets downstairs. Don't know if you heard that. Um, what's currently going on in my house is that every toy that child of the podcast has been missing while we've been away is being pulled to the living room in a huge heap in the middle of it and nobody has the energy to stop it.
Ron: Um, that seems completely fair. She didn't ask to go to New Zealand.
Laura: No, she asked to come home a lot. Um, nephew of the podcast, Harris was so tired on the flight home because he barely slept tall. He was so excited about having video games for 27 hours that his eyes got so puffy and red that he looked like oldest nephew. The podcast, when he was young and was allergic to the world. Oh, you remember how much like Goob from, um, Meet the Robinsons he used to look like.
Ron: He still does, but.
Laura: Yes. But now for teenage reasons. Yeah. Anyway,
00:45:00
Laura: primary structure was about. Yeesh.
Ron: The.
Laura: I think tertiary structure was about the R groups, the different R groups that come off. So was that. Um, primary structure is about.
Ron: It's like a Christopher Nolan answer. Just keeps circling back to the end and then coming back to the beginning.
Laura: Do you know, I found out the other day, Ron, that the ability to, like, drink loads of caffeine and then fall asleep straight away is an ADHD thing.
Ron: Oh, dad has adhd.
Laura: Maybe he is faddy about what he's into.
Ron: Mmm. M. I was talking about sometimes he locks into stuff. He loves stats.
Laura: Yeah. But like, he'll buy a motorbike, ride it for four years and then sell it and never ever be interested in motorbikes again.
Ron: Yeah. Ow.
Laura: So secondary. No, primary. Primary, I think might be about the length of the Chain. So proteins can be anything from three amino acids long to fifty hundred million thousands. Three hundred thousand. So that is about that. Secondary is about the bonds. That doesn't feel right. Secondary is about. What else could there be? Quaternary was about DNA or something. DNA is what designs the whole thing. What are you doing? You're typing?
Ron: Yeah, I have to check my work emails while we do this.
Laura: I see. Sorry, Ron. God. Um, what might secondary be? Maybe secondary is about the carboxyl groups joining everything together. And the peptides, dipeptides and polypeptides. Su peptide, Michael, peptide. I think I've answered all of them now.
Ron: Um, five marks out of 15 there for you, Laura. That's a yes moment for you.
Laura: Well, listen, I remembered four of those.
Ron: Marks are for saying primary, secondary, tertiary.
Laura: Quaternary was quaternary, right?
Ron: Yeah, yes.
Laura: Um, and what was the fifth one for? I got one. Right, yeah.
Ron: So primary, secondary, tertiary, quaternary. The primary structure is the combination of amino acids that are in the polypeptide chain. It's the sequence of amino acids, not the length of it.
Laura: Oh, uh, okay.
Ron: The sequence determines the length, but that's not the important bit there.
Laura: Okay.
Ron: The secondary structure is the alpha helices and the beta sheets.
Laura: I remember discussing those now. Yes. That had evaporated from my brain, but I do remember it now.
Ron: Um, those are, ah, high. Those are caused by hydrogen bonds between the nitrogen. That would be one. So alpha, uh, helix and beta sheets, that would be one extra mark. Hydrogen bonds, another mark between the nitrogen in an amine group and the oxygen of a carboxyl group in a different amino acid.
Laura: Right. What?
Ron: Don't worry about it. It doesn't matter. I could literally explain it for 45 minutes and you wouldn't remember or care.
Laura: Um, I would care, Ron.
Tertiary is the folding of the polypeptide chain
I do try.
Ron: Tertiary is the folding of the polypeptide chain, which is caused by interactions between the R, uh, groups.
Laura: Which is the other M?
Ron: No, that's the other mark.
Laura: You got R groups. It was R groups was the third one.
Ron: Yes. Um, and then you could have got some marks for listing some of those interactions. So you've got hydrophobic, R groups all bunched together like oil and water. You get disulfide bonds between cysteine amino acids, ionic bonds between charged R groups and hydrogen bonds between polar R groups. And then quaternary structure is when you
00:50:00
Ron: have different polypeptide chains that bunch together to make one protein. Like how hemoglobin's made out of four.
Laura: Different subunits that all happened towards the End of the episode though, didn't it? And we know I wasn't listening.
Ron: Yeah. Uh, you were distracted.
Laura: Yeah. Yeah. Pretty good then. No.
Ron: Basically counted to four and guessed one thing right.
Laura: No, I knew that that was somewhere in the three, Ron. I did know that was a little crouton of truth floating on the soup of obscurity. Ba, ba. There we go. They've listened to that now, Ron, next week's our, um, third anniversary episode.
Ron: Yeah, that was fun.
Laura: Yeah. Next week, um, you will be able to listen to us with Granya and Chantal from the way they were podcast. And we sort of did a, uh, sort of the science of relationships kind of thing.
Ron: Sort of. Yeah, we mainly. Mainly just chatted about random stuff.
Laura: I had such a good time and like, I had a really good time.
Ron: People who's really good at. Really good at podcasting. Chantal, she really kept that shit together.
Laura: Yeah, she was such a.
Ron: Drove us. Yeah. Yeah, she really hosted our show. Really good for us.
Laura: I tell you what, Ron, like, obviously we do these podcast swap things so that you can get more audience. And I spent the rest of the evening listening to their podcast, so. So it worked in that they got at least one new listener and it was me.
Ron: Yeah, they were very, very funny.
Laura: Yeah. I've got a weird thing at the moment where I think, because I am, I turn my data off on my podcast app and the last time I downloaded a load of podcasts was in New Zealand. So all my podcast adverts are, uh, for the New Zealand things at the moment. And it feels so, um, eclectic and fun.
Ron: Why did you turn your data off for your podcast then?
Laura: Because for a while when I was in New Zealand, I didn't have a local SIM card and so I just turned off mobile data for everything. That wasn't essential until I got that sorted. And then I guess I never really download podcasts on mobile data, so I just didn't turn it back on while I was out there.
Ron: Huh. Uh, yeah, I turned off my data quite a lot towards the tail end of my trip because I was running out of EU roaming.
Laura: Yeah.
Ron: And it was nice to just go off grid for a bit.
Laura: I found that for the first week I was in New Zealand, I. I was sort of off grid whenever I was out the house. And then that just got unworkable because obviously I was there to work, so that was. That wasn't good.
Ron: And you've got a kid.
Laura: Yeah. But then I found that, well, younger sister of the podcast introduced me to an app where you can just get a digital E. Sim. Um, and just like, I don't know, I basically got. Got a SIM card just on my phone and it worked and it was great. Lovely. Yeah, yeah.
You could do Independence Day and then I'll do British Independence Day
What's happening in your life coming up, Ron?
Ron: Um, July is quiet, which is nice. I just want to spend some time at home.
Laura: Except for Bristol Harbourfest.
Ron: Yeah, that'll be fun.
Laura: Here we come. Do you think old Shooty Feet will be there?
Ron: Oh, Shooty Feet.
Laura: The Water Walker.
Ron: Vici's number one fan.
Laura: Yeah.
Ron: Uh, hopefully. Maybe he's learned even one new move.
Laura: Oh. Uh, wouldn't it be bringing the total to three if he learned another move? The Dolphin, that. Whatever his other move was.
Ron: Oh, my God, Laura. When, um. Uh, when I. When we were in Sweden driving to Norway so that, um, two of the guys could get their flight back to the uk, we stopped off at what we thought was going to be like a petrol station, but it was actually just a hotel where we could go for a piss. Um, and I stood in the lobby there and, uh, there was like, you know, like, these sort of really, like, boomer art, uh, images. And, like, they're always printed on glass for some reason. And it's got, like, the Beatles hanging out with Freddie Mercury and Kurt Cobain's there. Um, and, yeah, Johnny Cash and all of these, like, people. And then just in the corner, just at the back, right behind Johnny Cash was just Avicii. Really out of place.
Laura: Not out of place, Ron. Where he's meant to be. Do you think they added him after he died?
Ron: I don't know. Uh, I m. Guess maybe they. Maybe he was the impetus for producing it.
Laura: Yeah. And then they were like, we can't just do a whole shot of Avicii. We'll put some background noise in. But everyone know this main thing is about Avicii. Let's do an episode on Avicii.
Ron: Along.
Laura: With Carnival and Flake Diamonds. Um, I
00:55:00
Laura: can't believe we haven't done either of those episodes yet, Ron.
Ron: Flake Diamonds, Carnival I'm so keen for. I've already done the research.
Laura: We need to do them maybe as.
Ron: Part of next week's. Was it called Independence Day episode. You could do Independence Day and then I'll do British Independence Day, which is Carnival.
Laura: I, um, think that's, ah, what we would call a stretch in the industry. Maybe we won't do Independence Day. Who cares about Independence Day?
Ron: Carnival.
Laura: Maybe Independence Day means Independent Learning Day. And we both just do this. We both bring information on the subject. We're most Interested in. In off the list. So you bring Carnival and I'll bring whatever I'm most interested in off the list.
Ron: But that'll be tough, though, because you'll choose Carnival as well.
Laura: No, not in this list, Ron. We've got magnets. We've got hypermobilism. We've got Sant Antonio Zoo miniature railway. We've got, um, Avicii, Taylor Swift, um, riddles. I might just do an episode of Boy and see while you talk about Carnival.
Ron: Yeah, that could be fun.
Laura: That could be mad.
Why is it flaked almonds on this list? Because I invented an almond Flaker
Ron: Why is it flaked almonds on this list?
Laura: Because I invented an almond Flaker? Or did we try to find out how almonds were flaked?
Ron: M. Maybe we were trying to find.
Laura: Out how they were flaked. Flaked almonds seemed too perfect to genuinely exist, and so we slightly investigated how they did exist.
Ron: I think we should do, uh. You've done an episode with Tom recently, but it would be fun to do that episode with Tom at some point.
Laura: I haven't done an episode with Tom recently.
Ron: Didn't you?
Laura: I thought he did with me.
Ron: I saw the, um. There was a, uh, Discord thing where it was like.
Laura: Oh, yeah. He came and did some intros while you were away. We asked him lots of questions.
Ron: Nice.
Laura: And then, Ron, for. For the last Patreon episode, I did an Ask Me Anything where people sent me anonymous questions and I answered them. And the listeners are very keen for you to do one. But we are all concerned you won't be as candid as I was.
Ron: Oh, yeah. Well, you. You spill your guts at any given opportunity.
Laura: Yeah, I'm an open book.
Ron: Yeah.
Laura: Um, except for science, in which I'm a closed book. Anyway, Ron, it's very lovely to have you back. The listeners won't really have missed you because to them you haven't really been away, but you have.
Ron: He did a good job of building stuff up before. Yeah, we did well.
Laura: Yeah. And we're not completely seat of our pants now. We are in terms of Patreon stuff. We absolutely have to record that next week. But we still got two episodes ahead of us in. In normal eps. We're good.
Ron: All right, well, it's great to be back. And now let's do a quiz and an episode. Class dismissed.
Laura: Sam.
00:58:13
