Chris Kempes

a device for writing strings, for taking a random set of letters that are unorganized and writing those into exactly one string. That string folds up into a functional protein. And so we could compare that thermodynamically to any device that writes strings. And we find that gives us an ultimate efficiency, the best any device in the universe could do at this abstract process.

a device for writing strings, for taking a random set of letters that are unorganized and writing those into exactly one string. That string folds up into a functional protein. And so we could compare that thermodynamically to any device that writes strings. And we find that gives us an ultimate efficiency, the best any device in the universe could do at this abstract process.

And we found that the ribosome is at most 20 times worse than that limit. And I say 20 times off the limit, that seems really inefficient. But for reference, our computers, as we talk now, are writing strings at 100 million times worse than the limit.

And we found that the ribosome is at most 20 times worse than that limit. And I say 20 times off the limit, that seems really inefficient. But for reference, our computers, as we talk now, are writing strings at 100 million times worse than the limit.

So the ribosome compared to our computers is like many, many, many orders of magnitude more efficient than our computers at this string writing process. It's bumping up against the limit in some real sense, even though it's 20, a factor of 20 away. Yeah. Exactly. It's feeling the ultimate physical limit.

So the ribosome compared to our computers is like many, many, many orders of magnitude more efficient than our computers at this string writing process. It's bumping up against the limit in some real sense, even though it's 20, a factor of 20 away. Yeah. Exactly. It's feeling the ultimate physical limit.

No, definitely not. I think the statistical mechanics of cells is something people are working on in lots of interesting ways. As I mentioned earlier, I said bacteria mostly don't have structure. There's been this whole revolution really in the last 15 years around phase separation in cells in bacteria and realizing that different types of stuff are actually forming separated phases.

No, definitely not. I think the statistical mechanics of cells is something people are working on in lots of interesting ways. As I mentioned earlier, I said bacteria mostly don't have structure. There's been this whole revolution really in the last 15 years around phase separation in cells in bacteria and realizing that different types of stuff are actually forming separated phases.

Think liquid and water and how you could have a little bit of

Think liquid and water and how you could have a little bit of

um sorry think about oil and water and how you could have a little oil droplet floating around in water they're both liquids but they're sort of separated in an interesting way and that's happening inside of cells and that has chemical consequences that has structural consequences and so i think there's a lot to uncover there there's a lot of really fundamental statistical mechanics and thermodynamics to do within cells and then i should say that recently we've we've worked out

um sorry think about oil and water and how you could have a little oil droplet floating around in water they're both liquids but they're sort of separated in an interesting way and that's happening inside of cells and that has chemical consequences that has structural consequences and so i think there's a lot to uncover there there's a lot of really fundamental statistical mechanics and thermodynamics to do within cells and then i should say that recently we've we've worked out

limits at the large end of bacteria, where we have come to realize how fundamental constraints of diffusion start to set an upper bound for bacteria, where you need to add internal structure just to make things move around more quickly. And so there's a sort of diffusive boundary that you start to run into, and then you have to add transport structures to sort of get around that.

limits at the large end of bacteria, where we have come to realize how fundamental constraints of diffusion start to set an upper bound for bacteria, where you need to add internal structure just to make things move around more quickly. And so there's a sort of diffusive boundary that you start to run into, and then you have to add transport structures to sort of get around that.

And that occurs also roughly at the same size that you're seeing this ribosome catastrophe. So just like the small end of bacteria, we're seeing a large end where multiple constraints seem to be limiting cells at pretty much exactly the same size.

And that occurs also roughly at the same size that you're seeing this ribosome catastrophe. So just like the small end of bacteria, we're seeing a large end where multiple constraints seem to be limiting cells at pretty much exactly the same size.

Yeah, it's a great point. And I think what's interesting is that we would say once you get one of these walls, one of these sort of hard limits coming from physical constraints, it tells you you need to shift something about your architecture to get over that constraint. if you're going to get bigger.

Yeah, it's a great point. And I think what's interesting is that we would say once you get one of these walls, one of these sort of hard limits coming from physical constraints, it tells you you need to shift something about your architecture to get over that constraint. if you're going to get bigger.

Now there's lots of cases where you can imagine evolution never discovers anything that helps you get bigger. But if you see something that gets bigger, it certainly has found some new architecture. And so one of the great challenges of modern biology is thinking through how and why we got eukaryotes. And so eukaryotes are

Now there's lots of cases where you can imagine evolution never discovers anything that helps you get bigger. But if you see something that gets bigger, it certainly has found some new architecture. And so one of the great challenges of modern biology is thinking through how and why we got eukaryotes. And so eukaryotes are