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Chemistry Nobel: Computational protein design and protein structure prediction

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Re: Chemistry Nobel: Computational protein design and protein structure prediction

#121

Post by alkonaut »

aborsy wrote: post #19

The AlphaFold paper has countless authors, many researchers and company resources underlying it. Hassabis’ contribution is management of resources and entrepreneurship, not the actual science. There are hundreds of thousands of scientists out there doing deep technical work, and they aren’t recognized. I think we might be the end of it, as the emphasis shifts to commercialization and product development. These AI dem…

> The AlphaFold paper has countless authors, many researchers and company resources underlying it. Hassabis’ contribution is management of resources and entrepreneurship, not the actual science.

That's usually how you get a Nobel prize in science. You become an accomplished scientist, and eventually you lead a big lab/department/project and with a massive massiv you work on projects where there are big discoveries. These discoveries aren't possible to attribute to individuals. If you look back through history and try to find how many "Boss professor leading massive team/project" vs. how many "Einstein type making big discovery in their own head" I think you'll find that the former is a lot more common.

> This will incentivize scientists to focus on management of other researchers who will manage other researchers who will produce the technical inventions.

I don't think the Nobel prize is a large driver of science. It's a celebration and a way to put a spotlight on something and someone. But I doubt many people choose careers or projects based on "this might get us the prize..."

Re: Chemistry Nobel: Computational protein design and protein structure prediction

#122

Post by authorfly »

FrustratedMonky wrote: post #105
nsoonhui wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So can we expect that Sam Altman will be honored with Nobel prize 2025? After all physics prize went to AI researchers this year, and chemistry prize went to an organizational head.

You're really conflating things. Altman is no Hassabis. Just because there is a ton of hype from OpenAI doesn't detract from what DeepMind has done. AlphaGo anybody? Are we really already forgetting what a monumental problem protein folding was, decades of research, and AlphaFold came in and revolutionized it overnight. We are pretty jaded these days when miracles are happening all the time and people are like "yeah,…

I am missing context here and would love to know more.

Say I know about ATP Synthase and how the proteins/molecules involved there interact to make a sort of motor.

How does AlphaFold help us understand that or more complicated systems?

Are proteins quite often dispersed and unique, finding each other to interact with? Or like ATP Synthase are they more of a specific blueprint which tends to arrange in the same way but in different forms?

In other words:

Situation 1) Are there many ATP synthase type situations we find too complex to understand - regular patterns and regular co-occurences of proteins but we don't understand them?

Situation 2) Or is most of the use of Protein situational and one-off? We see proteins only once or twice, very complicated ones, yet they do useful things?

I struggle to situate the problem of Unknown proteins without knowing which of the above two is true (and why?)

Re: Chemistry Nobel: Computational protein design and protein structure prediction

#123

Post by fuzzfactor »

patall wrote: post #86
nsoonhui wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So can we expect that Sam Altman will be honored with Nobel prize 2025? After all physics prize went to AI researchers this year, and chemistry prize went to an organizational head.

He may still win literature this year.

I can only predict a more prestigious prize on the horizon in the future.

Isn't sama on track to end up with more financial resources than Nobel had at his disposal?

Plus I think he's got enough of a philanthropic streak which can prove to be not so shabby.

There could very well be a foundation someday awarding the Altman Prize well into the 22nd century.

Whether or not his most dynamic legacy would be something as simultaneously useful/dangerous as dynamite.

Re: Chemistry Nobel: Computational protein design and protein structure prediction

#124

Post by patall »

fuzzfactor wrote: post #123
patall wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He may still win literature this year.

I can only predict a more prestigious prize on the horizon in the future. Isn't sama on track to end up with more financial resources than Nobel had at his disposal? Plus I think he's got enough of a philanthropic streak which can prove to be not so shabby. There could very well be a foundation someday awarding the Altman Prize well into the 22nd century. Whether or not his most dynamic legacy would be something as s…

Hassabis should also be a billionaire by now.

Re: Chemistry Nobel: Computational protein design and protein structure prediction

#125

Post by marcosdumay »

alkonaut wrote: post #121
aborsy wrote: post #19

The AlphaFold paper has countless authors, many researchers and company resources underlying it. Hassabis’ contribution is management of resources and entrepreneurship, not the actual science. There are hundreds of thousands of scientists out there doing deep technical work, and they aren’t recognized. I think we might be the end of it, as the emphasis shifts to commercialization and product development. These AI dem…

> The AlphaFold paper has countless authors, many researchers and company resources underlying it. Hassabis’ contribution is management of resources and entrepreneurship, not the actual science. That's usually how you get a Nobel prize in science. You become an accomplished scientist, and eventually you lead a big lab/department/project and with a massive massiv you work on projects where there are big discoveries. T…

> You become an accomplished scientist, and eventually you lead a big lab/department/project and with a massive massiv you work on projects where there are big discoveries.

That's a very recent thing. Up to the 90s, the Nobel committee refused to even recognize it. They just started to award those prizes at the 21 century, and on most fields they never became the majority.

Re: Chemistry Nobel: Computational protein design and protein structure prediction

#126

Post by singularity2001 »

eig wrote: post #117

I think I disagree with most of the comments here stating it’s premature to give the Nobel to AlphaFold. I’m in biotech academia and it has changed things already. Yes the protein folding problem isn’t “solved” but no problem in biology ever is. Comparing to previous bio/chem Nobel winners like Crispr, touch receptors, quantum dots, click chemistry, I do think AlphaFold already has reached sufficient level of impact.

  >>  I do think AlphaFold already has reached sufficient level of impact.
how so?

Re: Chemistry Nobel: Computational protein design and protein structure prediction

#127

Post by [deleted] »

aithrowawaycomm wrote: post #101

I think putting AlphaFold here was premature; it might not age well. AlphaFold is an impressive achievement but it simply has not "cracked the code for protein folding" - about 1/3rd of its predictions are too uncertain to be usable, it says nothing about dynamics, suffers from the same ML problems of failing on uncommon structures, and I was surprised to learn that many of its predictions are incorrect because it ig…

[deleted]

Re: Chemistry Nobel: Computational protein design and protein structure prediction

#128

Post by singularity2001 »

seydor wrote: post #70
ThePhysicist wrote: post #67

Demis Hasabis has a really interesting and unusual CV for a nobel laureate [1], he started his career in AI game programming (he worked e.g. on Popoulous II, Syndicate, Theme Park for Bullfrog, and later for Lionhead Studios on Black & White) before doing a PhD in neuroscience, becoming an entrepreneur and starting DeepMind. I would say this is a refreshing and highly uncommon pick for a nobel prize, really cool to s…

doesn't beat that patent clerk guy

whose father was one of the leading local industrialists

(installing the first electric lighting for the 1885 Munich Oktoberfest)

Re: Chemistry Nobel: Computational protein design and protein structure prediction

#129

Post by [deleted] »

aborsy wrote: post #19

The AlphaFold paper has countless authors, many researchers and company resources underlying it. Hassabis’ contribution is management of resources and entrepreneurship, not the actual science. There are hundreds of thousands of scientists out there doing deep technical work, and they aren’t recognized. I think we might be the end of it, as the emphasis shifts to commercialization and product development. These AI dem…

[deleted]
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