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Chemistry Nobel: Computational protein design and protein structure prediction

nobelprize.org

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

#271

Post by Windchaser »

mk_stjames wrote: post #218
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…

I'm always interested in hearing about these people who go and get a PhD in an unrelated field to their original studies, often years after leaving university and working in an industry. Here it says Hasabis did an undergraduate degree in a computer science program, and them spent a decade working on computer games at studios, and then somehow just rocked up to a university and asked to do a PhD in neuroscience. I fe…

I made the jump from mostly-math undergrad to materials science PhD (close to chemistry/physics, if you don't know the field). I was welcomed with open arms.

If you've got any math-heavy STEM graduate degree, you can likely jump into a physics PhD. You might need to take some senior-level undergraduate courses to catch up, but the transition is quite doable. At some point, your overall intelligence, enthusiasm, and work ethic matter more than your specific background.

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

#272

Post by Dumblydorr »

phtrivier wrote: post #268

Feeling a bit down today, so just asking: when can we realistically expect to see the (positive) effects of this Nobel in daily life, and what would they be ? (I understand it's helping biotech a lot, but helping them do... what exactly ?)

The drug development process takes around 10+ years typically, a lot of long planning of multiple phases of studies needs to be done. This will help in the initial steps and in finding good starting points, and in theory should help the subsequent stages be more successful. I wouldn’t expect new drugs this decade.

Other aspects of biotech and research could well be affected far faster than the consumer drug market, but again you’ll need a few years for those early stage developments to aid real world applications.

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

#273

Post by jltsiren »

mk_stjames wrote: post #218
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…

I'm always interested in hearing about these people who go and get a PhD in an unrelated field to their original studies, often years after leaving university and working in an industry. Here it says Hasabis did an undergraduate degree in a computer science program, and them spent a decade working on computer games at studios, and then somehow just rocked up to a university and asked to do a PhD in neuroscience. I fe…

There is a lot of variation in how PhD studies work. In some places, you are just a faceless candidate applying to a department, which discourages you from contacting the faculty before you are admitted. In other places, you must convince a professor to supervise and fund you before you are even allowed to apply. Some universities require you (or your supervisor) pay tuition fees for a number of years before you can graduate, while others don't care what you do, as long as you can produce a thesis that meets their standards.

You can jump from social sciences to STEM. Your formal admission can wait for a year or two after you actually started. Or you can move to another university and get a PhD in a few months, because the administrative requirements in the original one were too unreasonable. These things happen, because universities are independent organizations that like doing things their own way.

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

#274

Post by bonoboTP »

km155 wrote: post #237
nextworddev wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s fascinating how the affluent backgrounds of many famous scientists and entrepreneurs are downplayed. Eg Warren Buffet, Jeff Bezos, etc

hypothesis : it's not per se affluence. it's the culture of the family and social circle. A dollop of $ to have some free time and maybe buy some books would help and might be necessary. imagine a family where youngster is encouraged to work on intellectual problems. where you aren't made fun of for touching nerdy things. or for doing puzzles. where the social circle endorses learning. these things more important tha…

> hundreds of years ago most interesting science, etc. was done by the royal class

Not really true. Newton, Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, Mendel, Faraday, Tesla... Not from royals, nor from high nobility. Many great scientists were born to merchant families, of a level that wasn't even all too rare.

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

#275

Post by aleph_minus_one »

afthonos wrote: post #151
DevX101 wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So I did a mini research project on Claude to answer your question. From 1900-1930, 87% of Nobel Prizes in Physics, Chemistry and Physiology/Medicine were awarded to individual contributions, 13% were awarded to collaborative contributions. This ratio has flipped in the past 30 years, from 1994-2023, where 17% prizes were individual, 83% collaborative. So I'd say yes, collaborative work is increasingly a requirement…

This begs the question. If all science is now structured as big research teams, we'd expect the breakthroughs to come from such teams. That doesn’t necessarily imply that teams are needed.

Your argument is exactly a central part of the point that I raised.

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

#276

Post by bonoboTP »

YeGoblynQueenne wrote: post #139

Looks like science is out, black box prediction is in. It's like the era of epicycles all over again. Oh well. Fellow realists, see you all 1500 years from now!

It was big blind luck that the laws of planetary motion turned out to be so simple. There's no reason to think that protein folding can similarly be reduced to some elegant description without needing large blackbox models.

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

#277

Post by gcanyon »

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

Nobody defeats the patent clerk guy. I love to cite this article that argues he could credibly have been awarded anywhere from 5 to 7 Nobel prizes. https://www.quora.com/How-many-Nobel-prizes-should-Einstein-...

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

#279

Post by ayakang31415 »

YeGoblynQueenne wrote: post #139

Looks like science is out, black box prediction is in. It's like the era of epicycles all over again. Oh well. Fellow realists, see you all 1500 years from now!

Science is just a methodology to test hypothesis. It does not matter how you get the result as long as the result is empirically scrutinized.

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

#280

Post by varelse »

itishappy wrote: post #227
varelse wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bezos? Abandoned by his dad who was literally an alcoholic clown and raised by his mom and her 2nd husband Bezos? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Jorgensen So $300K in 1994 is about $640K. That's nice but about 80th percentile of net worth. It's nice his parents believed in him. How many of your parents would do that for you? I'm sure at 1 in 5 of them have that kind of money because of the distribution here. So th…

I assumed the parent post was talking about his adopted father. The man who raised and dropped $250k on Bezos was Miguel. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miguel_Bezos

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