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5/31/2023

RETOURS

Publication d'une nouvelle - retours - aux éditions le poisson volant. La nouvelle fait partie d'une collection - voyages immobiles. Chaque nouvelle est publiée sous la forme de leporello illustré par l'artiste Silvain Monney. Un code QR permet d'écouter la nouvelle lue par un(e) comédien(ne); retours est lue par la comédienne Sophie Pasquet Racine. La sortie du leporello est vernie au Musée de Charmey le dimanche 4 juin 2023, dès 10h30.

photo: éditions le poisson volant

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5/23/2023

A SHREWD TWEAK

Ribosomes are like small factories whose task is to make proteins in cells. Though it was believed that, throughout the different kingdoms, ribosomes were all alike, it turns out that some differ slightly in their makeup and are found only in certain kinds of cell - presumably because they synthesize proteins particular to these cells. One such ribosome has been discovered in sperm cells, along with a protein known as large ribosomal subunit protein eL39-like*, or RPL39L.

painting by Sophie Taeuber-Arp (1889-1943)

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4/21/2023

THE SLIME INSIDE US

We carry around two square metres of mucus inside us! It lines the mucous membranes of our body, where it keeps things lubricated and healthy. There's lots of water in it (94%) and many molecules - among them glycoproteins that carry sialic acid. Why sialic acid? Because it helps to keep pathogens away, and it is an enzyme - a sialyltransferase - that puts it there.

etched linoprint by Emily Harvey

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4/14/2023

DIMENSIONS
EPFL, numéro 8 - mars 2023

avec l'illustratrice Elisabeth Voyame, nous découvrons le laboratoire de muséologie digitale dirigée par la scientifique nouvelle zélandaise Sarah Kenderdine.

dessin: Elisabeth Voyame, mise en page Melk Thalmann

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3/17/2023

IN THE BEGINNING

How does life begin? What gives the first nudge? Is there, for that matter, a primordial poke? How do the first cells of an embryo know that it is time to multiply and differentiate? There are specific kinds of protein that are directly involved in driving cells to their fate. Their name? The tetra-peptide repeat homeobox proteins.

painting by Félix Vallotton

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2/17/2023

ON THE END OF A LEASH

Did humans invent plugs? Nope. Filamentous fungus did long before us, to obstruct holes that let cytosol move from one cellular compartment to another. Known as Woronin bodies, these biological plugs are tethered to the side of cells, just like the plugs in our old bathtubs.

printed by Imprimerie Pichot, 1883

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1/27/2023

ON A TIGHTROPE

Our body needs iron for DNA synthesis or DNA repair for instance, yet too much of it becomes harmful to cells that will start to commit suicide (ferroptosis). To stabilize things and keep cells alive, an enzyme known as ferroptosis suppressor protein will do all it can to prevent cells from dying.

print by Helen Phillips

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12/29/2022

A HEATED LEGACY

Thanks to a couple of proteins, some plants seem to be able to transmit their response to heat stress down the generations: a phenomenon known as thermomemory.

painting by Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius
German botanist and explorer (1794-1868)

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12/23/2022

DIMENSIONS
EPFL, numéro 7

avec le dessinateur aloys lolo, nous découvrons le laboratoire de traitement des signaux LTS2 dirigé par l'acousticien Hervé Lissek

dessin: aloys lolo

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12/17/2022

ANOTHER KIND OF HARMONY

How Nature usually prefers asymmetry to symmetry, and which protein - it is believed - may well be involved in creating it.

This is the last comic strip of the series. In Autumn 2023, éditions Antipodes (Lausanne, Switzerland) will be publishing an album!

drawing: aloys lolo

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