RIVERSIDE – There is a basic similarity between some molecules and some racehorses, scientists at UC Riverside have learned, and although molecules have been around longer than racehorses, they haven’t developed nanosized parimutuel betting and you won’t find them in the morning line (by the way nanometers are one billionth of a meter).

On the molecular side there are trotters and pacers just as there are in harness racing. Trotters travel by advancing opposite legs. For example, the left foreleg moves with the right rear leg and then it’s right foreleg and left rear leg. Pacers move both legs on the same side at the same time. There’s another similarity between molecules and the equine breeds, the pacers are faster than trotters but neither has to pull carts and drivers. There are no molecular sulkies, but the molecules can definitely carry the weight.

But most of the similarities end about here . . . at the door of Ludwig Bartels lab at UCR. “In our work,” the professor of chemistry said, “we want to understand what the basic principles mechanics are for machines that are only one molecule in size.

“We made a horse-like structure with four ‘hooves’ to study how molecular machinery can organize the motion of multiple parts,” said Bartels, whose lab led the research. “A couple of years ago, we discovered how we can transport carbon dioxide molecules along a straight line across a surface using a molecular machine with two ‘feet’ that moved one step at a time. For the new research, we wanted to create a species that can carry more cargo – which means it would need more legs. But if a species has more than two legs, how will it organize their motion?”

 
“Nature uses such machines everywhere: the acid in your stomach is created by a proton pump in the cells lining your stomach. In every cell proteins are dragged to the places where they are needed by kinesin motors . . .” Bartels said. A web definition of kinesin: any of a class of proteins that convert chemical into mechanical energy and power movement along microtubules.

Such motors are too big for his work, Bartels said. They can be modeled but if they they behave like real world machines, different rules may apply.

Bartels and his colleague Mike Marsella “make molecules that are sufficiently small that we can understand them and which behave like walkers and carriers.” Their set up – working on a flat copper surface – is simpler than using biology, he said. “It allows us to image and understand their motion in detail.”

“My group develops instrumentation to image molecular motion at surfaces; we also use simulation software to simulate their behavior, so that we can draw conclusion why they behave as we see them behave. This software runs on supercomputers. In the case of this study, the bulk of the calculations were done on computers of the NCSA computer center, which is part of the NSF Teragrid of supercomputer resources available to US institutions of higher education.

A couple of years ago, he said, they found a simple molecule – anthraquinone – which could not only walk in a straight line across the copper surface, it could carry carbon dioxide molecules. It was bipedal, like a man. They were excited at the cargo carrying ability and mystified by its speed. In order to slow it down, they had to cool it to minus-300 degrees Farenheit. They wanted a molecule that moved slower and was easier to study, he said. That was pentacenetetrone, which proved to have four legs, remember the horses, instead of two. They expected it to be slower, Bertals said, but it proved to be a million times slower. It required much less cooling to observe the motion of the molecule.

It was then they learned the difference between the pacers and the trotters in speed at the molecular level. The trotter required much more torsion in order to move ahead, which put it at a disadvantage..

But even the pacer was a million times slower than the bipedal molecule, Bartels said. The two-legged molecule was able to tunnel its way through the rough surface and the less coordinated quadripedal molecule had to drag its burden over the bumps instead of through. Try moving a double-door fridge from the U-Haul down a rocky driveway and around to the back stairs and into the house. You’ll get the idea no matter how many legs you have.

More tests on more molecules lie ahead to learn their speed and carrying capacity. Some will be linked, giving them more legs going from a pacer to a molecular centipede.

Visit the university web site and see moving models of the molecular pacers and trotters by going to http://newsroom.ucr.edu/news_item.html?action=page&id=2423

In the more than 30 years I’ve lived in the Inland Empire, I’ve watched with admiration as UC Riverside grew from the smallest campus in the system in terms of enrollment to a shining tower of intellectual excellence and stimulating and far-reaching research. It makes me want to say “Wow!” There, I did say it.

I count many friends and an ex-wife among the graduates, who’ve been catapulted into successful lives by that terrific launching pad.

But it’s not stopping there. Chancellor Timothy P. White has his eyes on the stars and he’s invited the rest of us along to see the show.

A planning document titled “UCR 2020: The Path to Preeminence” will be presented by White to the University of California regents Wednesday at about 9:35 a.m..

The document is a road map, which has been in development for a year by more than 140 faculty, staff, students, alumni and community leaders, outlining how the Inland Empire campus will become one of the nation’s preeminent research universities within the decade.

Chief among the priorities is achieving the profile of a member institution of the prestigious American Association of Universities (AAU), said White.

“Academic excellence is at the heart of all that we do and all that we aspire to be,” White said. “Our sights are set firmly on achieving the profile of a member institution of the AAU because it cuts across the fabric of our entire enterprise.”

He outlined four strategic goals:

Academic Excellence: Achieve the profile of a member institution of the Association of American Universities by increasing the amount of federal research dollars per faculty member, the number of citations of UCR research in scholarly journals, and the six-year graduation rate, and achieving other AAU criteria.

Access: Realign admissions criteria to make UCR more selective while remaining true to the core values of academic excellence, access and diversity; enhanced opportunities for undergraduate students; increase graduate student support; add new professional schools and strategically expand some existing graduate and professional programs; and increase the percentage of graduate and professional school students to 20 percent. Planning for the School of Medicine is proceeding and the founding dean, G. Richard Olds, M.D., was hired last year. The regents have approved the creation of a School of Public Policy.

Engagement: Foster a campus culture of engagement by partnering with the community, from the regional to global level, to address issues affecting quality of life, including education, economic development, athletics, arts and culture, agriculture, health care and the environment; and establish new alliances with businesses, government, education, arts and civic organizations.

Diversity: Increase diversity of faculty, staff and senior leadership; and serve as a national example for diversity, inclusiveness, and community by measuring diversity by people, ideas, perspectives, learning opportunities, programs and experiences.

I can hardly wait.

How do you talk sense to an egomaniac?

It’s pretty difficult. At first I thought of giving the benefit of the doubt to or pretending that Pastor Terry Jones of the Dove World Outreach Center is a person who means well and believes he is doing the right thing. But in my heart I don’t believe that for a single minute and besides that’s not my style. I prefer confrontation where dangerous fools are concerned.

Jones waffled slightly by saying he might reconsider if he got a call from the White House or State Department. Despite that President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton have made their positions very clear by speaking publicly against Jones’ plan to burn copies of the Quran on Saturday, the anniversary of 9/11. That’s the day Muslim terrorists brought down the twin towers of the World Trade Center by flying commercial airliners into the buildings, into the Pentagon and into a field in Pennsylvania, which investigators believe was headed for the White House. Instead, heroic passengers gave their lives when they forced it to crash.

Jones’ ego is sick. He wants a personal call. ”Madam secretary, I’m placing you on hold, because I’ve got  the president on the other line.”

Book-burning has always stood for the ultimate in stupidity.

Until now the most notorious and evil book-burner was a guy named Hitler, Adolf Hitler. Jones will be putting himself in the right company. After it’s over, the notches on his pistol grip will represent the lost lives of innocent people.

Jones might do well to change the name of his organization to the Raven World Outreach Center for the carrion eater Noah first released. No self-respecting dove would have anything to do with it. The preacher man’s ploy could result in lots of corpses on which the biblical ravens could feed.

His actions make it seem that he is one of those who believes Armageddon is at hand and he wants to give it a jump start. I tried to phone Jones many times on Thursday. He must be a popular fellow. His telephone was busy all afternoon until 5 p.m. and then I got voice mail. I left a message asking him to call.

If Jones possesses any sanity or decency, he will put a cork in his self-importance, release the dove and put out his fire.