June 05, 2016 at 02:46AM

Today I Learned: 1) Antifreeze proteins (proteins that protect the cell against freezing, intuitively enough) are remarkably diverse and have evolved many times in plants, animals, and bacteria (and probably other things I don't know about). They have a number of different mechanisms, but the most common function* appears to be to bind small ice crystals and block their growth. They also look kind of like space docks from Star Trek. Thanks Anders Knight! *NOT TO IMPLY TELEOLOGICAL PURPOSE 2) Credit reports can be obtained for free, a limited number of times per... year...? Credit *scores*, however, it seems require a fee to acquire. 3) Three ring carbon groups function very similarly to double carbon bonds, and, in particular, can often substitute for double carbon bonds for the purpose of shape, BUT they are much less reactive. This makes them a good alternative to double bond functional groups in, for example, drugs that work by docking to some target, where you don't want any side-chemistry that might disrupt the drug, but you also don't want to change the drug's shape. This bit of chemistry brought to you by... also Anders Knight!