Thom Graves Media
The audience, several hundred biophysicists strong, was not expecting a James Brown impersonation. But there he was: Physiologist Yale Goldman, keynote speaker on motility at the Biophysical Society's annual meeting, doing his "asymmetric hand-over-hand motility dance with a limp" to tinny strains of "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag." And while Goldman, who eschewed Brown's trademark, over-the-top couture for understated, Ivy League-issue khakis and blue blazer, won't star on MTV any time soon, he still has reason to celebrate.
The last few years have been exciting times for molecular gear-heads like Goldman, researchers who are dedicated to understanding the protein motors that transport material throughout the cell. Using single-molecule techniques that have, by all accounts, transformed biophysics, researchers now know how two motors sashay their way down their protein tracks (they use a hand-over-hand mechanism, hence the title of Goldman's dance). And they are beginning to piece ...
