ARCH1101: EXP3 - Article Mash-Up

Architecture Article:

Fractal geometry, a branch of mathematics developed in the 1970s studies abstract configurations characterized by self-similarity patterns and recursive growth (Mandelbrot, 1982). Although, from the mathematical point of view, fractal objects are sets that have fractional dimension so that they are intermediate objects between one and two dimensional shapes or two and three dimensional forms (Falconer, 2003), but in the general sense fractal objects show the properties of being exactly or nearly the same at every progressive scale. However, in mathematical definition, no natural object is purely a fractal, instead it can be called as an ‘approximate fractal’ or ‘statistical fractal’ that display ‘self-similarity’ and ‘self-affinity’ over extended but finite scale of ranges (Bovill, 1996). In this paper ‘fractal’ term is frequently used to refer natural fractal, means ‘approximate fractal’ or ‘fractal-like’.

Engineering Article:

He has invented a new way of describing, calculating and thinking about shapes that are irregular and fragmented, jagged and broken up. A new geometry has emerged, and it turns out to be nature’s own…. The interesting feature of a lightning bolt’s path, for example, is not the straight line direction, but rather the distribution of its zigs and zags…. A new kind of symmetry has emerged, not of left to right or front to back, but of small scale patterns to patterns on larger and larger scales, the self-similarity of a broccoli floret whose tiny bifurcations echo the branching of the stalk as a whole…. Oddly, the mathematical description of them seemed to apply just as well to very different problems, from fluctuating cotton prices since the 19th century to the rising and falling of the Nile River through two millenniums…. In unexpectedly orderly fashion, they have self-similarity on different scales.

Computational Design:

Phosphorus has long been the target of much research, but in recent years the focus has shifted from being limited only to reducing its detrimental environmental impact, to also looking at how it is linked to the global food security. Therefore, the interest in finding novel techniques for phosphorus recovery, as well as improving existing techniques, has increased. In this study we apply a hybrid simulation approach of molecular dynamics and quantum mechanics to investigate the binding modes of phosphate anions by a small intrinsically disordered peptide. Our results confirm that the conformational ensemble of the peptide is significantly changed, or stabilized, by the binding of phosphate anions and that binding does not take place purely as a result of a stable P-loop binding nest, but rather that multiple binding modes may be involved. Such small synthetic peptides capable of binding phosphate could be the starting point of new novel technological approaches toward phosphorus recovery, and they represent an excellent model system for investigating the nature and dynamics of functional de novo designed intrinsically disordered proteins.