Cyrus Levinthal, the Kluge and the origins of interactive molecular graphics

Endeavour

Volumn 26, Issue 4, 2002, Pages 127-131

  Francoeur, Eric ^a,b  

^a MCGILL UNIVERSITY   (Canada)

^b MAX PLANCK INSTITUTE FOR THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE   (Germany)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

MOLECULAR BIOLOGY; NUCLEIC ACIDS; PROTEINS;

MOLECULAR STRUCTURE MODELS;

MOLECULAR GRAPHICS;

EID: 0036919639     PISSN: 01609327     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1016/S0160-9327(02)01468-0     Document Type: Article

References (34)

1. Francoeur, E. (1997) The forgotten tool: The design and use of molecular models. Social Studies of Science 27, 7-40
2. See, for example, Protein Explorer, a web-based protein-structure visualization system (http://molvis.sdsc.edu/protexpl/index.htm) and DeepView, a package developed and maintained by researchers for GlaxoSmithKline (http://www.expasy.ch/spdbv/)
3. Fano, M. and Corbató, F.J. (1966) Time-sharing on computers. Sci. Am. 215, 128-140
4. Coons, S.A. (1963) An outline of the requirements for a computer-aided design system. AFIPS Conference Proceedings 23, 299-304
5. Sutherland, I.E. (1963) Sketchpad: A man-machine graphical communication system. AFIPS Conference Proceedings 23, 329-346
6. Stotz, R. (1963) Man-machine console facilities for computer-aided design. AFIPS Conference Proceedings 23, 323-328. In hacker culture, the term 'kluge' refers to an inelegant yet effective solution to a software or hardware problem. It is not clear how this epithet became attached to the Electronic Systems Laboratory Display Console.
7. Levinthal, C. (1976) Introduction: A brief history of computer graphics. In Workshop on Computer Graphics in Biology, pp. 1-5, Verve Research Corporation
8. Platt, J.R. (1960) The need for better macromolecular models. Science 131, 1309-1310
9. Koltun, W.L. (1965) Precision space-filling atomic models. Biopolymers 3, 665-679
10. Levinthal, C. op. cit. note 7
11. Levinthal, C. (ca. 1989) The Beginnings of Interactive Molecular Graphics, unpublished manuscript
12. It was possible to produce 'non-interactive' drawings of molecular structures using off-line computing, as demonstrated by Carroll K. Johnsons' popular ORTEP program, created in the same period. See Johnson, C.K. (1965) ORTEP: A FORTRAN Thermal Ellipsoid Plot Program for Crystal Structure Illustrations, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
13. Langridge, R.A. and MacEwan, A.W. (1965) The refinement of nucleic acid structure. In IBM Scientific Computing Symposium on Computer Aided Experimentation, IBM
14. Levinthal, C. (1966) Molecular model-building by computer. Sci. Am. 214, 42-52
15. Scheraga, H.A. et al. (1967) Calculations of polypeptide structures from amino acid sequence. In Conformation of Biopolymers (Vol. 1) (Ramachandran, G.N., ed.), pp. 43-60, Academic Press
16. Levinthal, C. (1966) Computer construction and display of molecular models. In IBM Scientific Computing Symposium on Computer Aided Experimentation, IBM
17. Baker, D. and Sali, A. (2001) Protein structure prediction and structural genomics. Science 294, 93-96
18. Levinthal, C. (1968) Are there pathways for protein folding? Journal de Chimie Physique 65, 44-45. Levinthal postulated the folding pathways in view of the fact that proteins fold relatively rapidly into their native state, despite the astronomical number of possible conformations that their polypeptide chains could theoretically take. This discrepancy became rapidly and widely known as the 'Levinthal paradox' in the protein-folding literature, a formulation which Levinthal did not particularly care for.
19. Levinthal, C. (ca. 1989) op. cit. note 11
20. Raub, W.F. (1975) The prophet system. In Computers in Life Science Research (Siler, W. and Lindberg, W.A.B., eds), pp. 189-194, FASEB and Plenum Press
21. William Raub, interview with the author, 20 June 2001
22. The Adage graphics terminal was one of the many commercial interactive graphics systems that appeared on the market in the mid-to-late-1960s. See Machover, C. (1978) A brief, personal history of computer graphics. Computer 11, 38-45
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26. Meyer, E.F. (1997) The first years of the Protein Data Bank. Protein Sci. 6, 1-7
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34. Morffew, A.J. (1983) Editorial. J. Mol. Graph. 1, 3-4