Protein folding Memes

The eternal struggle of biochemists trying to avoid thermodynamics while studying protein folding! Pure chemists smugly embrace entropy and enthalpy, while biochemists are stuck looking at these colorful protein visualization programs wondering how these complex molecules actually fold into functional shapes. The molecular modeling software (CCP4MG) shown here is the biochemist's way of saying "I'll just visualize it and hope nobody asks me about Gibbs free energy calculations." Spoiler alert: protein folding is literally governed by thermodynamic principles that determine which conformations are energetically favorable. You can run from thermodynamics, but those alpha helices and beta sheets will find you!