can science really teach you important
life lessons
sure science teaches us everything we
know about life how we exist as human
beings how our solar system works the
laws of physics but can it provide you
answers to those philosophical
emotionally driven questions you ask
what is the pursuit of happiness
how can I find my future mate how can I
be successful in life
I’m going to try to spend the next few
minutes trying to convince you of that
but first I want to tell you how I
stumbled across this I had just
graduated with my PhD in 2007 and I was
given the challenge of teaching general
chemistry at 8:00 a.m. during the winter
semester at Georgia Tech now many of you
know that it’s very hard to get anyone
interested in anything at 8:00 a.m.
let alone chemistry and during the
winter where most people rather be at
home sleeping at 8:00 a.m. rather than
listening to me talk about how atomic
structure really works so I had to
challenge myself to do three things a to
get them excited about chemistry B to
make sure that they keep coming to class
and in all honesty I really just didn’t
want to get the worst ratings on
ratemyprofessor.com
so I started to think of ways to teach
them about chemistry that’s relatable
because the thing is we know about
teaching about atoms as these are things
we cannot simply see it’s kind of an
abstract world so when you want to teach
someone about something that’s so
abstract you’ve got to make it relatable
so what I tried to do was find ways in
which I could relate atoms to
relationships for example or to human
behavior and that’s when I started to
stumble upon this thing love of science
can really teach me some things about
life so there are four lessons I’d like
to share with you today I’m going to
teach you a little bit about the science
because can’t do it we can’t discredit
the science and then hopefully be able
to relate it to a life lesson so the
first lesson is about perfection
I am a terrible perfectionist I mean I
try so hard to turn in everything
perfectly if I’m working on a document I
make sure there are no errors even today
I thought I’d go get my nails done and
then as I’m leaving I look at my perfect
nails and I get in the car and of course
I chipped one I just can’t seem to get
perfection to work for me and this
bothered me for a very long time because
if you are a perfectionist yourself you
will appreciate the angst you go through
when you find out that something you did
was just not perfect so as I was
teaching the kids about these things
called enzymes I realized I need to take
a different take on perfection itself so
what are enzymes enzymes are proteins
and really the simple fact is that they
take something and they make something
else so they take the substrate and they
convert it into a product they’re very
important they’re involved in multiple
multiple processes biologically such as
digestion metabolism immune response and
so on and they have a site and a center
in which all of the chemistry takes
place so that’s when they can take the
substrate the yellow hexagon and turn it
into the product the red rectangle now
when the enzyme actually does its
reaction or catalysis it binds the
substrate but if you can see in the
picture when it binds it’s not an exact
fit it binds enough to allow it to
actually happen but there are some gaps
as you can see in the cartoon that I’ve
drawn and eventually that leads the
product so what happens is in between
there is a transition state that forms
in that in-between state the enzyme
changes itself so that it binds a
substrate much tighter more perfect this
perfect binding lasts a femtosecond so
those of you that don’t know what a
femtosecond is it’s a millionth of a
billionth of a second extremely
extremely short-lived so perfect binding
lasts a femtosecond made me think maybe
I shouldn’t be so hard on myself if I’m
a perfectionist and I don’t get it right
a hundred percent of the time I
perhaps shouldn’t be saying this but
maybe I had my femtosecond of perfection
of giving this talk right now and it’s
passed but it made me realize I need to
take it a little bit easier now this
doesn’t mean that I don’t strive for my
best and this is always a lesson I
taught the kids as well you always
strive for your best but hey not perfect
a hundred percent of time it has to be
perfect a femtosecond the second lesson
was about finding the perfect mate and
as dr. Ziad said yes about finding my
husband as well in your mid-30s when
you’re looking for the love of your life
your perception on mates changes you’re
no longer in your 20s in which you know
you’re looking for someone who’s
extremely handsome like George Clooney
and you’re trying to figure out you know
you know the guy the perfect guy for you
and I made this checklist when I was in
my late twenties of what my ideal
partner was gonna look like he was gonna
have a great sense of humor he was gonna
be intelligent he’s gonna be ambitious
and like you know indoors and not really
like the outdoors very much and cuz I’m
not a big camper at all and I took that
checklist around and for about five to
six years I looked for that perfect
person and really couldn’t find him at
the same time in our lab we were trying
to work on engineering proteins and the
reason why we want to engineer them was
we want to take them change their
natural function and make them bind
something else so we worked on these
proteins called nuclear receptors which
is shown just simple just to make it
really simple because I don’t want to
bore you with my research these nuclear
receptors bind hormones they’re very
important in our bodies many of you
might have heard of the estrogen
receptor that’s implicated involved in
cancer anyway what we wanted to do was
take that receptor and change its
structure so that no longer binds the
natural hormone but binds something that
we introduced and so in order to do that
what we did was we spent hours behind a
computer looking at the structures of
these proteins they actually look like
this proteins are very very beautiful
structures and then what we had to
really
focus on was the binding where it
actually takes place between the hormone
and the actual protein and we wanted to
see and design ideal bonding because
that is what makes things bind together
so we used all of the scientific
principles we knew we included all the
bonds we took everything into account as
you can see it’s quite complex in the
binding site and then we designed these
proteins and we tested them sadly after
about a year of doing this 99% of the
time we failed and this really bothered
us how is it that we can’t design the
perfect pair and so after a while we
decided to just switch and decided to do
this thing called random mutagenesis we
would put the protein inside a solution
and just let random changes occur and
see if that would work if we could get
one that would bind our are designed
hormone and sure enough it did and when
we went back and looked at that perfect
fit or ideal fit that we found we
realized there are some things that made
sense and some things that did not make
sense at all and it was the mix of the
ideal and the non-ideal interactions
that allowed these two things to come
together and work so it started to make
me think about whom this checklist that
I have maybe it’s not serving me well
because there are certain things on that
checklist that I just don’t know about
because these would be things I would
consider non-ideal and ten years later
when I finally did get married I love my
husband very much he’s in the audience
so I can’t say many bad things about him
but I will tell you he’s a combination
of a great great deal of those items
that were on that checklist but there’s
several things about him that are not
ideal for example my husband chases
bears and I ride run away from anything
that moves
so non-ideal but what the ideal makes it
work so sometimes what you have to do
when you’re looking for that perfect
mate mister
remember there are certain things you
just don’t know yet the third lesson is
about balance now this is a very
interesting concept because we all think
we know what it means to live a balanced
life it’s an easy thing right you know
what you’re supposed to do you have a
work life your family life but actually
do you really know what it takes to keep
it balanced and I always try to teach my
kids that’s what I’m talking about
chemical equilibrium
so chemical equilibria equilibrium is is
basically that reaction that’s shown at
the very top you have these reactants
that go into products the reactants are
in purple and the products are in green
and when you have chemical equilibrium
you have an arrow going forward and an
arrow going reverse that means this
reaction goes at the same rate when you
are at the state of equilibrium what’s
more important is that the concentration
of the purple and the concentration of
the green at equilibrium or at a balance
is the same so that means that if you
increase the concentration of one side
of the reaction you have to compensate
that by decreasing the other side so I
always tell my students to draw out
their lives as a chemical reaction put
the things that matter to you on
different sides so if we were to take a
look at my chemical equation it would be
my family my social life my personal
space which is very important to me and
on the other side would be my work and
volunteer work and sometimes when I
start to feel a little bit off balance I
start to look at the concentration of
these things so if I’m working a lot
which I do often and I feel that I’m
very unbalanced I try to compensate by
trying to perhaps spend a little bit
more time with my family so you take
some away you add some somewhere else
and I think that’s really important for
one main reason I have found that I am
most content when I live a balanced life
and it’s really not about changing the
factors of the equation but about
balancing the amount or the
concentration on both sides so my lesson
to you is if you feel air imbalance draw
out a chemical reaction
and see where you’re compensating one
over the other the final lesson is about
community service I was very fortunate
enough to grow up in a family in which
my parents believed in the concept of
giving back they would always tell us
that whatever you do on a professional
and personal level remember that it’s
not about you alone that you are part of
a bigger community and that your
difference has to impact that as well
but we’re living in a very different
world today it’s a world of me it’s a
world of selfies it’s about the world of
my agenda and so we have to remember
though that that’s great but at the end
of the day you’re part of a bigger
community whether it’s your family
whether it’s your work environment or
whether it’s the global community as a
whole and I always get my students
asking me this how do I know that I am
going to make a difference this is their
question to me and I always try to bring
out these chemical processes that our
bodies go through so let’s just talk
about one which is called translation
translation is a way that we make
proteins in our bodies it’s a very very
complex process as shown in the figure
in the yellow part there are many
players there many molecules and there
are many proteins that are involved in
the process of translation so it’s quite
complex now every one of these entities
that makes this process happen plays a
role so there are some very small
proteins that are involved such as the T
amino amino acyl T synthesis or there’s
some big proteins like the ribosome so
scientists they got very excited when
were they discover the structure of the
ribosome because this is massive protein
but the truth of the matter is you would
take away the small protein and
translation does not happen so what that
means is that we are all part of a
process every one of us plays a part you
can be the CEO of a company or you can
be the janitor or you can be
mayor of a town or a civil servant at
the end of the day each of us has a part
and I always try to encourage that not
only do we have to do our parts also of
course to fulfill ourselves but we also
have to do our part to fulfill our
community and more importantly it’s the
collective efforts of all of our parts
that allows us to make a difference thank you
life lessons
sure science teaches us everything we
know about life how we exist as human
beings how our solar system works the
laws of physics but can it provide you
answers to those philosophical
emotionally driven questions you ask
what is the pursuit of happiness
how can I find my future mate how can I
be successful in life
I’m going to try to spend the next few
minutes trying to convince you of that
but first I want to tell you how I
stumbled across this I had just
graduated with my PhD in 2007 and I was
given the challenge of teaching general
chemistry at 8:00 a.m. during the winter
semester at Georgia Tech now many of you
know that it’s very hard to get anyone
interested in anything at 8:00 a.m.
let alone chemistry and during the
winter where most people rather be at
home sleeping at 8:00 a.m. rather than
listening to me talk about how atomic
structure really works so I had to
challenge myself to do three things a to
get them excited about chemistry B to
make sure that they keep coming to class
and in all honesty I really just didn’t
want to get the worst ratings on
ratemyprofessor.com
so I started to think of ways to teach
them about chemistry that’s relatable
because the thing is we know about
teaching about atoms as these are things
we cannot simply see it’s kind of an
abstract world so when you want to teach
someone about something that’s so
abstract you’ve got to make it relatable
so what I tried to do was find ways in
which I could relate atoms to
relationships for example or to human
behavior and that’s when I started to
stumble upon this thing love of science
can really teach me some things about
life so there are four lessons I’d like
to share with you today I’m going to
teach you a little bit about the science
because can’t do it we can’t discredit
the science and then hopefully be able
to relate it to a life lesson so the
first lesson is about perfection
I am a terrible perfectionist I mean I
try so hard to turn in everything
perfectly if I’m working on a document I
make sure there are no errors even today
I thought I’d go get my nails done and
then as I’m leaving I look at my perfect
nails and I get in the car and of course
I chipped one I just can’t seem to get
perfection to work for me and this
bothered me for a very long time because
if you are a perfectionist yourself you
will appreciate the angst you go through
when you find out that something you did
was just not perfect so as I was
teaching the kids about these things
called enzymes I realized I need to take
a different take on perfection itself so
what are enzymes enzymes are proteins
and really the simple fact is that they
take something and they make something
else so they take the substrate and they
convert it into a product they’re very
important they’re involved in multiple
multiple processes biologically such as
digestion metabolism immune response and
so on and they have a site and a center
in which all of the chemistry takes
place so that’s when they can take the
substrate the yellow hexagon and turn it
into the product the red rectangle now
when the enzyme actually does its
reaction or catalysis it binds the
substrate but if you can see in the
picture when it binds it’s not an exact
fit it binds enough to allow it to
actually happen but there are some gaps
as you can see in the cartoon that I’ve
drawn and eventually that leads the
product so what happens is in between
there is a transition state that forms
in that in-between state the enzyme
changes itself so that it binds a
substrate much tighter more perfect this
perfect binding lasts a femtosecond so
those of you that don’t know what a
femtosecond is it’s a millionth of a
billionth of a second extremely
extremely short-lived so perfect binding
lasts a femtosecond made me think maybe
I shouldn’t be so hard on myself if I’m
a perfectionist and I don’t get it right
a hundred percent of the time I
perhaps shouldn’t be saying this but
maybe I had my femtosecond of perfection
of giving this talk right now and it’s
passed but it made me realize I need to
take it a little bit easier now this
doesn’t mean that I don’t strive for my
best and this is always a lesson I
taught the kids as well you always
strive for your best but hey not perfect
a hundred percent of time it has to be
perfect a femtosecond the second lesson
was about finding the perfect mate and
as dr. Ziad said yes about finding my
husband as well in your mid-30s when
you’re looking for the love of your life
your perception on mates changes you’re
no longer in your 20s in which you know
you’re looking for someone who’s
extremely handsome like George Clooney
and you’re trying to figure out you know
you know the guy the perfect guy for you
and I made this checklist when I was in
my late twenties of what my ideal
partner was gonna look like he was gonna
have a great sense of humor he was gonna
be intelligent he’s gonna be ambitious
and like you know indoors and not really
like the outdoors very much and cuz I’m
not a big camper at all and I took that
checklist around and for about five to
six years I looked for that perfect
person and really couldn’t find him at
the same time in our lab we were trying
to work on engineering proteins and the
reason why we want to engineer them was
we want to take them change their
natural function and make them bind
something else so we worked on these
proteins called nuclear receptors which
is shown just simple just to make it
really simple because I don’t want to
bore you with my research these nuclear
receptors bind hormones they’re very
important in our bodies many of you
might have heard of the estrogen
receptor that’s implicated involved in
cancer anyway what we wanted to do was
take that receptor and change its
structure so that no longer binds the
natural hormone but binds something that
we introduced and so in order to do that
what we did was we spent hours behind a
computer looking at the structures of
these proteins they actually look like
this proteins are very very beautiful
structures and then what we had to
really
focus on was the binding where it
actually takes place between the hormone
and the actual protein and we wanted to
see and design ideal bonding because
that is what makes things bind together
so we used all of the scientific
principles we knew we included all the
bonds we took everything into account as
you can see it’s quite complex in the
binding site and then we designed these
proteins and we tested them sadly after
about a year of doing this 99% of the
time we failed and this really bothered
us how is it that we can’t design the
perfect pair and so after a while we
decided to just switch and decided to do
this thing called random mutagenesis we
would put the protein inside a solution
and just let random changes occur and
see if that would work if we could get
one that would bind our are designed
hormone and sure enough it did and when
we went back and looked at that perfect
fit or ideal fit that we found we
realized there are some things that made
sense and some things that did not make
sense at all and it was the mix of the
ideal and the non-ideal interactions
that allowed these two things to come
together and work so it started to make
me think about whom this checklist that
I have maybe it’s not serving me well
because there are certain things on that
checklist that I just don’t know about
because these would be things I would
consider non-ideal and ten years later
when I finally did get married I love my
husband very much he’s in the audience
so I can’t say many bad things about him
but I will tell you he’s a combination
of a great great deal of those items
that were on that checklist but there’s
several things about him that are not
ideal for example my husband chases
bears and I ride run away from anything
that moves
so non-ideal but what the ideal makes it
work so sometimes what you have to do
when you’re looking for that perfect
mate mister
remember there are certain things you
just don’t know yet the third lesson is
about balance now this is a very
interesting concept because we all think
we know what it means to live a balanced
life it’s an easy thing right you know
what you’re supposed to do you have a
work life your family life but actually
do you really know what it takes to keep
it balanced and I always try to teach my
kids that’s what I’m talking about
chemical equilibrium
so chemical equilibria equilibrium is is
basically that reaction that’s shown at
the very top you have these reactants
that go into products the reactants are
in purple and the products are in green
and when you have chemical equilibrium
you have an arrow going forward and an
arrow going reverse that means this
reaction goes at the same rate when you
are at the state of equilibrium what’s
more important is that the concentration
of the purple and the concentration of
the green at equilibrium or at a balance
is the same so that means that if you
increase the concentration of one side
of the reaction you have to compensate
that by decreasing the other side so I
always tell my students to draw out
their lives as a chemical reaction put
the things that matter to you on
different sides so if we were to take a
look at my chemical equation it would be
my family my social life my personal
space which is very important to me and
on the other side would be my work and
volunteer work and sometimes when I
start to feel a little bit off balance I
start to look at the concentration of
these things so if I’m working a lot
which I do often and I feel that I’m
very unbalanced I try to compensate by
trying to perhaps spend a little bit
more time with my family so you take
some away you add some somewhere else
and I think that’s really important for
one main reason I have found that I am
most content when I live a balanced life
and it’s really not about changing the
factors of the equation but about
balancing the amount or the
concentration on both sides so my lesson
to you is if you feel air imbalance draw
out a chemical reaction
and see where you’re compensating one
over the other the final lesson is about
community service I was very fortunate
enough to grow up in a family in which
my parents believed in the concept of
giving back they would always tell us
that whatever you do on a professional
and personal level remember that it’s
not about you alone that you are part of
a bigger community and that your
difference has to impact that as well
but we’re living in a very different
world today it’s a world of me it’s a
world of selfies it’s about the world of
my agenda and so we have to remember
though that that’s great but at the end
of the day you’re part of a bigger
community whether it’s your family
whether it’s your work environment or
whether it’s the global community as a
whole and I always get my students
asking me this how do I know that I am
going to make a difference this is their
question to me and I always try to bring
out these chemical processes that our
bodies go through so let’s just talk
about one which is called translation
translation is a way that we make
proteins in our bodies it’s a very very
complex process as shown in the figure
in the yellow part there are many
players there many molecules and there
are many proteins that are involved in
the process of translation so it’s quite
complex now every one of these entities
that makes this process happen plays a
role so there are some very small
proteins that are involved such as the T
amino amino acyl T synthesis or there’s
some big proteins like the ribosome so
scientists they got very excited when
were they discover the structure of the
ribosome because this is massive protein
but the truth of the matter is you would
take away the small protein and
translation does not happen so what that
means is that we are all part of a
process every one of us plays a part you
can be the CEO of a company or you can
be the janitor or you can be
mayor of a town or a civil servant at
the end of the day each of us has a part
and I always try to encourage that not
only do we have to do our parts also of
course to fulfill ourselves but we also
have to do our part to fulfill our
community and more importantly it’s the
collective efforts of all of our parts
that allows us to make a difference thank you
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