Short answers, pulled from the story.
John Kendrew and Max Perutz determined the three-dimensional structure of myoglobin and hemoglobin in 1958 using X-ray crystallography. This breakthrough revealed that proteins were precise folded machines with specific shapes that dictated their function.
Dutch chemist Gerardus Johannes Mulder and Swedish chemist Jöns Jacob Berzelius collaborated to name proteins in 1838. Berzelius coined the term protein from the Greek word meaning primary or standing in front to reflect the belief that these were the fundamental building blocks of life.
The largest known protein titin spans almost 27,000 amino acids and forms a massive component of muscle sarcomeres. This genetic precision ensures that every protein is constructed with the exact sequence required to perform its specific biological role.
James B. Sumner proved that the enzyme urease was a protein in 1926. This discovery shattered the prevailing belief that enzymes were non-protein substances and established the highly specific nature of these catalysts.
The lifespan of a protein varies wildly from minutes to years with an average of 1 to 2 days in mammalian cells. This dynamic turnover ensures that cells can adapt to changing conditions by removing old or damaged proteins and recycling their components.
The Protein Data Bank now contains over 181,000 X-ray structures to store structural data for researchers. This repository provides a treasure trove of information for computational methods including homology modeling and molecular dynamics simulations.