Random the Book

Randomness saved your life

A fascinating conversation with Chris Thorpe this week who patiently talked through how our T Cells, one of the vital parts of our immune system, use random recombination.

It’s a tactic to be able to find shapes that allow them to hook onto nasties that make it either into our bodies, or even worse into our cells. Randomness literally saves your life on a day-to-day basis…

This piece explains in more detail…

https://www.fredhutch.org/en/news/spotlight/2022/06/ccg-russell-eLife.html

ballantine70
,

One response to “Randomness saved your life”

  1. A starting hypothesis – Random the Book Avatar
    A starting hypothesis – Random the Book

    […] seeing randomness as an externality to be reactive to, we can take randomness as a tool to exploit. I’m reminded of my conversation with Chris Thorpe about T-Cells. Are there examples of human behaviours where randomness is a strategy, not merely a complication or […]

    Like

    Reply

Leave a reply to A starting hypothesis – Random the Book Cancel reply