Collagen Mysteriously Persists in Dinosaur Bones for Tens of Millions of Years
Collagen is the most plentiful protein in animals. It is likewise among the most long-lasting. Over the previous couple of years, paleontologists have actually discovered it in dinosaur fossils 10s of countless years of ages. Its perseverance is bewildering, since the protein consists of chemical bonds, that, on paper, must just last 500 years. Why does this things last so long? Chemists offer a response to that secret in an ACS Central Science report. The Strength of CollagenThe response begins with collagen's structure. Collagen includes 3 protein hairs that basically twist together to form a compound much more powerful than each hair. "Collagen hairs form a triple helix," states Ron Raines, a chemist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an author of the paper. "That triple h...