Multimedia Gallery - This illustration depicts how scientists use computers to understand chemical switches.

An artist's illustration of how scientists use computers to understand chemical switches.

September 25, 2008

This illustration depicts how scientists use computers to understand chemical switches.

With the aid of supercomputers, researchers have been able to model the interaction of thousands of groups of molecules that behave as switches. Each set of interactions reads almost like an electrical circuit (right). They have generated a hefty catalog of possible biochemical switches. Each switch involves at least three molecules. Remarkably, some of the modeled circuits have already been identified and described by biochemists in real biological circuits (left).

Credit: Zina Deretsky, NSF

Images credited to the National Science Foundation, a federal agency, are in the public domain. The images were created by employees of the United States Government as part of their official duties or prepared by contractors as "works for hire" for NSF. You may freely use NSF-credited images and, at your discretion, credit NSF with a "Courtesy: National Science Foundation" notation.

Additional information about general usage can be found in Conditions.

Also Available:
Download the high-resolution JPG version of the image. (916 KB)

Use your mouse to right-click (Mac users may need to Ctrl-click) the link above and choose the option that will save the file or target to your computer.